links to help pages are missing, some shortcuts are outdated and a lot is missing

JOSM Keyboard Shortcuts

The following shortcuts are the default setting. This list might be outdated. You can always look in the JOSM shortcut preferences to see all active shortcuts (except for the different mode modifiers).

Annotated keyboard diagram based on this page

​Announcement at user blogs ​png version with ​svg source

Modes and dialogues

Main shortcut	Activation steps	page	multiple hotkeys?
S		Select objects	yes, many
S	toggled by S	LassoMode	1
A		"Standard Mode", it will draw "connected" lines	yes, 4
A	+ hold Alt	it starts a new way, rather than continuing an existing way
A	+ hold Shift	it will create isolated nodes
A	+ hold Ctrl	it will disable "snapping" to existing ways and nodes
A	toggled by A	It will enable "angle-snapping" mode
W		Improve Way Accuracy	yes, 4?
Delete		Delete...	yes, 3
Delete	+ hold Alt	Help/Action/Delete#Altmodifier
Delete	+ hold Shift	will remove segments under cursor and additionally split way in two
Delete	+ hold Ctrl	Help/Action/Delete#Ctrlmodifier
X		Stretch a part of a way (create a building or something else)	yes, 6
X	toggled by X	Dual aligment (this mode uses two reference segments (neigbors of the original segment) and moves the nodes each according to its own reference segment)
X	+ hold Ctrl while dragging a single node	will move node along one it's adjacent segments
X	and double click at way	a double click at a way segment inserts a new node
X	+ hold Ctrl	move segment parallel to base segment
X	+ hold Shift	Always create nodes
X	+ hold Alt	Don't alter original way, create new way instead
Alt+X	then press CTRL+SHIFT+1 ... CTRL+SHIFT+5	To insert one of latest tags from "Add value" dialogue	yes, many

Tools

CTRL+F	Search
SHIFT+B	Distribute nodes
C	Combine Ways
G	Unglue ways
J	Join Node to Way
L	Align nodes into a straight line
M	Merge Nodes
O	Align nodes in circle
P	Split Way
Q	Orthogonalize Shape
R	Reverse Way
Del	Delete object but don't change into delete mode
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+C	Copy Way/Node etc to buffer
Ctrl+X	Cut Way/Node etc to buffer
Ctrl+V	Paste from buffer
Ctrl+Shift+V	Paste only the tags
Ctrl+D	Duplicate
Shift+M	Mirror nodes
Shift+O	Create circle
Shift+Q	Undo Orthogonalization for certain nodes
Esc	Unselect all
Shift+←	Move objects
Shift+↑	Move objects
Shift+→	Move objects
Shift+↓	Move objects

interface and appearance

Tab	Toggle dialogs
F11	Fullscreen mode
CTRL+J	Opens the Jump To Position dialog
CTRL+SHIFT+F	Enable/Disable automatic centring of the map view to last placed node
Ctrl+W	Toggle between wireframe and mappaint mode

Toggle and switch between first 10 layers of Layer List Dialog

Shift+A + press 1	Activate layer 1, counting from the top
...	...
Shift+A + press 9	Activate layer 9, counting from the top
Shift+A + press 0	Activate layer 10, counting from the top
Shift+S + press 1	Show/hide layer 1, counting from the top
...	...
Shift+S + press 9	Show/hide layer 9, counting from the top
Shift+S + press 0	Show/hide layer 10, counting from the top

History

Ctrl+H	Show history dialog
Ctrl+Shift+H	Show history at ​http://www.openstreetmap.org
Ctrl+I	Advanced object info dialogue

Viewport

Z	Zoom in by dragging
+	Zoom in
-	Zoom out
Ctrl+,	Zoom in
Ctrl+.	Zoom out
Ctrl+←	Move visible area
Ctrl+↑	Move visible area
Ctrl+→	Move visible area
Ctrl+↓	Move visible area
1	Zoom to data
2	Zoom to layer
3	Zoom to selection
4	Zoom to conflict
5	Zoom to download
Shift+A	Cycle through the different Auto zoom modes

Workflow

Ctrl+Shift+↓	Download
Ctrl+Shift+↑	Upload
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+N	New file
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+S	Save file
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save as
Ctrl+E	Export to GPX
Ctrl+Q	Exit Application
F1	press anywhere to open main Help page
F1	press over element in question to open context-sensitive Help page
Shift+F1	About screen (with JOSM version number)
F12	Preferences

Toggle Dialogs

Was explained at Help/ToggleDialogs.

(continue cleanup/sort below)

all modes

Click-RightMouse	Click and drag to move the map.
Scroll-Wheel	Zoom in and out.

Note: In ​gnome desktop environment "Alt"-Click is used for moving the window. The "AltGr" key can be used instead; note that on some keyboards the "AltGr" key is simply the right-hand "Alt" key.

See also

• Auto generated list of shortcuts

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