Keyboard Navigation
import { Aside } from ‘@astrojs/starlight/components’;
notectl provides comprehensive keyboard navigation that mirrors native text editing behavior across platforms. This guide covers all movement, selection, and deletion shortcuts.
Keyboard Layouts
Section titled “Keyboard Layouts”Command shortcuts (anything held with Ctrl or Cmd, such as Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Z, or Ctrl+B) resolve by physical key position, so they work the same across Latin and non-Latin layouts. On a Russian (JCUKEN) layout, for example, the physical A key produces the character ф, yet Ctrl+A still selects all because the shortcut falls back to the key’s physical position when the typed character matches no binding.
The layout-aware character is always tried first and wins whenever it matches a shortcut, so normal typing, IME composition, and dead keys are never affected. AltGr combinations (Ctrl+Alt) are left untouched so layouts that compose characters with AltGr keep working.
Selection Types
Section titled “Selection Types”notectl uses three selection types to represent the cursor position:
| Type | Description | When it occurs |
|---|---|---|
| Collapsed | A single cursor position (anchor = head) | Normal text editing |
| Range | A span from anchor to head | Shift+arrow, click-drag, Select All |
| NodeSelection | An entire void block is selected | Arrow into an image, horizontal rule, etc. |
| GapCursorSelection | Virtual cursor at a void-block boundary | Arrow past a NodeSelection to a position with no text block |
Character Movement
Section titled “Character Movement”| Action | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Move one character right | ArrowRight |
ArrowRight |
| Move one character left | ArrowLeft |
ArrowLeft |
| Extend selection right | Shift+ArrowRight |
Shift+ArrowRight |
| Extend selection left | Shift+ArrowLeft |
Shift+ArrowLeft |
Character movement counts grapheme clusters (not code points), so multi-byte emoji and combining characters are traversed as single units. Movement crosses block boundaries — pressing ArrowRight at the end of a paragraph moves into the next block.
Word Movement
Section titled “Word Movement”| Action | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Move one word right | Alt+ArrowRight |
Ctrl+ArrowRight |
| Move one word left | Alt+ArrowLeft |
Ctrl+ArrowLeft |
| Extend one word right | Shift+Alt+ArrowRight |
Ctrl+Shift+ArrowRight |
| Extend one word left | Shift+Alt+ArrowLeft |
Ctrl+Shift+ArrowLeft |
Word movement uses the browser’s Selection.modify() API to respect the platform’s word-boundary rules (e.g. punctuation handling differs between macOS and Windows).
Line Movement
Section titled “Line Movement”| Action | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Move to line start | Cmd+ArrowLeft |
Home |
| Move to line end | Cmd+ArrowRight |
End |
| Extend to line start | Cmd+Shift+ArrowLeft |
Shift+Home |
| Extend to line end | Cmd+Shift+ArrowRight |
Shift+End |
| Move one line up | ArrowUp |
ArrowUp |
| Move one line down | ArrowDown |
ArrowDown |
| Extend one line up | Shift+ArrowUp |
Shift+ArrowUp |
| Extend one line down | Shift+ArrowDown |
Shift+ArrowDown |
Line start/end refers to the visual line (soft-wrapped), not the block boundary. In a long paragraph that wraps to three lines, Home moves to the start of the current visual line, not to offset 0 of the block.
Document Boundary
Section titled “Document Boundary”| Action | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Move to document start | Cmd+ArrowUp |
Ctrl+Home |
| Move to document end | Cmd+ArrowDown |
Ctrl+End |
| Extend to document start | Cmd+Shift+ArrowUp |
Ctrl+Shift+Home |
| Extend to document end | Cmd+Shift+ArrowDown |
Ctrl+Shift+End |
Void Block Navigation
Section titled “Void Block Navigation”Void blocks (images, horizontal rules, etc.) cannot hold a text cursor. When you arrow into a void block, notectl transitions through selection types:
Text cursor → NodeSelection → GapCursor → Text cursor (next block)- Arrow into a void block — the block becomes a NodeSelection (visually highlighted).
- Arrow past the void block — if there is a text block on the other side, the cursor lands there. If not (e.g. two consecutive void blocks), a GapCursor appears at the boundary.
- Type at a GapCursor — a new paragraph is inserted with the typed character.
- Enter at a GapCursor — an empty paragraph is inserted.
Gap Cursor
Section titled “Gap Cursor”The gap cursor is a virtual cursor at void-block boundaries. It appears as a blinking horizontal line.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
ArrowLeft / ArrowUp |
Navigate away (previous position) |
ArrowRight / ArrowDown |
Navigate away (next position) |
Enter |
Insert new empty paragraph |
Backspace |
Delete adjacent void block (after side) or navigate |
Delete |
Delete adjacent void block (before side) or navigate |
| Any character | Insert paragraph with that character |
See the Gap Cursor plugin documentation for details.
Table Cell Navigation
Section titled “Table Cell Navigation”Inside tables, navigation is scoped to the current cell with some special shortcuts:
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Tab |
Move to next cell (creates a new row at the end of the table) |
Shift+Tab |
Move to previous cell |
ArrowUp / ArrowDown |
Move between rows when at cell boundary |
Table cells are isolating — word movement and line-boundary movement do not escape the current cell.
Table resize separators
Section titled “Table resize separators”When direct table resizing is enabled, use Tab to focus a column or row separator. The focused
control exposes its orientation, logical axis, current value, and minimum to assistive technology.
| Focused control | Key | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Column separator | ArrowLeft / ArrowRight |
Decrease/increase width by 8 px by default; horizontal direction mirrors in RTL. |
| Row separator | ArrowUp / ArrowDown |
Decrease/increase the row minimum height by 8 px by default. |
| Either | Shift + resize arrow |
Use the 32 px large step by default. |
| Either | Delete / Backspace |
Reset that column width or row minimum height to automatic. |
Configure the steps with TablePlugin’s keyboardResizeStepPx and
keyboardResizeLargeStepPx options. The Table plugin guide
also covers pointer/touch resize, exact input, automatic reset, and read-only behavior.
Deletion
Section titled “Deletion”| Action | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Delete backward (character) | Backspace |
Backspace |
| Delete forward (character) | Delete |
Delete |
| Delete word backward | Alt+Backspace |
Ctrl+Backspace |
| Delete word forward | Alt+Delete |
Ctrl+Delete |
| Delete to line start | Cmd+Backspace |
— |
| Delete to line end | Cmd+Delete |
— |
At a block boundary, Backspace merges the current block into the previous one; Delete merges the next block into the current one.
RTL Support
Section titled “RTL Support”All horizontal navigation commands are RTL-aware. In a right-to-left block:
- ArrowLeft moves forward in offset space (toward the end of text)
- ArrowRight moves backward in offset space (toward the start of text)
This mapping is automatic and per-block — a document can mix LTR and RTL blocks, and each block gets the correct arrow behavior.
Screen Reader Announcements
Section titled “Screen Reader Announcements”The Caret Navigation plugin announces block-type transitions to screen readers. When the cursor moves into a different block, users hear the block type (e.g. “Heading level 2”, “Bullet list item”, “Code block”). These announcements are:
- Debounced (150 ms) to avoid noise during rapid arrow-key navigation
- Suppressed when another plugin has already made an announcement
- Skipped for the initial focus (no announcement on first render)