Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

See Also

In most cases, working with the IDE on Mac OS X is no different from working on other operating systems. Two significant differences do exist, however. Firstly, the Options window on Mac OS X is found under NetBeans > Preferences and the About box is under NetBeans > About.

Secondly, some keyboard shortcuts on Mac OS X are different. The tables below display the main keyboard shortcuts and how to use them on Mac OS X. To view a more complete list of the keyboard shortcuts, choose Help > Keyboards Shortcuts Card from the main menu.

You can see a complete list of all keyboard shortcuts in the Keymap category of the Options window.

Scrolling and Selecting

Keys Action
Cmd-[ Moves the insertion point to the highlighted matching bracket. Note that this shortcut only works when the insertion point is located immediately after the opening bracket.
Cmd-Shift-[ Selects the block between a pair of brackets. Note that this shortcut only works when the insertion point is located immediately after either the opening or closing bracket.
Ctrl-G Jumps to any specified line.
Cmd-A Selects all text in the file.

Code Folding

Keys Action
Cmd-Minus (-) Collapses the block of code in which the insertion point is currently located.
Cmd-Plus (+) Expands the block of code which is adjacent to the insertion point.
Cmd-Shift-Minus (-) Collapses all blocks of code in the current file.
Cmd-Shift-Plus (+) Expands all blocks of code in the current file.

Cutting, Copying, Pasting, and Deleting Text

Keys Action
Cmd-Z Undo. Reverses a series of editor actions one at a time (excluding Save).
Cmd-Y Redo. Reverses a series of Undo commands one at a time.
Cmd-X Cut. Deletes the current selection and places it on the clipboard.
Cmd-C Copy. Copies the current selection to the clipboard.
Cmd-V Paste. Pastes the contents of the clipbard at the insert point.
Delete Delete. Deletes the current selection.
Cmd-E Deletes the current line.
Cmd-K Copies the word preceding the insertion point and then pastes it after the insertion point (the insertion point must be in the whitespace preceeding or following a word). Press K multiple times to cycle through preceding words in succession.
Cmd-Shift-K Copies the word following the insertion point and pastes it at the insertion point (the insertion point must be located in the whitespace preceeding or following a word.) Press L multiple times to cycle through consecutive following words.

Searching for Text

Keys Action
Cmd-G Selects the next occurrence of the word found during the search.
Cmd-Shift-G Selects the previous occurrence of the word found during the search.
Cmd-F Opens the Find box at bottom of editor.
Cmd-R Opens the Find and Replace dialog box.

Setting Tabs

Keys Action
Tab Shifts all text to the right of the insertion point one tab stop to the right.
Cmd-Right arrow Shifts text in the line containing the insertion point to the right one tab stop.
Cmd-Left arrow Shifts text in the line containing the insertion point to the left one tab stop.

Modifying Code

Keys Action
Ctrl-Spacebar Opens the Java code completion dialog box.
Shift-Enter Enters the text that is selected in the code completion box into your file.
Ctrl-I Opens the Insert Code pop-up menu where you can choose from code snippets you want the IDE to insert.
Ctrl-Shift-I Adds an import statement to the import section of the code when the cursor is over the class name to be imported.
Shift-Spacebar Adds a space without checking for abbreviations to expand.
Cmd-Shift-J Opens the Internationalize dialog box that you can use to insert an localized string at the insertion point.
Cmd-J Cycles through editor tabs.

Using Bookmarks

Keys Action
Cmd-Shift-M Sets or unsets a bookmark at the current line.
Cmd-Shift-Period/Comma Goes to the next/previous bookmark.
See Also
Setting Keyboard Shortcuts
Menu Shortcuts
Help Viewer Shortcuts
Window Navigation Shortcuts

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