Google Docs keyboard shortcuts for Mac

⌘/ is the entry point to everything else: it opens Google's own shortcut panel inside the document, which always reflects the version of Docs you are actually using. If a chord on this page ever stops matching, that panel is the arbiter.

The two paste variants are the pair that changes daily life. ⌘V brings formatting with it and ⇧⌘V does not, which is the difference between pasting a paragraph from a web page and pasting a paragraph plus somebody else's font, colour and line height.

⌘B, ⌘I and ⌘U need no introduction. The rest of this group is where the time goes, and ⌥⌘C paired with ⌥⌘V is the one to build a habit around — it copies text formatting rather than text, which is the fastest way to make a stray pasted paragraph match everything around it.

⌘\ is the blunt-instrument version of the same idea: it strips every scrap of formatting off the selection and returns it to the document's normal text style. Between those three, almost no document ever needs manual reformatting again.

Styles are what make a long document navigable rather than merely long, and ⌥⌘1 through ⌥⌘6 apply the six heading levels that the document outline, the table of contents and every export format all depend on. ⌥⌘0 puts a mangled paragraph back to normal text.

The list chords are the ones most often mis-transcribed from a Windows list, because Docs uses ⇧⌘7, 8 and 9 in an order that matches no other word processor: numbered, bulleted, then checklist.

Docs adds one genuinely unusual capability here: ⌃⇧⌘ with a left or right arrow extends a second, non-contiguous selection after you have made a first one. Nothing else in a browser does that, and it is the fastest way to apply one change to three scattered phrases.

The two Fn rows exist because Mac keyboards without a numeric block have no Home or End key. Google documents these as Shift+Home and Shift+End; on your keyboard that is ⇧Fn← and ⇧Fn→.

This is where Docs differs most from a desktop word processor, and where a shared document actually gets written. ⌥⌘M inserts a comment on the selection; ⌥⇧⌘A opens the comment history for the whole document.

The mode switches at the bottom are worth committing to memory if you review other people's work. Editing, Suggesting and Viewing are three different documents as far as your keyboard is concerned, and the chord is the only way to change mode without going to the toolbar.

Docs puts every one of its own menus on ⌃⌥ and a letter, which is the closest thing a browser tab has to a menu bar. They are worth knowing as a set rather than one at a time, because once you can open a menu from the keyboard the arrow keys reach everything inside it.

One entry is worth flagging: ⇧⌘\ opens the Docs context menu, the one you would otherwise right-click for. ⇧F10 does the same job if you would rather keep the backslash free, and ⇧ with a right-click gives you the browser's context menu instead of Google's.

The tool chords below are the ones that live three menus deep and are therefore never found by anyone who does not already know they exist. ⌥⇧⌘H opens revision history, which is among the most useful things in Docs and the hardest to reach with a pointer.

The image commands are unusual in using ⌃⌘ together, a combination almost nothing else in Docs touches. They resize the selected image in one axis or both, and ⌥ with a left or right arrow rotates it fifteen degrees at a time.

Teaching Docs is unusually thankless, because the result of a shortcut is almost always a subtle change to a paragraph. You press ⌥⌘1 and a line becomes a heading; you press ⌥⌘C then ⌥⌘V and a paragraph quietly matches another one. Someone watching a recording sees the document rearrange itself with no visible cause, and every viewer following along on their own Mac falls a step behind.

Show KeyPress is a paid macOS menu bar app, for macOS 14 Sonoma or later, that draws each key you press as a mechanical keycap above everything else on screen. It has no Docs integration, no browser extension and nothing to install on the Google side — it is an overlay window, so a screen recording or a call that shares your whole display carries it automatically.