Shortcuts and key combinations

By default, Haiku's shortcut key, to invoke commands from menus for example, is not the usual CTRL key, but ALT instead. This has historical reasons, because the BeOS was inspired somewhat by MacOS. After you get used to it, it actually has advantages as e.g. ALT C and ALT V integrate seamlessly into the bash shell of the Terminal, where CTRL C quits the running process.

In any case, you can switch to the maybe more familiar CTRL key in the Keymap preferences. The user guide always describes the default configuration with the command key being ALT.

If you're in doubt which keys are the OPT or MENU keys on your particular keymap/keyboard-layout, again use the Keymap preferences. There you can see what keystroke is sent when you press a key on your keyboard.

General shortcuts

Here's a table of many of the most commonly used shortcuts that are always available, even if there isn't a corresponding menu:

ALT Fx		Switches to Workspace X (Fx is the function key corresponding to that workspace). Take the active window with you by adding SHIFT
CTRL ALT ← / → / ↑ / ↓		Navigates spatially the rows/columns of the available workspaces. Add SHIFT to take the active window with you.
OPT		Holding OPT while dragging a window near another window's tab or border will stack or tile them (see chapter GUI).
OPT TAB		Cycles through stack and tiled windows.
OPT Page↑ / Page↓		Cycles through the open windows within the current workspace.
CTRL ALT + left mouse		Click and drag with left mouse button to move a window (see chapter GUI).
CTRL ALT + right mouse		Click and drag with right mouse button to resize a window (see chapter GUI).
CTRL ALT Z		Zooms a window to an alternative size (maximum size for most applications).
CTRL ALT M		Minimizes the active window.
CTRL ALT H		Hides (minimizes) all windows of the active application.
CTRL ALT F		Pulls the active window to the front (only applicable with the mouse setting Focus follows mouse).
CTRL ALT B		Sends the active window to the back.
CTRL TAB		Hold down to bring up the Twitcher.
CTRL ALT DEL		Opens the Team Monitor.
ALT ESC		Enters the menu bar (leave with ESC).
ALT C		Copies the selection to the clipboard.
ALT X		Cuts the selection to the clipboard.
ALT V		Pastes the clipboard's contents.
ALT W		Closes the active window.
ALT Q		Quits an application.
PRINT		Takes a screenshot with zero delay and launches the Screenshot panel.
SHIFT PRINT		Takes a screenshot silently (without opening the panel), while still respecting the last used settings.
CTRL PRINT		Also takes a screenshot silently with the saved settings, but instead of saving it as a file, it's just copied to the clipboard.

Textediting shortcuts

Whenever you edit text – be it when renaming a file in Tracker, editing a file in StyledEdit, or chatting in Vision – there are some universal shortcuts:

ALT ← / → or OPT ← / →		Jump word-wise through the text. (Note: It may be useful to get used to using the OPT combination. Then you're all set if some app already uses the ALT combination for another command.)
ALT BACKSPACE or OPT BACKSPACE		Word-wise removing the text to the left of the cursor.
ALT DEL or OPT DEL		Word-wise removing the text to the right of the cursor.
HOME		Jumps to the beginning of the line.
END		Jumps to the end of the line.
ALT HOME		Jumps to the beginning of the document.
ALT END		Jumps to the end of the document.

Holding SHIFT additionally when using the above key combinations will select the text between the cursor jumps.

Shortcuts for Tracker navigation

Additionally to the general shortcuts, here are some more for navigating with Tracker:

ALT ↑		Opens the parent folder.
ALT ↓ or ENTER		Opens the selected folder.
OPT		Holding it while opening a folder will automatically close the parent folder. This also works when navigating with the mouse.
MENU		Opens the Deskbar menu (leave with ESC).
ALT Z		Undo last action. The undo history is only limited by the available memory. Note, this only works for actions on the file itself, changed attributes and permission settings can't be undone with this. Also, once a file is removed from Trash it's gone for good.
ALT SHIFT Z		Redo the action you just reverted with ALT Z.
SHIFT + Mousewheel		When scrolling through a long list of files in a Tracker window or when you're drilling down submenus, this will speed things up by doing page-wise scrolling.

Shortcuts in Terminal

ALT + left click		Left-clicking on a path or URL while holding ALT opens it in the preferred application, e.g. folders in Tracker, pictures in ShowImage. You can limit the selected path by additionally holding SHIFT.
ALT N		Opens another Terminal session in a new window.
ALT T		Opens another Terminal session in a new tab.
ALT TAB		Switches to the next Terminal window.
ALT 1, 2, 3 …		Switches to the corresponding tab.
ALT ← / →		Switches to the tab to the left/right.
ALT SHIFT ← / →		Moves the current tab left/right.
CTRL SHIFT ↑ / ↓		Scrolls the Terminal output up/down one line.
SHIFT Page↑ / Page↓		Scrolls the Terminal output up/down one page.
ALT + / -		Increase/Decrease font size.
ALT ENTER		Enter/leave fullscreen mode.
TAB		Tab-completion. After entering a few letters, press TAB once to auto-complete a filename or path. If there is more than one match, it stops where the name starts to differ and you have to provide some more letters to further distinguish them. You can also press TAB twice to have all matches listed.
↑ / ↓		Moves up or down in a history of all previously entered commands.
CTRL R		Bash history. All the commands you enter are stored in the file ~/config/settings/bash_history. Press CTRL R and start to enter a command and you'll be provided with the first match from the bash history. Keep pressing CTRL R until you find the right command line and press ENTER to execute it.
CTRL C		Stops the currently running command.
CTRL D		Closes the current Terminal session.

Other key combinations

You can add or remove items to/from a selection by holding down a modifier key while clicking on a entry (or file in case of Tracker).

SHIFT		This will select everything between the first selected item and the one you click on.
ALT		Adds or removes the item you're clicking on from the selection.

In a Tracker window, if you just start typing, Tracker scrolls to and selects the file that best fits your incremental search. If there's no file starting with your typed letters, files that contain the search string anywhere in their name or other displayed attributes are selected. This search is not case-sensitive.
The letters you type appear at the bottom-left, where normally the number of items is listed. After a second it reverts back and you could start a new incremental search.
Instead of jumping to the first occurrence of your search string, Tracker can be configured to filter out all non-matching files. See the topic on type-ahead filtering.