If you’re editing videos using Premiere Pro, knowing some basic editing keyboard shortcuts can save you hours of time and frustration (just like Final Cut Pro shortcuts can save you time if you prefer Adobe’s competitor).
Whether you are new to Premiere Pro or have been using it for years, there are the best keyboard shortcuts you simply cannot go without.
Adobe Premiere Pro Shortcuts:
Essential Premiere Pro Shortcuts
If you’re starting to edit videos with Premiere Pro, there are some shortcuts you should learn first. These shortcuts will make editing your video much easier and save you a lot of time.
From focusing on a specific sequence to forwarding and rewinding your clips, everyone should know these ten essential Premiere Pro shortcuts.
- Mark in and mark out points → use Space + I to mark in points and Space + O to mark out points
- Zooming in to focus on a sequence in your video → Shift + =/- for timeline tracks; Ctrl + =/- for video tracks; Alt + =/- for audio tracks
- Ripple edits for closing a gap after editing → B
- Matching frames in your footage → F
- Snapping clips on a timeline → S
- Rewind through footage → J
- Forward through footage → L
- Stop a playback → K
- Revert your curser to stop cutting footage accidentally → V
- Grouping clips → G
Once you are comfortable using these essential shortcut keys on Premiere Pro, you may also want to use other shortcuts for specific tasks.
So, here are some more instances where you can use specific shortcut keys in Premiere Pro.
File Shortcuts For Premier Pro
One of the first things you must learn when editing a video on Premiere Pro is how to save your work.
This can help avoid hours lost and wasted time if you accidentally delete the wrong portion of your video or if your power cuts out and you cannot save your work.
Saving videos, among other tools, are found in the File section of Premiere Pro. These are the most used File shortcut keys for Premiere Pro.
- New project → Ctrl + Alt + N
- New bin → Ctrl + B
- New sequence → Ctrl + N
- New title → Ctrl + T
- Open project → Ctrl + O
- Save → Ctrl + S
- Save as → Ctrl + Shift + S
- Save a copy → Ctrl + Alt + S
- Close → Ctrl + W
- Import media → Ctrl + I
- Export media → Ctrl + M
- Browse in Adobe bridge → Ctrl + Alt + O
- Close project → Ctrl + Shift + W
- Exit Premiere Pro → Ctrl + Q
Editing Shortcuts For Premiere Pro
Suppose you’re comfortable with the basic shortcuts when using Premiere Pro and know how to save your data and import new media. In that case, you can start editing your videos.
Plenty of essential shortcut keys are designed to make your editing journey much easier when using Premiere Pro, so we recommend learning the following shortcut keys.
- Cut → Ctrl + X
- Copy → Ctrl + C
- Paste → Ctrl + V
- Paste Insert → Ctrl + Shift + V
- Paste Attributes → Ctrl + Alt + V
- Undo → Ctrl + Z
- Redo → Ctrl + Shift + Z
- Clear → DELETE
- Ripple Delete → Shift + Delete
- Duplicate → Ctrl + Shift + /
- Select All → Ctrl + A
- Deselect All → Ctrl + Shift + A
- Find → Ctrl + F
- Keyboard Shortcuts → Ctrl + Alt + K
- Edit Original → Ctrl + E
Graphics Shortcuts For Premiere Pro
If your video requires a lot of graphics, you must learn the graphics shortcuts for Premiere Pro.
Not all videos require graphics, but they can be a fun new project to work on if you haven’t tried editing videos with graphics before. Here are some important Graphics shortcuts for Premiere Pro.
- Text → Ctrl + T
- Ellipse → Ctrl + Alt + E
- Rectangle → Ctrl + Alt + R
- Left alignment → Ctrl + Shift + L
- Right alignment → Ctrl + Shift + R
- Center alignment → Ctrl + Shift + C
- Bring forward → Ctrl + ]
- Send backward → Ctrl + [
- Bring to the front → Ctrl + Shift + ]
- Send to the back → Ctrl + Shift + [
- Select next layer → Ctrl + Alt + ]
- Select previous layer → Cltr + Alt + [
Sequence Shortcuts For Premiere Pro
If you want to work on a specific sequence in your video, it’s worthwhile knowing the specific shortcut keys for a sequence in Premiere Pro.
By knowing these shortcuts, you can save even more time and make your editing work much easier and more professional.
Here are the most important sequence shortcut keys for Premiere Pro.
- Render effects → Enter
- Add edit → Ctrl + K
- Add edit to all tracks → Ctrl + Shift + K
- Trim edit → Shift + T
- Match frame → F
- Reverse match frame → Shift + R
- Apply video transition → Ctrl + D
- Apply audio transition → Ctrl + Shift + D
- Extend selected edit to Playhead → E
- Zoom in → =
- Zoom out → –
- Next in sequence → Shift + ;
- Previous in sequence → Ctrl + Shift + ;
- Lift → ;
- Extract → ‘
- Snap in timeline → S
- Add new caption track → Ctrl + Alt + A
- Add new caption at Playhead → Ctrl + Alt + C
- Make subsequence → Shift + U
- Go to next caption segment → Ctrl + Alt + Down
- Go to previous caption segment → Ctrl + Alt + Up
Metadata Panel Shortcuts For Premiere Pro
Another shortcut list you may need is the shortcuts for metadata. The metadata shortcut keys include looping videos and playing or pausing videos.
These shortcut keys may seem obvious, but you undoubtedly need them when editing videos. Here are the metadata panel shortcuts for Premiere Pro.
- Loop video → Ctrl + L
- Play/Pause video → Space
Media Browser Panel Shortcuts For Premiere Pro
You may also want to know the media browser panel shortcuts to help you select and edit your media fast and efficiently.
Whether you want to open your media in a source monitor or wish to select a media list, using these shortcuts can help you achieve it. Here are the top media browser panel shortcuts for Premiere Pro.
- Select directory list → Shift + Left
- Select media list → Shift + Right
- Open in source monitor → Shift + O
Now that you know many of the shortcuts on Premiere Pro, all that’s left to do is get started.
Print out a cheat sheet for all the Premiere Pro shortcut keys to help you learn and memorize the keys faster. As time progresses, you won’t rely on your shortcut keys anymore.
You can then confidently edit your videos on Premiere Pro with ease.