productivity

Keyboard and touchpad

ChromeOS comes with built-in keyboard shortcuts and touchpad gestures to help you be more productive. You can even customize key bindings and touchpad functionality to better suit your personal preferences, especially when coming from other platforms.

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts help you perform tasks quickly without needing to find actions in an app’s menu or using your mouse. A full list of keyboard shortcuts⁠⁠ is available, below are common ChromeOS keyboard shortcuts that can help you be more productive:

  • Lock screen: search+l
  • Files app: shift+alt+m
  • Open new crosh shell terminal: ctrl+alt+t
  • Dock current window on the left or right: alt+[ or alt+]
  • Full screen screenshot: ctrl + Show windows []||
  • Partial screenshot: ctrl+shift + Show windows []||
  • Caps lock: alt+search
  • Task manager: search+esc
  • New tab: ctrl+t
  • Close current tab: ctrl+w
  • Reopen last closed tab: ctrl+shift+t
  • See all keyboard shortcuts: ctrl+alt+/
  • Chromebook help manual: ctrl+/

There are also a number of unique keys⁠⁠ on your Chromebook keyboard that you can use to make your experience even better.

Changing key bindings

Many of the default key bindings on your ChromeOS device can be changed, including the search, assistant, control, and alt keys. To change the key bindings to suit your preferences, open ChromeOS’s settings and navigate to “Device” -> “Keyboard”; you should see a list of keys whose bindings can be remapped:

Keyboard settings for changing key bindings

Touchpad gestures

The touchpad or trackpad supports useful to know swipe and tap functionalities:

  • See all windows: swipe up with three fingers
  • Go back/forth in a browser: swipe left/right with two fingers
  • Right click: tap with two fingers

Changing touchpad functionality

Some users coming from other platforms to ChromeOS may notice that the touchpad scrolling seems to be inverted for them. Perhaps, you want to turn on/off tap-to-click. Open ChromeOS’s settings and navigate to “Device” -> “Touchpad” for touchpad functionality settings.

Touchpad settings options menu.

If you would like to know more, check out how else to use your Chromebook touchpad⁠⁠.