Key Strokes
Jalview responds a number of key strokes, and has two distinct modes of keyboard operation. The F2 key switches between 'Normal' and 'Cursor' mode operation.
| Key | Which Mode | Action | Escape | Normal | Clears the current selection region, highlighted columns and highlghted residues. |
| Escape | Cursor | As in normal mode, but also cancels any partially entered commands|
| F1 | Both | Show Help Documentation|
| F2 | Toggle Cursor mode on / off | |
| Control 'Z' | Both | Undoes the last sequence edit |
| Up Arrow | Normal | Moves selected sequence(s) up the alignment|
| Down Arrow | Normal | Moves selected sequence(s) down the alignment.|
| Cursor | Move cursor around alignment | |
| Control 'A' | Both | Selects all sequences in the alignment |
| Control 'C' | Both | Copies the selected region into
the clipboard as a Fasta format file nb. not available in applet, as no clipboard is available |
| Control 'V' | Both | Pastes the contents of the clipboard to a new alignment window. (same as the Alignment Window menu Edit->Paste command)|
| Control 'X' | Both | Cuts the (fully) selected sequences from the alignment. |
| Control 'F' | Both | Launches the search window |
The compound commands available in the Cursor mode are summarised below. Single letter commands can be prefixed by digits to specify a repetition number, and some more complex commands take one or more numeric parameters (prefixing the command key and separated by commas).
| Compound Command | Mode | Action (and parameter description) |
| 0-9 | Cursor | Begin entering a numeric parameter (p) or repetition number for a cursor movement or edit command. |
| , | Cursor | Separates one or more numeric parameters (e.g. p1,p2) for a command. |
| p1,p2 Return | Cursor | Move cursor to a particular column (p1) and row (p2) in the alignment. e.g. '5,6<Return>' moves the cursor to the 5th column in the 6th sequence. |
| pS | Cursor | Jump to the p'th sequence in the alignment. |
| pP | Cursor | Jump to p'th amino acid in current sequence. |
| pC | Cursor | Jump to p'th column in the alignment. |
| Q | Cursor | Marks the top left corner of the selection area |
| M | Cursor | Marks the bottom right corner of the selection area |
| [p] Space | Cursor | Inserts
one (or optionally p) gaps at the current position. Hold down Control or Shift to insert gaps over a sequence group |
| [p] Delete | Cursor | Removes
one (or optionally p) gaps at the cursor position. Hold down Control or Shift to insert gaps over a sequence group |
| [p] Backspace | Cursor | Removes
one (or optionally p) gaps at the cursor position. Hold down Control or Shift to insert gaps over a sequence group |