⌨️ Hotkeys
PixWit hotkeys fall into two categories:
- Customizable: change them in Settings → Hotkey Settings. There are three groups and 16 entries in total; every entry can be cleared to disable it, and everything can be restored to defaults in one click. The entry point is right-click the tray icon → Settings... → ⌨️ Hotkey Settings (the tray menu only contains "Settings...", with no separate hotkey entry).
- Built into the system: fixed behavior that cannot be modified. This includes an on-demand Esc logic, plus the keyboard controls inside each window.
📷 Illustration placeholder (Figure 1)
Hotkey Settings page — showing the three groups with 16 entries, the × clear button on each entry, and "Restore Defaults" To add the image: put the file at docs/public/images/shortcuts-settings.webp, then delete this tip block and uncomment the next line
Hotkey Quick Reference
| Feature | Default hotkey |
|---|---|
| Screenshot/Sticky Note | F1 |
| Record (start/stop) | F3 |
| Pause/Resume recording | F4 (only works while recording) |
| Clipboard sticky | Ctrl+Shift+V |
| Save to folder | Ctrl+Alt+S |
| Text Recognition (OCR) | Ctrl+O |
| Extract Table | Ctrl+E |
| Extract formula | Ctrl+M |
| Translation | Ctrl+T |
| Smart analysis | Ctrl+I |
| AI dialog | Ctrl+D |
These 11 entries are the ones you will use most in daily work; the full defaults for all three groups (16 entries) are in the next section.
1. Customizable Global Hotkeys (Defaults)
Settings → ⌨️ Hotkey Settings, three groups with 16 entries in total
| Group | Name | Default hotkey |
|---|---|---|
| ⌨️ Hotkey detail settings | 📷 Screenshot/Sticky Note | F1 |
| 🎥 Record (start/stop) | F3 | |
| ⏸️ Pause/Resume recording | F4 (only works while recording) | |
| 🖼️ Clipboard sticky | Ctrl+Shift+V | |
| 📁 Save to folder | Ctrl+Alt+S | |
| 🎨 Recording annotation hotkeys | 📏 Draw line | Alt+I |
| ➡️ Draw arrow | Alt+J | |
| ⭕ Draw circle | Alt+O | |
| 🟦 Draw rectangle | Alt+K | |
| ❌ Exit annotation | Alt+Esc | |
| 🤖 AI feature hotkeys | 📝 Text Recognition (OCR) | Ctrl+O |
| 📊 Extract Table | Ctrl+E | |
| 📐 Extract formula | Ctrl+M | |
| 🌐 Translation | Ctrl+T | |
| 💡 Smart analysis | Ctrl+I | |
| 💬 AI dialog | Ctrl+D |
About customization:
- Each entry can be cleared with the × on its right (= disables that hotkey); the "Restore Defaults" button on the page restores all defaults in one click.
- Only combinations of letters, digits, F1-F12 and common function keys (Space, Enter, Esc, Tab, arrow keys, etc.) are supported; pressing an unsupported key shows the toast
This key is not currently supported as a global hotkey, so you need to pick a different one. - The settings page does not check for duplicates: assigning the same combination to two features does not raise an error immediately; only when registration fails does the tray show a "Hotkey conflict" toast. If the conflicting hotkeys are recording-related, a
Recording disabled - hotkey conflictdialog appears. - Changes are only saved after you click Apply or OK at the bottom of Settings (the bottom bar only has Apply / OK / Cancel).
- Screenshots and recording use keyboard hotkeys; the
Win + mouse buttontrigger from earlier versions has been removed. - Hotkeys failing inside a game has two causes: when the game is in exclusive fullscreen, the selection overlay cannot cover the game and the capture may be entirely black, in which case PixWit automatically falls back to a full-screen screenshot and shows a toast (to use Region capture, switch the game to "borderless window"); if all hotkeys fail in the game but recover immediately when you switch to the desktop, the game is blocking application hotkeys via Raw Input (Windows behavior that cannot be worked around). See the FAQ "No response when pressing the screenshot hotkey in a game?" for details.
2. Built-in Esc Logic (Not Customizable)
The app has a built-in on-demand Esc logic: it only takes effect in scenarios such as screenshots, recording and scrolling screenshots — pressing Esc while recording only exits the annotation tool and does not stop recording.
3. Screenshot Selection
| Hotkey | Function |
|---|---|
| Tab | Cycle through UI detection modes |
| Enter / Numpad Enter / Space | Confirm the detected window / control as the selection |
| Enter / Numpad Enter | Quick confirm (copy + save + close) |
| Ctrl+C | Copy the selection and enter the edit window |
| Ctrl+X | Copy the selection and close |
| Ctrl+S | Save the selection and close |
| Esc | Cancel the screenshot / cancel the selection |
| Arrow keys | After selecting, fine-tune one side of the selection: expands outward by 1px by default, Shift shrinks inward by 1px, Ctrl steps by 10px |
| Mouse wheel | When detection is enabled, cycle through window levels (scroll up = smaller / more inner, scroll down = larger / more outer; every notch switches to a genuinely different size) |
| C | Color picker: copy the current color to the clipboard and exit the screenshot window (color value only, no coordinates) |
| Shift (press alone) | Color picker: switch the color format (RGB / #HEX / HEX) |
| R | Color picker: reset the color pick offset |
| Arrow keys / Shift+Arrow keys | Color picker: fine-tune by 1px / fast move by 10px |
The selection also supports two mouse actions: right-click = cancel this screenshot (no copy, no save); double-click = quick confirm (copy + save to history + close the window).
