How do I use my own keyboard shortcuts?

Open Edit > Keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+K) in Vectornation by Zaweba and change any menu shortcut to the keys you want. The editor refuses clashes, so you cannot accidentally give two commands the same keys, and it can import, export and reset your settings. Out of the box, the shortcuts follow Illustrator's Windows shortcuts.

Muscle memory is the biggest cost of moving to a new program. If your fingers already know where things are, a new editor feels slow for weeks. Starting from familiar defaults and letting you change anything you like keeps that cost low.

Starting from familiar keys

Because the defaults follow Illustrator's Windows shortcuts, a lot of what you already know just works. The pen is P, the type tool is T, and so on. People switching over often find they only need to change a handful of keys, if any.

If you came from a different program, you can bring its habits with you one command at a time rather than learning a whole new layout.

Changing a shortcut

Open the editor and find the command. Click in its shortcut box and press the keys you want. If those keys already belong to another command, the editor refuses the change and tells you, so you can decide which command should have them.

Good shortcuts are ones you can press without looking. Keep the commands you use dozens of times a day on single keys or simple combinations, and leave awkward three-key combinations for rare ones.

If you cannot remember what a command is called, Help > Find a command (Ctrl+/) searches commands by name. That is also a quick way to run something you only use now and then, without giving it a shortcut at all.

Saving and sharing your set

Export saves your shortcuts to a file. Keep a copy somewhere safe, so a new PC or a reinstall does not mean setting them all up again.

Import loads a file, which is handy in a studio where everyone should work the same way. One person sets up the shortcuts, exports them, and the others import the file.

Reset puts everything back to the defaults. It is a useful escape hatch when an experiment has gone wrong.

A few keys at a time

Change a few keys at a time. Rebinding twenty shortcuts in one sitting and then forgetting half of them is common. Change the ones that annoy you, use the program for a week, then adjust again.

Think about your hands. If you draw with the mouse in your right hand, putting your favourite commands within reach of the left hand speeds things up.

Take a note of anything you change from the defaults, especially if you share files or screen recordings with others, since tutorials and colleagues will assume the standard keys.

Other ways to work faster

Actions record a sequence of steps you can play back, so a job you repeat many times can become one command. For working without a mouse at all, View > Keyboard pointer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M) lets you work the canvas from the keyboard, and Ctrl+F6 moves between parts of the window.

Vectornation by Zaweba is free software for Windows, works offline and needs no account.