Home Free Download Manual Forum
Ctrl + K to search...
SumatraPDF documentation
/
Customize keyboard shortcuts
md
Available in version 3.4 or later.
You can add new keyboard shortcuts or re-assign existing shortcut to a different command.
To customize keyboard shortcuts:
  • use Settings / Advanced Options... menu (or Ctrl + K Command Palette, type adv to narrow down and select Advanced Options... command)
  • this opens a notepad with advanced settings file
  • find Shortcuts array and add new shortcut definitions
An example of customization:
Shortcuts [
    [
        Cmd = CmdOpen
        Key = Alt + o
    ]
    [
        Cmd = CmdNone
        Key = q
    ]
    [
        Name = Create green highlight
        Cmd = CmdCreateAnnotHighlight #00ff00 openedit
        Key = a
    ]
    [
        Cmd = CmdNextTab
        ToolbarText = Next Tab
    ]
]

Restore pre-3.6 Ctrl+Tab (no Smart Tab Switch popup) #

Ver 3.6+ binds Ctrl + Tab / Ctrl + Shift + Tab to Smart Tab Switch (CmdNextTabSmart / CmdPrevTabSmart), which shows a tab list while Ctrl is held. In 3.5 those keys switched tabs immediately in strip order (CmdNextTab / CmdPrevTab). To get the old behavior back:
Shortcuts [
    [
        Cmd = CmdNextTab
        Key = Ctrl + Tab
    ]
    [
        Cmd = CmdPrevTab
        Key = Ctrl + Shift + Tab
    ]
]
Ctrl + PageDown / Ctrl + PageUp already run next/prev tab without the popup. More detail: Tabs and windows.
Explanation of the first example:
  • by default SumatraPDF has Ctrl + O shortcut for CmdOpen (open a file) command. This changes the shortcut to Alt + o
  • by default q closes the document. By binding it to CmdNone we can disable a built-in shortcut
  • ver 3.6+: CmdCreateAnnotHighlight takes a color argument (#00ff00 is green) and boolean openedit argument. We re-assign a to create a highlight annotation with green color (different from default yellow) and to open annotations edit window (openedit boolean argument)
  • ver 3.6+: Name is optional. If given, the command will show up in command palette (Ctrl + K)

Format of Key section: #

  • just a key (like a, Z, 5) i.e. letters a to z, A to Z, and numbers 0 to 9
  • modifiers + key. Modifiers are: Shift, Alt, Ctrl e.g. Alt + F1, Ctrl + Shift + Y
  • there are some special keys (e.g. Alt + F3)
    • F1 - F24
    • numpad0 - numpad9 : 0 to 9 but on a numerical keyboard
    • Delete, Backspace, Insert, Home, End, Escape
    • Left, Right, Up, Down for arrow keys
    • full list of special keys
  • without modifiers, case does matter i.e. a and A are different
  • with modifiers, use Shift to select upper-case i.e. Alt + a is the same as Alt + A , use Alt + Shift + A to select the upper-case A

Commands #

You can see a full list of commands (or in the source code)

Escaping in settings values #

String values in the advanced settings file use $ as an escape character. A literal $ must be written as $$. A lone $ at the end of a value is treated as a trailing-whitespace marker, not a dollar sign.
This matters for CmdCommandPalette mode arguments: use CmdCommandPaletteFavorites (or CmdCommandPaletteTOC for table of contents) instead of CmdCommandPalette $ / CmdCommandPalette * when binding shortcuts.

Notes #

The changes are applied right after you save settings file so that you can test changes without restarting SumatraPDF.
If a custom Shortcut doesn’t work it could be caused by invalid command name or invalid command arguments.
We log information about unsuccessful parsing of a shortcut so check the logs if things don’t work as expected.
SumatraPDF documentation
/
Customize keyboard shortcuts
md