You’re three citations deep into a stubborn source, the wording is finally lining up in your head — and then you reach for the mouse. By the time you’ve clicked to the next screen and back, the sentence you’d composed is gone.
You know that small stall. The click is quick; recovering the sentence it knocked loose is not. Keyboard shortcuts keep your hands where your attention already is.
I don’t expect anyone to memorize forty shortcuts, and you don’t need to. A handful of the right ones, used until they’re second nature, is what changes how a research session feels.
Where the keyboard shortcuts live, and why you can trust the list
Open the Help menu and choose Keyboard Shortcuts (in the menu it reads HotKeys — same thing). A window opens with every shortcut Evidentia knows, in two columns: Mac on the left, Windows and Linux on the right, grouped by the part of your research you’re working in.
That reference is built into Evidentia itself and ships with every version. Because it travels with the app rather than living in a separate handout someone has to keep current, the shortcuts you see always match the version in front of you. When in doubt, check that window first.
One rule covers most of them
Where Windows and Linux use Ctrl, the Mac uses ⌘ (Command). Where they use Alt, the Mac uses ⌥ (Option). A few keep Ctrl on the Mac on purpose — moving between tabs, for instance, follows the same convention your web browser already uses. Once that pattern clicks, the tables below read themselves.
Move between screens without reaching for the mouse
| Go to… | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Identify a Source | ⌥ I | Alt + I |
| Analyze Evidence | ⌥ G | Alt + G |
| Record Library | ⌥ B | Alt + B |
| Context help for the screen you’re on | F1 | F1 |
| The filter box of any list | ⌘ L or / | Ctrl + L or / |
That last row is the quiet workhorse. Drop into a long list of sources, press /, and start typing to filter — no hunting for the search box. And F1 opens help for exactly the screen you’re on, which I wrote about in Help When You Need It.
Stay in the flow while you work
The screens where you spend the most time have their own shortcuts, aimed at the actions you repeat dozens of times a session.
Identify a Source
| Do this | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Start a new Source | ⌘ ⇧ S | Ctrl + Shift + S |
| Start a new Citation | ⌘ ⇧ C | Ctrl + Shift + C |
| Open the pop-out editor for a note field | ⌘ E | Ctrl + E |
Analyze Evidence
| Do this | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Open the Date Calculator | ⌘ D | Ctrl + D |
| Generate a proof report | ⌘ G | Ctrl + G |
The Date Calculator (⌘D / Ctrl+D) is one you’d rarely stumble onto on your own. It opens in its own small window for working out an age or a date gap without leaving your analysis.
And generating a proof report (⌘G / Ctrl+G) gathers your analysis into a document built around the Genealogical Proof Standard — the methodology this whole workflow is designed to support.
Start with three, not thirty
You’ll get nothing from trying to absorb the whole list at once. Pick three that match what you do most (for many researchers that’s Alt+I to jump to Identify a Source, / to filter a list, and F1 for help) and use only those for a week. They’ll drop below conscious thought, and then you add three more. Do that for a few weeks and you’ll stop noticing the keyboard at all. It becomes part of how you work.
Keep the reference close
You don’t have to keep that window open. But the first few times you forget one, open Help → Keyboard Shortcuts, find it in the column for your platform, and use it once on the spot. That’s usually all it takes for it to stick.
New to Evidentia 3+? The interest form is the best place to follow along as this series continues.
— Ed Thompson, Evidentia Software