Keyboard shortcuts are like the keys on a piano; and the more of them you know, the better you can “play” any application that has them; like our favorite application, Roam Research, for example.

So that we are speaking the same language, keyboard shortcuts are combinations of keys that trigger something you would normally do with the mouse: e.g. bold =  Command/Control + B. They are not things like $$E=mc^2$$ __E=mc2__ ; which is more “markdown” and I will get more into if people become interested.

Commands like Control-Z and Control-C, I believe, almost everyone knows…and a dozen others, I bet. So, instead of having to peck around an application to find out where the UNDO button is to undo a whoopsie….you type two keys and all is forgiven.

Some applications let you change their command shortcuts and create your own unique shortcuts—ones that you know you can remember—which is great. Others, like Roam Research, don’t…and that’s ok. Sometimes limits are good! 

So, after a LOT of research, testing, and playing around with the formats, I’ve made available my personal official table of Roam shortcuts. Six separate versions: Mac OS, Windows OS, light, dark, PNG, PDF

This table is inspired by the “periodic table” in that it visually groups different Roam shortcuts together in a way that hopefully makes it easier to search or memorize. I tried to group similar actions or key combinations together using fonts and typography that will guide your eyes.

My Roam Shortcuts are organized in four main categories:

1. Text & Data Entry – these are shortcuts that you’d likely use while adding information into your graph.
2. Lists & Blocks – use these shortcuts to control entire blocks of text without your mouse
3. Navigating Roam – “3d” movement within the Roam graph is what this group controls
4. Visual Display – similar to navigating, this group controls the “visual” parts of the graph and how you see it.

Within each category, the color shades represent sub-category groupings of Roam shortcuts.

MY overlying objective to collect all the ways that allow me to use Roam Research WITHOUT USING THE MOUSE…or very little.

There are over 70 Roam shortcuts in each of six different versions. 

The PNG version is for people who might want to paste it into their Roam graph for quick access, or bookmark it in their browser. 

The PDF version is for people who want to search for specific words or want to print a hard copy to put next to their computer. 

The light and dark versions are just that and are just to give you a choice. 🙂

The table includes other “non-native” Roam shortcuts for popular addon extensions like [[Roam42]], [[Roam Highlighter]], [[Roam Toolkit]], etc. More will become available as [[Roam Depot]] starts to gain traction.

If anyone is curious, the table was designed using Abobe XD —which I am absolutely in LOVE with— so that it would be easy to keep updated as Roam develops. Just so you know, I plan to keep track of Roam shortcuts as well as adding the most popular addon extensions available via @RoamDepot, Google Chrome, etc.

Don’t be shy about pointing out any errors in the comments below.

To your health and success…

TL;DR – tasty Roam morsels below. Get them today before the price goes up!