Keyboard Shortcuts

Complete reference for every default shortcut in SPAN Finder. All shortcuts (except a small set of system-reserved and structural keys) are remappable in Settings -> Shortcuts.

How to remap
Navigation
Edit
Selection
View
Tabs
Window
Workspaces
Shelf
Command Palette
Settings toggles
Settings jumps
Theme, density, language, icon pack
Korean keyboard notes
System-reserved shortcuts (cannot be assigned)
Structural keys (cannot be used bare)
See also

How to remap

Open Settings -> Shortcuts (or press Ctrl+, and click Shortcuts in the sidebar). Click any binding row to capture a new key combination. Conflicts with other commands, system-reserved keys, and bare structural keys are detected and reported in real time.

Your overrides are persisted as a compact JSON patch on top of the built-in defaults, so future updates that add new commands will not wipe out your customizations. Hit Reset to defaults at any time to restore the original bindings.

Note: Some shortcuts are owned by Windows itself (Alt+F4, Ctrl+Alt+Delete, anything with the Win key, and so on) and cannot be captured by any desktop application. SPAN will warn you if you try to assign one of them.

Learn more about remapping

Action	Shortcut	Notes
Go back	`Alt+Left`	Moves to the previous location in history
Go forward	`Alt+Right`
Go up one folder	`Alt+Up`
Focus address bar	`Ctrl+L`, `Alt+D`, `F4`	Three defaults, all remappable
Search	`Ctrl+F`, `F3`	Opens inline search in the active panel
Filter bar	`Ctrl+Shift+F`	Quick filter on visible items

Edit

Action	Shortcut	Notes
Copy	`Ctrl+C`
Cut	`Ctrl+X`
Paste	`Ctrl+V`
Paste as shortcut	`Ctrl+Shift+V`	Creates a `.lnk` in the target folder
Delete (to Recycle Bin)	`Delete`
Delete (permanent)	`Shift+Delete`	Skips the Recycle Bin
Rename	`F2`
Duplicate	`Ctrl+D`	Creates a copy alongside the original
New folder	`Ctrl+Shift+N`
Undo	`Ctrl+Z`	File operation undo stack
Redo	`Ctrl+Y`

Selection

Action	Shortcut	Notes
Select all	`Ctrl+A`
Select none	`Ctrl+Shift+A`
Invert selection	`Ctrl+I`

View

Action	Shortcut	Notes
Miller columns view	`Ctrl+1`
Details view	`Ctrl+2`
List view	`Ctrl+3`
Icon view	`Ctrl+4`
Toggle split view	`Ctrl+Shift+E`	Second explorer pane
Toggle preview pane	`Ctrl+Shift+P`
Equalize columns	`Ctrl+Shift+Plus`	Miller view only
Auto-fit columns	`Ctrl+Shift+Minus`	Miller view only
Refresh	`F5`
Toggle hidden files	`Ctrl+H`
Toggle file extensions	`Ctrl+Shift+H`
Fullscreen	`F11`	Not remappable (handled at OS level)
Switch pane	`F6`	Moves focus between split panes

Tabs

Action	Shortcut	Notes
New tab	`Ctrl+T`
Close tab	`Ctrl+W`
Next tab	`Ctrl+Tab`
Previous tab	`Ctrl+Shift+Tab`
Open selection in new tab	`Ctrl+Enter`	Opens the focused folder in a new tab

Tip: Drag a tab out of the tab strip to tear it off into its own window. Drag it back onto another SPAN window’s tab strip to re-dock.

Window

Action	Shortcut	Notes
New window	`Ctrl+N`
Open terminal	`Ctrl+` ` , `Ctrl+'`	Two defaults — see Korean keyboard notes below
Open settings	`Ctrl+,`	Settings opens as a dedicated tab
Properties	`Alt+Enter`	Shows properties for the focused item
Help	`F1`, `Shift+/`
Quick Look	`Space`	Preview the focused file without opening it

Workspaces

Action	Shortcut	Notes
Save workspace	`Ctrl+Shift+S`	Saves current tab layout as a workspace
Open workspace palette	`Ctrl+Shift+W`	Browse and switch between saved workspaces

Shelf

The File Shelf is a persistent staging area for files you want to move, copy, or act on later.

Action	Shortcut	Notes
Add to shelf	`Ctrl+Shift+B`	Adds current selection to the shelf
Toggle shelf	`Ctrl+B`	Show or hide the shelf panel
Move shelf items here	(unassigned)	Remap in Settings if desired
Copy shelf items here	(unassigned)	Remap in Settings if desired
Clear shelf	(unassigned)	Remap in Settings if desired

Shelf contents persist across sessions when the Save shelf between sessions setting is enabled.

Command Palette

Hidden in v1.3.1+. The command palette is retained in the codebase but is not bound to any default key, because it did not fit common file-manager workflows. You can re-enable it by assigning a shortcut in Settings -> Shortcuts (the command ID is span.commandPalette.open). A common choice is Ctrl+K.

Settings toggles

All of the following toggle a single setting instantly. They have no default key bindings, but you can assign any combination in Settings -> Shortcuts under the Settings category.

