Notability Keyboard Shortcuts
Notability's shortcuts split between two genuinely different input paradigms it supports simultaneously — Apple Pencil-driven handwriting and typed text — with a comparatively small set of physical-keyboard shortcuts layered on top of what's primarily a touch-and-stylus-driven app on iPad. Its distinguishing feature, synced audio recording that links your handwritten or typed notes to the exact moment in an audio recording when you wrote them, has its own dedicated controls though limited default keyboard bindings, since starting and reviewing a recording is typically a tap-driven action. On Mac, a physical keyboard unlocks a more complete shortcut set than the iPad version typically exposes. This page is aimed at students and professionals using Notability primarily for lecture or meeting note-taking with synced audio, rather than someone using it as a pure typing app, since the audio-sync feature is genuinely what distinguishes it from simpler note apps and shapes how the rest of the interface is designed around it. If you're on iPad without a hardware keyboard attached, expect to rely on the on-screen tool icons for most of what's listed here — the shortcuts become meaningfully more useful once a physical keyboard, whether on Mac or an iPad with a keyboard case, is actually part of your setup.
Tool Switching
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switch to Pen tool | — | Cmd+P (or tap pen icon on iPad) | Activates the Pen tool for handwritten notes with Apple Pencil or a connected stylus, Notability's primary and most-used input method for many users. |
| Switch to Highlighter tool | — | Cmd+H (or tap highlighter icon) | Brings up the Highlighter, laying semi-transparent color directly over existing handwritten or typed content, the standard tool for annotating a PDF or reviewing previously typed notes. |
| Switch to Eraser tool | — | Cmd+E (or tap eraser icon) | Activates the Eraser tool for removing handwritten ink strokes, with options in the tool settings for erasing by stroke (removing an entire pen stroke with one tap) versus pixel-based erasing of just the touched area. |
| Switch to Text tool | — | Cmd+T (or tap text icon) | Activates the Text tool for typing regular text boxes anywhere on the note page, usable alongside handwritten content on the same page rather than as a separate mutually exclusive mode. |
| Switch to Selection tool | — | Cmd+S variant depends on version, or tap lasso icon | Activates the Selection (lasso) tool for selecting handwritten strokes or objects to move, resize, or delete as a group, distinct from selecting typed text which uses standard text-selection behavior instead. |
| Switch to Shape tool | — | Tap shape icon, no universal keyboard default | Activates the Shape tool, which recognizes and auto-straightens roughly-drawn geometric shapes like rectangles, circles, and arrows into cleaner versions, useful for quick diagrams within otherwise handwritten notes. |
Note Navigation
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create new note | — | Cmd+N | Creates a new blank note within the current subject/divider, ready for immediate writing or typing. |
| Search across all notes | — | Cmd+F | Opens search across the entire notes library, including searching within handwritten content via Notability's handwriting recognition, not just typed text. |
| Go to next note | — | Cmd+] (varies by version) | Moves to the next note within the current subject or divider, useful for reviewing a sequence of related notes without returning to the note list each time. |
| Add new page to current note | — | Cmd+Shift+N (varies) | Appends a new blank page to the end of the currently open note, distinct from creating an entirely new separate note, useful for continuing a long-running note across multiple pages, such as an ongoing lecture series within one subject. |
Audio Recording
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start/stop audio recording | — | Tap record button, no universal keyboard default | Begins or ends Notability's signature synced audio recording, linking subsequently written or typed notes to the exact timestamp in the recording — primarily a tap-driven action without a consistently documented default keyboard shortcut across versions. |
| Play audio from a specific note point | — | Tap the note content, no keyboard default | Tapping directly on a piece of handwritten or typed content jumps audio playback to the exact moment that content was originally written, Notability's core synced-note feature, inherently a touch-driven interaction rather than a keyboard-shortcut-driven one. |
| Adjust audio playback speed | — | Tap speed control in playback bar, no keyboard default | Changes how fast recorded audio plays back relative to real time, letting you review a long lecture recording more quickly at 1.5x or 2x speed, or slow down a fast or unclear section for careful review, all through the playback bar's speed control rather than a keyboard shortcut. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do several shortcuts note 'no universal keyboard default'?
Notability originated as, and remains primarily, an iPad app built around Apple Pencil and touch interaction, with its Mac version's keyboard shortcut coverage being comparatively less complete than a Mac-native application built keyboard-first from the ground up — several core interactions (starting a recording, tapping to sync playback to a note point) are fundamentally touch/tap gestures without a fully documented keyboard equivalent across all versions.
Does handwriting search actually work, or does it only search typed text?
Notability includes handwriting recognition specifically to make Search (Cmd+F) work across handwritten content too, not just typed text — the app analyzes your handwriting in the background and builds a searchable index from its best interpretation, though search accuracy for handwritten content depends on how legible your specific handwriting is, and it's meaningfully less reliable than searching cleanly typed text.
What's the actual point of stroke-based versus pixel-based erasing?
Stroke-based erasing removes an entire continuous pen stroke with a single tap or touch, treating each stroke as one atomic unit regardless of how long or complex it is — faster for removing whole words or shapes quickly. Pixel-based erasing instead removes ink only from the specific area actually touched by the eraser, similar to a traditional physical eraser, useful for more surgical corrections like removing just part of a letter without affecting the rest of a word.
What's the difference between adding a page and creating a new note?
Adding a page extends the current note's content while keeping it as one single continuous note object with its associated audio recording (if any) spanning across all of its pages. Creating a new note instead starts an entirely separate note with its own independent title, content, and audio recording — the right choice depends on whether the new content genuinely belongs to the same ongoing session or represents a distinct topic.
Does adjusting playback speed affect the accuracy of the timestamp sync with my notes?
No — the underlying sync mapping between a specific point in your handwritten or typed note and its corresponding moment in the audio recording is based on the original real-time recording timestamps, not on whatever speed you're currently listening at, so tapping a note point jumps to the correct original moment in the recording regardless of what playback speed you've set for listening.
Can I quickly switch pen colors while writing with a shortcut in Notability?
Not through a keyboard shortcut specifically, since Notability is primarily an iPad and Apple Pencil app — tapping the pen tool's color swatch opens the color picker directly, and Notability remembers your last several used colors for quick reselection without needing to reopen the full picker each time.