Editing video is mostly playing, stopping, marking and cutting, thousands of times per project. That is why editors learn keyboard shortcuts earlier than most people: every trip to the mouse is a second, and the seconds multiply.
The keys below are Premiere Pro's defaults on Windows, from Adobe's default keyboard shortcuts page. Your set may differ if you use a custom layout or one modelled on another editor. Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (Ctrl+Alt+K) shows the active set on a picture of the keyboard and lets you search it.
Playback
- Space plays and stops.
- L plays forward. Press it again to go faster.
- J plays backward, faster with each press.
- K stops.
- Left and Right step one frame.
- Up and Down jump to the previous or next edit point in the timeline.
J, K and L sit next to each other under your right hand. With the left hand on I and O, you can review and mark a clip without looking at the keyboard.
Marking
- I sets an In point.
- O sets an Out point.
- X marks the whole clip under the playhead.
- M adds a marker.
Cutting and trimming
- Ctrl+K adds an edit (a cut) at the playhead on the targeted tracks.
- Ctrl+Shift+K adds an edit on all tracks.
- Q ripple trims the start of the clip to the playhead and closes the gap.
- W ripple trims the end of the clip to the playhead and closes the gap.
- Shift+Delete ripple deletes the selection: removes it and pulls the rest of the timeline in.
Q and W are the shortcuts that change how you edit. Park the playhead where a clip should start, press Q, and the head of the clip and the gap are both gone. No razor, no select, no delete.
A rough cut with these keys looks like this: play with L, stop with K where the good part of the take starts, press Q. Play on, stop where it ends, press W. Then the next clip. Your hands never leave the keyboard.
Tools
- V Selection
- C Razor
- A Track Select Forward
- B Ripple Edit
- N Rolling Edit
- R Rate Stretch
- Y Slip
- U Slide
- P Pen
- H Hand, Z Zoom
- T Type
Make a habit of pressing V when you finish with any other tool. When clicks in the timeline do something unexpected, a tool that is still active is a common reason.
Transitions
- Ctrl+D applies the default video transition at the edit point.
- Ctrl+Shift+D applies the default audio transition.
- Shift+D applies the default transitions to the selection.
Timeline view
- = zooms in on the timeline, - zooms out.
- \ zooms to fit the whole sequence.
- S turns snapping on or off.
- Shift+` maximizes the active panel, and the same keys restore it.
Project and export
- Ctrl+I imports media.
- Enter renders the effects between the In and Out points, for smooth playback.
- Ctrl+M opens Export.
- Ctrl+S saves the project.
- Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes.
Panel focus decides what a key does
Many Premiere Pro shortcuts only work in one panel, and if a key does nothing, the focus is often somewhere else. Four shortcuts move the focus without the mouse:
- Shift+1 the Project panel
- Shift+2 the Source Monitor
- Shift+3 the Timeline
- Shift+4 the Program Monitor
Shift+3 followed by Q or W is a useful pair: back to the timeline, trim, carry on. If you change a key in the shortcut editor (Ctrl+Alt+K), save it as your own set so you can take it to another computer.
How to remember them
- Think in hands. Left hand: I, O, Q, W, the tools on the left of the keyboard. Right hand: J, K, L for playback.
- J K L are rewind, stop, play, in that order, left to right.
- I and O are In and Out.
- Q and W trim towards the playhead. Q is on the left, so it trims what is to the left of the playhead, the start of the clip. W trims what is to the right.
- Learn one per project. Pick one new shortcut for each edit you start. After ten projects, ten shortcuts are part of how you work.
A Premiere Pro ring
RadialDeck is the radial menu for Windows that we make. When Premiere Pro is in front, the hotkey or a side mouse button opens a Premiere Pro ring instead of your usual one. Hold, flick toward a slice, release.
The gallery has 9 ready-made Premiere Pro slices: Play, Cut, Mark in, Mark out, Export, Render, Import, Transition and Maximize. The Premiere Pro page lists what each one does.
Render and Export are good ones to put on the ring first. You use them a few times a day rather than a few hundred, which is exactly why their keys are easy to forget.
The ring is useful when your right hand is on the mouse scrubbing the timeline and your left hand is somewhere else: everything on the ring is one flick of the mouse away.
Quick reference
- Play: Space, J, K, L, Up, Down
- Mark: I, O, X, M
- Cut and trim: Ctrl+K, Q, W, Shift+Delete
- Tools: V, C, B, N, R
- Project: Ctrl+I, Enter, Ctrl+M
RadialDeck is free for two rings and has a 14-day trial of Pro, which adds a ring per program such as Premiere Pro. It is in the Microsoft Store.
Try it in RadialDeck
Free for two rings, with a 14-day trial of everything in Pro. Windows 10 and 11, from the Microsoft Store.
or download the installer (.exe)