Command	Description
Toggle hidden files	Same as `Ctrl+H`
Toggle extensions	Same as `Ctrl+Shift+H`
Toggle checkboxes	Show/hide selection checkboxes
Toggle thumbnails	Enable/disable image thumbnails
Toggle Quick Look	Enable/disable Quick Look preview
Toggle WASD navigation	Use WASD keys for arrow-key navigation
Toggle confirm delete	Ask before sending to Recycle Bin
Toggle preview folder info	Show folder size/count in preview pane
Toggle default preview	Enable built-in previewer
Toggle favorites tree	Show favorites tree in sidebar
Toggle shelf	Enable File Shelf feature
Toggle shelf persistence	Save shelf between sessions
Toggle context menu integration	Enable Windows “Open with SPAN”
Toggle tray icon	Run SPAN in the system tray
Toggle remember window position	Restore last window position on launch
Toggle Git integration	Show Git status overlays
Toggle hex preview	Enable hex preview for unknown files
Toggle file hash	Compute file hashes in properties
Toggle shell extensions	Load third-party shell extensions
Toggle Windows shell extras	Enable additional Windows shell features
Toggle Copilot menu	Enable Copilot integration

Settings jumps

These commands jump directly to a section in the Settings tab. Assign keys in Settings -> Shortcuts under SettingsSection.

Command	Jumps to
Open General	General section
Open Appearance	Appearance section
Open Browsing	Browsing section
Open Sidebar	Sidebar section
Open Tools	Tools section
Open Shortcuts	Shortcuts editor
Open Advanced	Advanced section

Theme, density, language, icon pack

These commands select a specific value and are useful if you want a one-press toggle between, say, light and dark themes. None have default bindings.

Theme (category Theme): System, Light, Dark Density (category Density): Compact, Comfortable, Spacious Language (category Language): System, English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), German, Spanish, French, Portuguese (Brazil) Icon pack (category IconPack): Remix, Phosphor, Tabler

Sidebar sections (category Sidebar): Home, Favorites, Drives, Cloud, Network, Recycle Bin

Korean keyboard notes

Korean (한글) keyboard layouts produce different VirtualKey values for a few punctuation keys, which can silently break shortcuts that rely on the US layout. SPAN includes a hardware-level ScanCode fallback so these shortcuts work reliably on every layout.

`Ctrl+` ` — Open Terminal

On some Korean keyboards the backtick key does not produce VirtualKey 192. SPAN detects this using ScanCode 41 and resolves it to the Open Terminal command anyway.

Tip: If Ctrl+ ` still misbehaves (for example because of a non-standard driver), the alternative Ctrl+' (single quote, ScanCode 40) is also bound to Open Terminal by default.

`Ctrl+,` — Open Settings

Similarly, the comma key is resolved via ScanCode 51 as a fallback, so Ctrl+, reliably opens Settings on Korean keyboard layouts.

`Ctrl+ㅗ`, `Ctrl+ㅎ`, etc. (한/영 mode)

When the IME is in Hangul mode, modifier shortcuts like Ctrl+C are normally eaten by the IME because the system delivers a Hangul jamo character instead of the Latin letter. SPAN resolves shortcuts from the underlying VirtualKey, so most Ctrl+ combinations keep working even in Hangul mode. If a specific shortcut fails, toggle to English mode (Right Alt / 한/영 key) and try again.

How the fallback works (under the hood)

ResolveCommand(key, ctrl, shift, alt, scanCode):
    1. Try the VirtualKey path:  "Ctrl+`"
    2. If nothing matched and scanCode is in {41, 40, 51}:
         rebuild key string from scanCode  ->  "Ctrl+`" / "Ctrl+'" / "Ctrl+,"
         look up the rebuilt string in the reverse index
    3. Return the resolved command, or null

Only three ScanCodes are currently mapped (41 -> ` , 40 -> ', 51 -> ,). If you find another punctuation key that misbehaves on your layout, please open an issue with your keyboard layout name.

System-reserved shortcuts (cannot be assigned)

These shortcuts are owned by Windows and cannot be intercepted by any desktop application, SPAN included:

Alt+F4 — Close window
Alt+Tab — Switch app
Alt+Space — Window menu
Ctrl+Alt+Delete — Security screen
Ctrl+Shift+Escape — Task Manager
Ctrl+Escape — Start menu
PrintScreen — Screen capture
Any combination with the Win key — Reserved in full for Windows Logo shortcuts

Attempting to bind any of the above in the Shortcuts editor will show a “reserved by the system” error.

Structural keys (cannot be used bare)

These keys drive the internal navigation of SPAN’s UI (list focus, dialog close, text editing, etc.) and cannot be assigned as bare (no-modifier) shortcuts:

Left, Right, Up, Down — Arrow keys
Enter, Back, Tab
Home, End
Escape

You can combine them with modifiers — e.g. Alt+Enter (Properties), Ctrl+Enter (Open in new tab), Alt+Left (Go back), Ctrl+Tab (Next tab) are all valid and used by default.

Space is treated specially: it is bound to Quick Look by default and may be bound bare, but if you want it for a custom action you should give it a modifier (e.g. Ctrl+Space).