Keyboard navigation in Visual Studio for Mac
Important
Visual Studio for Mac is scheduled for retirement on August 31, 2024 in accordance with Microsoft’s Modern Lifecycle Policy. While you can continue to work with Visual Studio for Mac, there are several other options for developers on Mac such as the preview version of the new C# Dev Kit extension for VS Code.
Visual Studio for Mac is accessible by keyboard users using most common macOS keyboard shortcuts, as well as many that are specific to Visual Studio for Mac. Here, you learn about some basic keyboard commands for both, and how to set up Visual Studio for Mac keyboard shortcuts.
Use keyboard navigation
Keyboard navigation support is built right into macOS. To have the most comprehensive experience, set macOS to move keyboard focus between All controls. This allows you to move through all controls in a window or dialog box.
Customize keyboard shortcuts
Visual Studio for Mac has a range of keyboard shortcuts for various tasks. You can view and edit these shortcuts as follows:
Select Visual Studio (menu) > Preferences (⌘,).
Go to Environment > Key Bindings.
Scroll through the list, or search for the shortcut or command.
Select the command.
Select Key Binding, and type a key combination.
Select Apply.
Tip
You can choose from a list of key binding schemes to best suit your needs if you are familiar with other common keyboard shortcuts (for example, Visual Studio in Windows).
Useful keyboard shortcuts
| Feature | Description | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| Navigating UI | Move through all elements of the UI. | ⇥, ⇧⇥ |
| Interact | Select the control currently in focus. | ␣ |
| Interact | Select the default control in the screen or dialog box. | ⏎ |
| Switch tabs | Cycle through open files. | ⌘⇧[, ⌘⇧] |
| Debug | Start debugging. | ⌘⏎ |
Tip
See a comprehensive list of keyboard commands on Keyboard shortcuts.