DaVinci Resolve Keyboard Shortcuts
DaVinci Resolve is organized into distinct Pages — Cut, Edit, Fusion, Color, Fairlight, Deliver — each representing a different stage of post-production, and critically, each Page has its own largely separate set of keyboard shortcuts tailored to that discipline's specific workflow, meaning a shortcut that trims a clip in the Edit page may do something entirely different or nothing at all in the Color page. This Page-based shortcut segmentation is the single biggest adjustment for editors coming from Premiere Pro or Final Cut, where most shortcuts apply uniformly regardless of which panel currently has focus. Resolve also offers selectable keyboard layout presets (including a Final Cut 7-style and an Avid-style mapping) specifically to ease migration from those tools, though the shortcuts documented here reflect Resolve's own default scheme. On the keyboard, Windows and Linux rely on Ctrl for these bindings while Mac substitutes Cmd, and the two layouts otherwise stay close enough that switching platforms rarely requires relearning anything beyond that single swap. This Page-based structure means learning Resolve's shortcuts is less like memorizing one flat list and more like learning several related but distinct dialects, and editors migrating from a single-workspace tool often find it helpful to treat each Page as its own mini onboarding rather than assuming fluency in one automatically carries over to the next. The Edit page is the natural starting point for most editors since trimming and arranging clips is the most universal editing task, with the Color page's shortcuts becoming relevant only once a cut is locked and color correction begins, and Fairlight and Fusion shortcuts mattering primarily for editors who handle audio mixing or motion graphics compositing within Resolve itself rather than exporting to a dedicated audio or VFX tool.
Edit Page Trimming
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blade (cut) tool | B | B | Turns the pointer into Blade Edit Mode so the next click anywhere on a timeline clip slices it into two independently editable clips at that frame, with each half retaining its own separate color grade node tree and Fusion effects rather than sharing one — essential to know before cutting a clip that already has grading work applied. |
| Selection tool (Arrow) | A | A | Switches back to the standard Selection tool for clicking and dragging clips, the default tool you return to after using Blade or Trim. |
| Trim Edit tool | T | T | Activates the Trim Edit tool for adjusting a clip's in or out point directly on the timeline, including ripple and roll trim variants depending on where you click relative to an edit point. |
| Ripple delete selected clip | Shift+Delete (or X) | Shift+Delete (or X) | On the Edit page, removes the selected clip and ripples every later clip on that track backward to fill the space, keeping downstream color grades and Fusion compositions correctly attached to their clips since nothing shifts relative position except to close the gap — a standard Delete instead leaves a blank gap that would otherwise need manual closing. |
| Dynamic Trim mode | W | W | Activates Dynamic Trim mode, letting you adjust an edit point's timing live during playback using J/K/L, rather than statically dragging a clip's edge while playback is stopped — useful for judging exactly how a trim adjustment feels in motion before committing to it. |
| Insert clip at playhead | F9 (or drag from Media Pool) | F9 | Inserts the clip currently loaded in the Source Viewer at the playhead position on the active track, pushing existing content later to make room, following the same three-point editing conventions found across most professional NLEs. |
Playback Navigation
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Play / Pause | Space | Space | Starts or stops playback of whatever timeline or clip currently has focus in the viewer. Because Resolve is organized into separate Pages for editing, color, Fusion, and Fairlight, this same spacebar behavior carries over identically to every one of them, so switching from trimming a cut on the Edit page to grading it on the Color page never requires relearning basic transport control. |
| JKL shuttle playback | J / K / L | J / K / L | J reverses playback, L runs it forward, and K brings it to a stop; tapping J or L again on top of an already-moving playhead ramps the speed up further in that same direction — the three-key transport layout that traces straight back to tape-editing decks and now appears in nearly every professional NLE. |
| Go to start of timeline | Home | Home | Moves the playhead to the very beginning of the current timeline in one action. |
| Go to end of timeline | End | End | Jumps the playhead all the way to the final frame of the last clip sitting on the current timeline. |
Color Page
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add serial color node | Alt+S (Color page) | Option+S | Adds one more link in the currently active clip's Color page node chain, keeping every grading step discrete, reorderable, and individually toggleable rather than lumped into one uniform panel of sliders. |
| Reset grade on selected node | Shift+D (or Reset button) | Shift+D | Snaps whichever node is currently selected back to its neutral, unadjusted state without removing it from the graph — a clean restart on that one node's settings rather than deleting and rebuilding it. |
| Grab still to Gallery | Grab Still button, or Ctrl+Shift+G | Cmd+Shift+G | Captures the current frame's grade as a still reference in the Gallery panel, which can then be applied to other clips or compared against as a reference while grading elsewhere in the project. |
Markers Timeline
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add marker at playhead | M | M | Drops a colored marker at the current playhead position on the timeline, used for flagging points needing attention, sync references, or notes for collaborators. |
| Zoom in on timeline | + (Plus) | + | Increases horizontal zoom on the Edit page's timeline, useful for frame-accurate trimming work on short clips. |
| Zoom out on timeline | - (Minus) | - | Decreases horizontal timeline zoom, useful for viewing a longer span of the project at once. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why doesn't a shortcut that works in the Edit page do anything in the Color page?
Because each Page keeps its own shortcut context rather than sharing one global scheme — B for Blade means nothing on the Color page since there's nothing to cut there, and a Color page shortcut like adding a node has no counterpart on the Edit page. Editors coming from Premiere or Final Cut trip on this constantly at first, since those tools apply one consistent shortcut set no matter which panel currently has focus.
What's the actual difference between a normal delete and a ripple delete?
A normal Delete removes the selected clip but leaves an empty gap in its exact place on the timeline, preserving the timing of everything else. Ripple Delete (Shift+Delete or X) removes the clip and additionally shifts everything after it earlier to close that gap, effectively shortening the overall timeline by the removed clip's duration — the right choice when you genuinely want the edit tightened rather than just emptied at that point.
Can I switch to Premiere Pro or Final Cut style shortcuts instead of learning Resolve's own scheme?
Yes — Resolve ships with selectable keyboard layout presets (including Final Cut 7 style and Avid Media Composer style) specifically to ease migration for editors coming from those backgrounds, accessible through DaVinci Resolve > Keyboard Customization or similar menu path depending on version. This can meaningfully shortcut the learning curve, though it means online shortcut references (including this page) may not match your actual bindings if you've switched away from Resolve's own default layout.
Why does a shortcut I know from Premiere do nothing in Resolve's default keymap?
Resolve ships with its own default keyboard mapping distinct from Premiere's, and while some fundamentals overlap by convention (like J/K/L for playback), many specific bindings don't match at all. Editors migrating from Premiere can switch Resolve's keyboard layout preset (in Keyboard Customization) to a Premiere-style mapping, which reduces but doesn't entirely eliminate the need to relearn certain Resolve-specific commands that don't have a direct Premiere equivalent.
Why do the same keys sometimes do nothing when I switch from the Edit page to the Color page?
Because each Resolve Page maintains a substantially separate keymap tailored to that stage of post-production, a binding that trims a clip on the Edit page may be unassigned entirely on the Color page, where node-based grading commands take priority instead. This is intentional rather than a bug, reflecting how differently editors and colorists actually work, but it does mean shortcut fluency has to be rebuilt separately for each Page rather than assumed to transfer automatically.