Whether you’re a beginner programmer, casual coder, data analyst/scientist, or anyone else that uses Python, I’d recommend you at least check out Spyder, among other IDEs. Granted, it may not the best choice if you’re a full-time Python developer. But otherwise it has a lot to offer with its blend of intuitive, beginner-friendly design and broad, powerful set of shoulders. I mean features.
If you’re interested, see the video above for a tour of Spyder where I run you through the basics, including a set of simple keyboard shortcuts. And below you’ll find a list of said keyboard shortcuts you can follow along with.
To be clear, these aren’t the optimal shortcuts you’d get with something like Vim, and your hand will regularly have to venture over to the arrow keys and their neighbors.
“Real Programmers” by xkcd, used under CC BY-NC 2.5, compressed
But you will avoid the mouse for the most part. And importantly, the learning curve is gentle so you’ll be able to focus your cognitive resources on the code. Not to mention that, if you’re a beginner, it’s going to be a while before your mind outpaces your fingers anyways.
So what I want to do here is show you the handful of shortcuts that are:
- useful to beginners, ones that anyone could regularly use
- reasonably intuitive, not too hard to memorize
- Spyder’s default shortcuts, so you don’t need to make any changes
- the same across different operating systems
First, here are the shortcuts you should know when working in the code editor.
Spyder Code Editor Shortcuts
| Left/Right (Arrow Key) | go back/forward a character |
| Up/Down (Arrow Key) | go up/down a line |
| Shift + Left/Right | highlight previous/next character |
| Shift + Up/Down | highlight to cursor’s new position on next line up/down |
| Ctrl + Left/Right | go to start of previous/next word |
| Ctrl + Shift + Left/Right | highlight to start of previous/next word |
| Home/End | go to start/end of line |
| Shift + Home/End | highlight to start/end of line |
| Ctrl + Home/End | go to start/end of file |
| Ctrl + Shift + Home/End | highlight to start/end of file |
| Ctrl + L | go to Line you specify |
| Alt + Up/Down | move current line up/down |
| Highlight lines + Tab | indent selected lines |
| Highlight lines + Shift + Tab | un-indent selected lines |
| Ctrl + 1 | toggle whether a line is commented out |
| Ctrl + 4 | format line into block comment |
| Ctrl + 5 | undo block comment formatting |
| Backspace/Delete | delete previous/next character |
| Ctrl + Backspace/Delete | delete to start of previous/next word |
| Ctrl + D | Delete line |
| Ctrl + Z | undo |
| Ctrl + Shift + Z | redo |
| Ctrl + X | cut |
| Ctrl + C | Copy |
| Ctrl + V | paste |
| Ctrl + A | highlight All |
| Ctrl + F | Find text (Enter and Shift + Enter, or F3 and Shift + F3 to cycle matches) |
| Ctrl + R | Replace text |
| Ctrl + Space | code completion |
| Ctrl + I | Inspect object (see info in help pane) |
| Ctrl + G | Go to file and line where selected object is defined |
| Ctrl + Page Up/Page Down | cycle to previous/next file |
| Ctrl + Shift + E | switch to Editor pane |
| Ctrl + Shift + I | switch to Ipython console pane |
| Ctrl + Shift + V | switch to Variable explorer pane |
| Ctrl + Shift + H | switch to Help pane |
| Ctrl + Shift + X | switch to file eXplorer pane |
| Ctrl + = (or Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Forward) | zoom in |
| Ctrl + - (or Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Back) | zoom out |
| Ctrl + 0 | zoom reset |
| F11 | fullscreen mode |
| Ctrl + N | open New file |
| Ctrl + O | Open existing file |
| Ctrl + S | Save current file |
| Ctrl + Shift + S | Save current file as |
| Ctrl + Alt + S | Save all open files |
| F5 | run file |
| Highlight code + Ctrl + Enter | run selected code |
| Ctrl + W | close file |
| Ctrl + Shift + W | close all files |
| Ctrl + Q | Quit Spyder |
Keep in mind that many of these Code Editor shortcuts also apply to the IPython console. But there are some commands that only apply to the console, the most useful of which are the following:
Spyder IPython Console Shortcuts
| Up/Down | go back/forward in command history |
| Ctrl + L (or enter command “clear”) | cLear shell |
| Ctrl + T | open new ipython console Tab |
| Ctrl + . | restart kernel |
| Ctrl + C (or click red square in corner of pane) | Cancel action, stop running script, KeyboardInterrupt |
So what do you think? Are you a fan of Spyder yet? Or would something like the Forbidden IDE be more your style? Let me know if you have any questions.
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