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Changing Keyboard Shortcuts

You can define key bindings for almost all operations and editor commands in DbVisualizer. Key bindings are defined in Tools > Tool Properties under the General / Key Bindings category. Key bindings are grouped in Key Maps, each with an action list organized in folders; the Editor Commands folder lists all actions available in the SQL Commander editor and their current key bindings (in the Key Bindings list), the Main Menu folder contains subfolders, each representing a main window menu and other folders group feature specific actions, such as actions to control the references graph, form editor, etc.

DbVisualizer includes a set of predefined keymaps targeted for the supported operating systems. These keymaps cannot be deleted or modified. To customize key bindings, copy an existing keymap and make your changes.

For instance, the Main Menu folder contains actions in subfolders, each representing a main window menu, and the Editor Commands folder lists all actions available in the SQL editor. For each action, the key binding(s) are defined in the Key Bindings column.

User Interface for keyboard shortcuts

All user-defined keymaps are stored in your $HOME/.dbvis/config140/keymaps directory. A keymap file contains only the differences between the copied keymap and the current. To create a new keymap, select the map you want to copy and click the Make Copy button. The name of the copied keymap is suffixed with _copy and is activated automatically. Set a name on the new keymap if you like. The newly created keymap now has the exact same key bindings as the parent keymap.

Copying an existing keymap

To modify the key bindings for an action, select the action from the action list. The current key bindings are listed in the Key Bindings list, and you can search for mappings by action or key binding.

Modifying the keyboard bindings

The modifier keys Shift, Alt, Ctrl and Command can be used to define the key binding. The keystroke dialog controls whether a key binding is already assigned somewhere else. If there is a conflict with another binding, the Conflicts area shows the names of the actions that are conflicting.

Modifier keys section

Conflict section denoting conflicting action names

Menu items and tooltips show the first defined key binding in the list.

Menu items and tooltips display