# Complete Video Editing Keyboard Shortcuts — Familiar Keys for Premiere Pro / Final Cut Users

> A full reference of VideoBuff's keyboard shortcuts, grouped into playback, editing, the command palette, navigation, and selection. Built around keys Premiere Pro and Final Cut users already know — J/K/L, C for cut, T for text, ⌘Z for undo — so experienced editors settle in fast and keyboard-first editors can work quickly.

_Last updated: 2026-10-11 · First published: 2026-10-11_

## Why the keyboard is faster

Editing speed ultimately comes down to how quickly you can put the playhead where you want it, and how quickly you can cut and arrange clips. Pressing a key is faster and more precise than dragging along the timeline with a mouse.

VideoBuff's shortcuts are built around keys you may already know from Premiere Pro and other editors — J/K/L, C for cut, ⌘Z for undo. A few behave differently, though: J steps back one frame rather than playing in reverse, and L plays at normal speed without speeding up on repeated presses. Practice the combinations below for a little while and you'll feel the difference over mouse-driven editing.

The rest of this guide covers playback, editing, the command palette, navigation, and selection. Shortcuts don't fire while you're typing in a text field (editing a text clip, renaming the project, and so on) — your keystrokes go into the field as usual.

## Playback and scrubbing

Space toggles play/pause. Clicking an empty part of the preview does the same thing, so use whichever suits you.

K pauses, L plays, and J steps back one frame.

M toggles mute. This mutes the preview's master volume only — it doesn't change any clip's volume or the sound in your exported video.

For frame-accurate adjustments, use the left and right arrow keys (or , and .) to step back or forward one frame at a time — handy for checking a cut point down to a single frame. Shift + left/right arrow moves one second at a time.

## Editing operations

C is the cut tool. Press C, then click a clip where you want to split it — it splits in two at that spot, and you're back on the select tool. To split at the playhead instead, right-click the clip and choose "Cut at playhead".

T adds a text clip at the playhead (or at the next free spot after it if that time is taken).

⌘Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows) is undo, and ⌘⇧Z (or Ctrl+Shift+Z) is redo. You can undo up to your last 50 edits, so feel free to try bold changes and roll them back.

Delete (or Backspace) removes the selected clip. ⌘S (or Ctrl+S) saves right away, though your work is saved automatically once you pause editing for about a second — you'll rarely need it.

## Command palette and cheatsheet

You don't need to memorize every shortcut. Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) or click the "Search commands" button in the header to open the command palette. Type what you want to do — "cut", "undo" — and run it straight away without hunting through menus. Press Esc to close it.

The palette also has actions that have no key of their own:

- "Open Export dialog…"
- "Aspect ratio: 16:9 (landscape)", "Aspect ratio: 9:16 (vertical)", "Aspect ratio: 1:1 (square)", "Aspect ratio: 4:3"
- "Open guides" and "Open changelog"

Press `?` (Shift+/) to bring up the cheatsheet, a grouped list of every keyboard shortcut. It opens during playback too, so it's always one keystroke away while you're learning. Press the same key again to dismiss it.

A habit worth building: when you're not sure how to do something, look it up in the palette first. It keeps you in the flow of editing.

![The command palette with "cut" typed in, listing Cut tool (C) and other matches](https://videobuff.app/guides/keyboard-shortcuts/command-palette-en.webp)
_The command palette (⌘K, or Ctrl+K on Windows) — type part of a name to find an action_

![The Keyboard shortcuts overlay, listing keys and actions grouped into Playback, Navigation, Tools, Editing, Project and Help](https://videobuff.app/guides/keyboard-shortcuts/shortcut-list-en.webp)
_The shortcut list, opened with ⇧ + ?_

## Navigation

Home jumps the playhead to the start of the timeline, End to the finish. Handy on long projects when you want to start over from the top.

Zoom the timeline with ⌘ + = and ⌘ + - (Ctrl on Windows). Holding ⌘ / Ctrl while turning the mouse wheel also zooms, centered on the spot under the pointer. The zoom range runs from 5% to 300%, so you can take in the whole project or fine-tune a single transition in the same view.

Shift + left/right arrow moves the playhead one second at a time (plain arrows move one frame).

## Selection

Click a clip to select it; the inspector then shows that clip's settings. One clip is selected at a time.

Press Delete (or Backspace) to remove the selected clip. If you remove too much, ⌘Z brings it back.

V switches to the select tool and C to the cut tool. Esc returns to the select tool.

## Cheat sheet

A compact summary of the shortcuts you'll use most. Consider printing it and keeping it next to your monitor.

- Playback: Space (play/pause) / K (pause) / L (play) / J (back one frame) / ← → or , . (one frame) / Shift+← → (one second) / M (mute preview)
- Editing: C (cut tool) / T (add text) / Delete or Backspace (remove) / ⌘Z (undo) / ⌘⇧Z (redo) / ⌘S (save)
- Navigation: Home (start) / End (end) / ⌘= ⌘- (zoom) / ⌘+wheel (zoom)
- Selection: click (select) / V (select tool) / C (cut tool) / Esc (back to select tool)
- Help: ⌘K (command palette) / ? (cheatsheet)

On Windows, use Ctrl in place of ⌘. To split at the playhead, right-click the clip and choose "Cut at playhead".

![A keyboard diagram with keys color-coded by purpose: playback (blue) Space, K, L, J, M, the left and right arrows, comma and period; editing (orange) C, T, Delete, Backspace, Z (undo) and S (save); navigation (green) Home, End, equals and minus (zoom); selection (purple) V and Esc; help (pink) ?. C carries a purple dot because it is also a select-mode key, and K a pink dot because with ⌘ it opens help](https://videobuff.app/guides/keyboard-shortcuts/cheat-sheet-keys-en.webp)
_The common keys, color-coded by what they do_