ClapperBoard leans on single-key shortcuts for the things you do hundreds of times while timing a project — nudging the playhead, setting a page boundary, cropping. They need no modifier, which makes them fast, but it also means they stand aside whenever you are typing. See Notes if a key seems to do nothing.
Playback
Shortcut
Action
Space
Play or pause
Moving the playhead
Every movement has a mirrored pair: ← goes back, → goes forward, and the modifiers change how far.
Fine movement
Shortcut
Action
←→
Nudge by 0.1 seconds
⌥←⌥→
Nudge by 0.01 seconds
⌥⌃←⌥⌃→
Nudge to the previous or next tenth-second tick
Coarse movement
Shortcut
Action
⌘←⌘→
Move by one second
⌃⌘←⌃⌘→
Move to the previous or next whole second
⌥⌃⌘←⌥⌃⌘→
Jump to the previous or next page
⇧⌘←⇧⌘→
Jump to the previous or next audio track
⌥⇧⌘←⌥⇧⌘→
Go to the start or the end
Jumping to a specific place
Shortcut
Action
⌥⌘G
Go to a page number or a time
Timing pages
These retime the current page's boundary to wherever the playhead sits — the core gesture of matching pages to music or narration.
Shortcut
Action
↑
Start the current page here
↓
End the current page here
⌥↑⌥↓
Same, but with the opposite resize behaviour for this one action
Holding ⌥ flips between cascading and absorbing resize for that single action, without changing the project's setting. If the project is set to cascading, ⌥↑ absorbs instead — and the other way round.
Editing
Shortcut
Action
⌘Z
Undo
⇧⌘Z
Redo
D
Duplicate the current item
Delete
Remove the selected items, in reorder mode
⌘Return
Save the words, in Edit Text
Cropping
Shortcut
Action
Return
Crop to the selected rectangle
Esc
Deselect, or clear the last crop rectangle
⌫
Remove the selected crop rectangles or overlays
⌘X
Cut the crop rectangle
⌘C
Copy the crop rectangle
⌘V
Paste the crop rectangle
⌥⌘V
Paste row first
⌥⌘Return
Apply every staged crop in the project
View
Shortcut
Action
⌘=
Zoom in
⌘-
Zoom out
⌘0
Actual size
T
Cycle the playhead readout detail
Tools
Shortcut
Action
S
Split the item at the playhead, in the selected lane
Stop-motion
These apply only to projects marked as stop-motion, in Render options. In other projects the commands stay visible but inactive.
Shortcut
Action
,
Step to the previous frame
.
Step to the next frame
⇧⌘O
Show or hide onion skinning
⇧⌘L
Loop playback
File and export
Shortcut
Action
⌘E
Export video
⌘.
Cancel the export, or the operation in progress
Help
Shortcut
Action
⌘?
Open the Help menu
The menu holds two entries: one opens this manual, the other comes straight to this page.
Notes
When a single-key shortcut does nothing
Two things stand them down, both on purpose.
A project window is not the front one. These keys belong to a project, so with Settings or another app in front there is nothing for them to act on. Bring the project window forward — anywhere in it will do.
You are typing. While a dialog is open, or while you are renaming a lane, the keys a text field needs go to the field: the letters and Space type, the arrows move the insertion point rather than the playhead, and ⌘X, ⌘C and ⌘V cut, copy and paste the text rather than a crop rectangle. Close the dialog, or finish the name, and they go back to meaning what this page says.
Frame stepping
, and . are the standard previous and next frame keys across editing software.