Customising keyboard shortcuts in Vectornation by Zaweba

Shortcuts live in your hands more than your head. After years in one program, your fingers reach for keys before you think. Vectornation by Zaweba starts from Illustrator's Windows shortcuts by default, so people coming from Illustrator find most keys where they expect them. And when a key is not where you want it, the Keyboard shortcuts editor changes it.

You find the editor at Edit > Keyboard shortcuts, or with Ctrl+Alt+Shift+K. It changes any menu shortcut, refuses clashes, and can import, export and reset.

Changing a shortcut

Find the command, give it a new key combination, and it takes effect. Any menu command can be given a shortcut, including ones that have none by default. Commands you use many times a day are good candidates. Something you reach through two menus each time, such as a particular export or a path command, is worth a key.

No clashes

If you try to give a key that is already taken, the editor refuses. That stops the frustrating situation where a shortcut you have used for years quietly starts doing something else. If you really want the key, free it from the other command first, then assign it.

Import, export and reset

Export saves your shortcut set to a file. Keep it with your backups, so that a new computer, or a fresh install, can have your keys back in a minute by importing it.

Import is also how a team can share one set. A studio can agree a set of shortcuts, export it once, and everyone imports the same file, so instructions like press this key mean the same for everybody.

Reset puts the defaults back. If your changes have got into a tangle, or you want to follow a tutorial that assumes the standard keys, reset gives you a clean start. Export first if you might want your own set again.

Coming from Illustrator

Because defaults follow Illustrator's Windows shortcuts, the tools and common commands should feel familiar. Where a feature here has no Illustrator equivalent, it may have a key of its own or none. Use Find a command, on Ctrl+/, to find such commands by name, then give them keys you like.

If you came from a different program, the editor is how you bring its habits with you. Spend twenty minutes setting the keys you use most, and the rest will come over time.

Habits worth forming

Change a few shortcuts at a time. If you remap twenty keys at once, you will forget half of them and be slower for a week.

Keep a short note of your changes, at least until they are second nature.

Avoid taking over keys that are used everywhere in Windows, such as copy and paste. Changing them in one program only leads to mistakes when you switch to another.

And export after any session of changes, so the file in your backup always matches what is in the app.

It is also worth a look at the defaults before you change anything. Many commands already have keys you might not know about, and learning an existing key is often better than inventing a new one, because tutorials and colleagues will use the standard set. Search the editor for a command first, see what it has, and only then decide whether to change it.