Controls✎

Every key, mouse, trackpad and touch gesture the canvas understands.

Verified

This page is the keyboard, the mouse and touch. The buttons are on Toolbars, which draws each bar with every control named under it.

Keys and gestures

What are you using?

DesktopMobile (Webapp)

Keys act on the canvas, and do nothing while you are typing in a field. Ctrl is ⌘ on a Mac. Escape closes whatever is open — a menu, a panel, the preview.

Key	What it does
`Ctrl` + `Z`	Undo
`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `Z`, `Ctrl` + `Y`	Redo
`Ctrl` + `S`	Compile the open graph
`Ctrl` + `A`	Select everything in the graph on screen
`Ctrl` + `C`, `Ctrl` + `X`, `Ctrl` + `V`	Copy, cut, paste. A function brings its graph and a comment brings what it is drawn around. The paste lands with its top-left corner at the pointer, or offset from the original when the pointer is off the canvas
`Ctrl` + `D`	Duplicate the selection, at the pointer
`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `L`	Realign the graph on screen
`Delete`, `Backspace`	Delete the selection. A function takes its graph, and asks first
`A`	Align the selection, walking it in the order you picked it
`C`	Comment around the selection, or an empty one if nothing is selected
`P`	Preview the Luau the selection compiles to. With nothing selected: the function on screen, or the whole script

Info

While a compile runs outside Dynamic the canvas is locked; only Ctrl + A, Ctrl + C and P work.

A long press is a right-click and a double tap is a double-click, everywhere — so every gesture in the sections below has a touch version. An Apple Pencil works the same way, and draws a marquee as a mouse does.

Gesture	What it does
Drag empty space with one finger	Pan
Tap empty space	Clear the selection
Two fingers	Pinch to zoom, drag to pan
Press and hold empty space, then drag	Marquee select
Press and hold empty space, then lift	Node menu, where you held
Press and hold with two fingers, then lift	The node picker, as `Ctrl` + right-click opens
Tap a node in the node picker	Preview it. Double tap it, tap Spawn node, or hold and drag it onto the graph to place it
Long press a node or a pin	Its menu, as a right-click opens
Press and hold a variable, a file or a tab, then drag	Drag it, as a mouse does — onto the graph, into a folder
Press and hold a variable, a file or a tab, then lift	Its menu, if it has one
Undo and Redo, under the graph	As `Ctrl` + `Z` and `Ctrl` + `Y` do
Align, Copy, Cut, Duplicate, Delete, Paste, under the graph	What their shortcuts do, to the selection. Node Design's logic graph has the same bar. Icons or words: Settings → Editor → Action buttons
Preview and Logic, in Node Design	Show the node, or its logic, with the whole editor to itself
Double tap	Open a graph from the tree, add a reroute knot, rename a comment
Drag a node, or from a pin	As with a mouse
Project, Variables and Inspector, under the graph	Slide that panel out over the graph, one at a time
The search button beside Contents, in these pages	Search the docs, as `Ctrl` + `K` does

Info

An iPad with a keyboard takes the Desktop shortcuts as well, with ⌘ for Ctrl.

Aligning

A lines a selection up, walking it in the order you picked it. The first node — the anchor, drawn with a heavier ring — never moves.

From there it follows the wires through the rest of the selection, and each node lines up on the neighbour it was reached from. So a chain straightens hop by hop — a source, a knot and the node the knot feeds all come out flat, even though the far end was never wired to the anchor, and whatever order you picked them in. A selected node with no wired path to the anchor takes its top edge.

Where two nodes are wired, the pins line up rather than the boxes. That is the difference that matters at a reroute knot: a knot is a dot with both pins at its centre and the node it feeds has its input some way down a header, so levelling the boxes would leave every wire through it bent.

Info

Nothing moves sideways — a node's column says when it runs. Use Realign to rebuild the columns. Comments stay put.

