Editor Accelerators for LabVIEW Beginners
The LabVIEW environment has hundreds of built-in gestures for accelerating editor operations. This page provides a complete list of these tools.
If you are new to LabVIEW, the tables below list the keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures for the most common editor operations you will perform on a daily basis. Note that shortcuts common to most applications (cut, copy, paste, save, etc.) are not listed.
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Shortcut | Operation |
|---|---|
| Ctrl-Space | Quick Drop - An alternative to the palettes for quick, name-based object placement on the front panel and block diagram |
| Ctrl-E | Switch between the front panel and block diagram of a VI |
| Ctrl-H | Launch the Context Help window, which displays documentation about the current object under the mouse cursor |
| Ctrl-I | Show the Properties settings of the current VI |
| Ctrl-R | Run the current VI |
| Ctrl-Shift-Z | Redo the last undo (Ctrl-Z) operation |
| Shift-Arrow Key | Moves the selected object(s) 8 pixels in the arrow direction |
| Esc | While wiring, cancels the current wiring operation |
| 'Enter' on the numeric keypad | Commit current value in a string (different from the main 'Enter' key, which will add a new line to a string) |
Mouse Gestures
| Gesture | Operation |
|---|---|
| Ctrl-Drag selected object(s) | Create a copy of selected object(s) |
| Ctrl-Drag in empty panel/diagram space | Add space |
| Ctrl-Alt-Drag in empty panel/diagram space | Remove space |
| Ctrl-Scroll | In LabVIEW 2023 Q3 and later, zoom in and out on the block diagram |
| Ctrl-Scroll in empty diagram space | In LabVIEW 2023 Q1 and earlier, scroll through the frames of a multi-frame structure |
| Ctrl-Shift-Scroll in empty diagram space | In LabVIEW 2023 Q3 and later, scroll through the frames of a multi-frame structure |
| Single-click a wire | Select the current wire segment |
| Double-click a wire | Select the current wire branch |
| Triple-click a wire | Select the entire current wire |
| Single-click while wiring | Tack down a wire junction where you clicked, and continue wiring |
| Double-click while wiring | In LabVIEW 2023 Q3 and later, create a control or indicator connected to that wire |
| Double-click while wiring | In LabVIEW 2023 Q1 and earlier, create a broken wire that ends where you double-clicked |
| Alt-Double-click while wiring | In LabVIEW 2023 Q3 and later, create a broken wire that ends where you double-clicked |
| Ctrl-Double-click while wiring | In LabVIEW 2023 Q3 and later, create a constant connected to that wire |
| Shift-click an object | Add the object to the current selection |
| Double-click empty space | Create a free label |
| Double-click subVI | Open the front panel of the subVI |
| Drag VI onto diagram from project | Place the VI as a subVI on the diagram |