The less you have to reach for your mouse or trackpad, the better off you are as a professional editor—especially in a shared cutting room. The extra time spent dragging and dropping files in and out of the timeline adds up fast. 

While it might take an adjustment period, this cheat sheet will help you master your quick keys within a matter of days. 

If you use Adobe Premiere Pro, your keyboard shortcuts will become a key workflow component. We compiled this helpful guide to speed up your editing workflow and deliver your projects ahead of schedule. 

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The top Premiere Pro shortcuts: your cheat sheet 

Here's our cheat sheet of the top shortcuts you’re likely to use in just about every project: 

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Default Premiere Pro shortcuts by category

Varied workflows require a different set of quick keys. Use these Premiere Pro shortcuts to tackle any project:

File:

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Edit:

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Clip:

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Sequence:

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Markers:

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Window:

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Timeline tools:

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Timeline controls:

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Audio track mixer panel:

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Capture panel:

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Project panel:

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How to add custom shortcuts in Adobe Premiere Pro

For most, Adobe’s built-in shortcuts detailed above are more than sufficient for speeding up your editing process. However, you can customize your keyboard shortcuts and streamline your workflow even further by navigating to Edit -> Keyboard Customization. 

This command opens up a user interface of your keyboard, highlighting keys as gray, purple, green, or half purple and green.

A gray key is unassigned. 

A purple key has an assigned application shortcut. 

A green key has an assigned panel-specific shortcut.

A green and purple key has both an assigned application shortcut and a panel-specific shortcut. 

To modify a key, click on a gray key and select a command to assign to it, double-click, and then save. You can also remove assignments from purple, green, or purple and green keys by clicking on the key and selecting delete. 

You can also assign keys by dragging and dropping your desired control from the command menu onto the key of your choice. 

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How to sync shortcuts from one computer to another

Adobe Premiere Pro makes sending your keyboard shortcuts from one computer to another easy to keep your workflow consistent. 

The software automatically creates a .kys file containing your custom keyboard shortcuts inside the “Documents” folder for your current version of Premiere. Copy the .kys file and open it on the other computer to apply your keyboard shortcut settings. 

With these shortcuts, you should be able to streamline your editing process to land more clients and churn out excellent work. Use these default shortcuts, or create your own custom quick keys to take your projects to new heights.

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If you want to optimize your editing workflow further when collaborating with your team, check out Evercast. 

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