The canvas

Gesture	What it does
Scroll	Zoom towards the pointer, or pan on a Mac or iPad. Settings → Editor → Scrolling the graph changes it
Pinch, or `Ctrl` + scroll	Zoom, towards the pointer
Scroll sideways	Pan
Middle-drag, or `Alt` + drag	Pan
Drag on empty space	Marquee select
`Shift` or `Ctrl` + drag on empty space	Marquee adds to the selection
Click empty space	Clear the selection
Right-click empty space	Node menu, at the point you clicked

Nodes

Gesture	What it does
Drag	Move it, and everything selected with it
`Shift` while dragging	Snap to the grid; the rest keep their offsets
`Shift` or `Ctrl` + click	Add to or remove from the selection
Right-click	Node menu
Double-click a Declare Function, or its ƒ	Open the function's graph

Functions and tabs

Gesture	What it does
The arrow beside a `.nodescript` in the tree	List its functions
Double-click a function in the tree	Open its graph in a tab
Click a function in the Variables panel	Open its graph
Middle-click a tab	Close it

Panels

Gesture	What it does
Drag a panel by its heading	Move it to another edge
Drag a panel onto the graph	It becomes a window there
The ⇥ button on a panel	The same, without the drag
Drag the divider beside a dock	Resize it; double-click to collapse
Settings → Variables → Window	The same choice, remembered as a preference
Drag the window by its heading	Move it
Drag either corner of the window	Resize it. The top-left moves it as it shrinks, so the far corner stays put
The ⇤ button on the window	Put it back in the dock it came from

Node Design

Gesture	What it does
Drag a type from the palette onto the node	Add a pin: the left half an input, the right half an output
Click a pin, or its label	Edit its name, type, default and tooltip
`Ctrl` + `S`	Save the node
Right-click the logic canvas	Add a node to the node's logic
`A`, `Ctrl` + `Shift` + `L`	Align and realign in the logic canvas, as on a graph
`Ctrl` + `C`, `X`, `V`, `D`	Copy, cut, paste and duplicate in the logic canvas, on the same terms as a graph. Node Inputs and Node Outputs are left out of all four: there is one of each and they are already here

Pins and wires

Gesture	What it does
Drag from a pin	Start a wire; everything it cannot reach dims
Drop a wire on empty space	Node menu, showing only what can take that wire
Drop a wire from a service	That service's methods, listed first — see Services and their methods
Type a service or class name in the menu	ReplicatedStorage gives Get Service; Part gives New Instance, each filled in
Drag from a wired input	Pick that wire up and move it somewhere else
`Shift` + click a pin	Disconnect everything on it
Right-click a pin	Pin menu — split a struct, promote to a variable
`Shift` or `Alt` + click a wire	Disconnect it
Double-click a wire	Add a reroute knot where you clicked

Advanced shortcuts

Two that are worth knowing and neither of which you need: each is a slower, fuller way of asking something the editor already answers quickly.

Gesture	What it does
`Ctrl` + right-click the canvas	The node picker: the same list as the menu, with each node drawn as you walk it. For when you remember the shape rather than the name. Click a node, press Spawn node, or drag it onto the graph
`Ctrl` + `K`, in the editor	Jump to a documentation page. Pick one and the docs window opens on it
`Ctrl` + `K`, in the docs	The search palette, over the page

Searching

Typed	What you get
`and`, `or`, `not`, `==`, `..`, `#`	The node that writes that Luau, first in the list
`if`, `else`, `elseif`	Branch
`for`, `while`, `break`, `return`	The loop or the flow node that writes it
Another name for a node: `Define Function`, `Define Type`, `Sleep`, `Log`	That node, below any node actually called it
A service or class name	Get Service or New Instance, filled in
A method name	`RunService:IsServer` and the rest of that service's methods

Comments

Gesture	What it does
`C`	A new comment: around the selection, or empty where you are looking
Right-click the canvas	Add comment, placed where you clicked
Drag	Move it, and the nodes that were inside it when you grabbed it
`Ctrl` + `C`	Copy it, and the nodes it is drawn around
Select it	Its colour, in the Inspector: eight swatches or a hex you type
Double-click	Edit the text. Enter adds a line; Esc, Ctrl+Enter or a click away saves
Drag the bottom-right corner	Resize
Drag the top-left corner	Resize, keeping the bottom-right where it is

Dragging things in

Gesture	What it does
Drag a variable from the panel	Get Variable
`Ctrl` while dropping it	Set Variable instead
Drag a file from the project tree	Offers what can be done with it
Double-click a `.nodescript` in the tree	Open it

Last reviewed 18 September 2026 by @neopolitans