Zoom, pan, find, and keyboard shortcuts

Vector gives you an endless canvas to draw on. This page covers how to move around it, how to find text in a drawing, and every keyboard shortcut, grouped so you can look one up fast.

Shortcuts are written for macOS and for Windows and Linux. On a Mac, ⌘ is the Command key and ⇧ is Shift. On Windows and Linux, use Ctrl where the Mac uses ⌘.

Move around the canvas

You pan and zoom the canvas with the mouse or trackpad. Nothing you do here changes the drawing, so pan and zoom freely to find your place.

• Pan by scrolling. A scroll wheel or a two-finger trackpad swipe moves the canvas. Hold Shift while scrolling a wheel to pan sideways.
• Zoom by holding Ctrl or ⌘ and scrolling, or by pinching on a trackpad. The canvas zooms towards the pointer, so the spot under your cursor stays put.
• Pan by dragging when you'd rather not scroll. Hold the Space bar and drag, or drag with the middle mouse button. Both move the canvas without touching your objects.

Zoom runs from 10% right up to 3000%.

The zoom readout

The bottom-right corner shows the current zoom as a percentage. Click it to reset the view to 100%, centred on the middle of the canvas. Its tooltip reads Reset zoom.

Find text in a drawing

Press ⌘F (or Ctrl+F) to open the find bar. It searches the text in every object on the canvas, including the parts you have scrolled away from.

• Type your term. Matching objects are highlighted as you type.
• Press ⌘G for the next match and ⌘⇧G for the previous one. The canvas moves to each match and selects it.
• Press Esc to close the find bar.

You can also share a link that opens a drawing with the find bar already searching. Add ?q= and your term to the drawing's web address, for example ?q=budget. Whoever opens the link lands on the drawing with that term found and highlighted.

Keyboard shortcuts

Tools

Press a letter or the matching number to pick a tool. The Image tool has no shortcut, because you add an image by uploading or pasting it.

Action	Mac	Windows/Linux
Select	V or 1	V or 1
Rectangle	R or 2	R or 2
Diamond	D or 3	D or 3
Ellipse	O or 4	O or 4
Arrow	A or 5	A or 5
Line	L or 6	L or 6
Draw	P or 7	P or 7
Text	T or 8	T or 8
Eraser	E or 0	E or 0
Keep the tool active after drawing	Q	Q

By default a tool goes back to Select once you've drawn a shape. Press Q to lock the tool on, so you can draw several of the same shape in a row.

Editing

Action	Mac	Windows/Linux
Copy	⌘C	Ctrl+C
Cut	⌘X	Ctrl+X
Paste	⌘V	Ctrl+V
Duplicate the selection	⌘D	Ctrl+D
Select everything	⌘A	Ctrl+A
Delete the selection	Delete or Backspace	Delete or Backspace
Undo	⌘Z	Ctrl+Z
Redo	⌘⇧Z or ⌘Y	Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y
Nudge the selection by 1px	Arrow keys	Arrow keys
Nudge the selection further	⇧ + arrow keys	Shift + arrow keys
Cancel the current action, or clear the selection	Esc	Esc

Press Esc once to cancel a shape you're drawing or a selection you're dragging. Press it again to clear the selection, and again to return to the Select tool.

Arrange

These change the stacking order of the selected objects, front to back.

Action	Mac	Windows/Linux
Send backward	⌘[	Ctrl+[
Bring forward	⌘]	Ctrl+]
Send to back	⌘⇧[	Ctrl+Shift+[
Bring to front	⌘⇧]	Ctrl+Shift+]

View and find

Action	Mac	Windows/Linux
Pan the canvas	Hold Space and drag, or middle-mouse drag	Hold Space and drag, or middle-mouse drag
Zoom in or out	⌘ + scroll, or pinch	Ctrl + scroll, or pinch
Open the find bar	⌘F	Ctrl+F
Next match	⌘G	Ctrl+G
Previous match	⌘⇧G	Ctrl+Shift+G
Close the find bar	Esc	Esc