4. Screenshot Edit Window
| Hotkey | Function |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+S | Save (then closes automatically) |
| Ctrl+C | Copy (the window stays open) |
| Ctrl+X | Copy and close |
| Enter | Copy and close |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo (there is no redo) |
| Delete / Backspace | Delete the selected annotation |
| Tab | Cycle through overlapping annotation objects |
| Space (hold) | Hand tool: move the window |
| Esc | Cancel editing → cancel tool selection → close the window |
| Mouse wheel | Adjust line thickness / fill opacity |
| Shift + wheel | Adjust opacity |
| Shift + drag | Lines/arrows snap to 15°, circles/rectangles are constrained to a perfect circle/square |
| Polyline: Enter / double-click / right-click | Finish the polyline |
| Polyline: Esc | Cancel the polyline |
| Polyline: Backspace / Delete | Delete the previous polyline point |
| Number: 0-9 / Backspace / Enter / Esc | Enter digits / delete backward / confirm / cancel |
| Text: Ctrl+Enter | Confirm text |
| Text: Esc | Cancel text |
| Text: Ctrl+Z | Cancel text editing |
| Text: wheel / Shift+wheel | Adjust font size / adjust the opacity of the "bordered" background box |
In the edit window, right-click means "exit immediately, without saving or copying"; when it has no other meaning, double-click means "copy and close".
5. Sticky Note Window
| Hotkey | Function |
|---|---|
| Space | Enter edit mode (not responsive in crop mode) |
| Esc | Close the sticky note / exit cropping |
| Enter | Confirm the crop in crop mode |
| Ctrl+S / Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X | Save / copy / copy and close |
| Ctrl+0 / Ctrl+= / Ctrl+- | Reset zoom / zoom in / zoom out |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo the crop |
| Ctrl + wheel | Adjust opacity |
| Wheel | Zoom |
Also: double-click a sticky note = copy to the clipboard and close the window; Shift + click the image edge = enter crop mode.
6. Image Viewer
| Hotkey | Function |
|---|---|
| Space (hold) | Temporary hand tool for panning (drag with the left button) |
| Space + wheel | Zoom |
| Ctrl + wheel | Force zoom (in any mode) |
| Wheel | Zoom centered on the mouse position (view mode) |
| Double-click | Toggle between fit-to-window and 100% original size |
| 0 / 1 | Fit to window / actual size |
| F | Toggle fullscreen |
| + / = | Zoom in |
| - | Zoom out |
| ← / → | Previous / next image (view and annotation modes; Ctrl+←/→ works in any mode) |
| PageUp / PageDown | Previous / next image (any mode) |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo |
| Ctrl+S | Save |
| Ctrl+P | |
| Delete / Backspace | Delete the selected annotation object (does not delete the image) |
| Middle click | Jump to 100% original size |
| Esc | Step back out level by level: annotation mode → crop → perspective correction → close the window |
7. Video Trimming
The video timeline has two keyboard sets, and which one is active depends on whether the timeline has focus:
| When the timeline does not have focus | Function |
|---|---|
| ← / → | Start time −/+ 0.1 second (Ctrl for 0.5 second) |
| ↑ / ↓ | End time +/− 0.1 second (Ctrl for 0.5 second) |
| Ctrl+Enter | Perform the trim |
| Esc | Exit fullscreen; when not fullscreen, close the window |
| When the timeline has focus | Function |
|---|---|
| ← / → | Start time ∓0.1 second (Shift for 1 second) |
| ↑ / ↓ | End time ±0.1 second (Shift for 1 second) |
| Ctrl + arrow keys | Move the whole selection |
| , / . | Move the preview position by 0.1 second (without changing the selection) |
| Ctrl + wheel | Zoom the timeline |
8. Recording Annotation
| Hotkey | Function |
|---|---|
| Esc | Cancel the current annotation tool and restore click-through |
| Shift + drag | Constrain to a perfect circle / square |
9. AI Dialog
| Hotkey | Function |
|---|---|
| Enter | Send the message |
| Shift+Enter | New line |
| Esc | Close the window |
10. Text Annotation Edit Box
| Hotkey | Function |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Enter | Confirm |
| Esc | Cancel editing |
| Ctrl+Z | Cancel editing |
| Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X | With text selected = copy/cut the text; with nothing selected = confirm the text first, then copy the screenshot / copy and close |
11. Scrolling Screenshot
| Hotkey | Function |
|---|---|
| Enter | Stop the Scrolling Screenshot and produce the image |
| Esc | Cancel the Scrolling Screenshot |
| ↓ / Shift+↓ | Extend downward by 5px / 50px during manual adjustment |
| ↑ / Shift+↑ | Shrink upward by 5px / 50px during manual adjustment |
12. Result Windows
| Window | Hotkey | Function |
|---|---|---|
| OCR result | Ctrl+C | Copy the recognized text |
| OCR result | Ctrl+T | Toggle always on top |
| OCR result / Translation result | Esc | Close the window |
| GIF editing | Delete | Delete the selected frame |
| GIF editing | Ctrl+A | Select all frames on the frame editing page |
Customizing Hotkeys
- Right-click the tray icon → Settings...
- Choose ⌨️ Hotkey Settings in the left navigation (three groups with 16 entries in total: ⌨️ Hotkey detail settings / 🎨 Recording annotation hotkeys / 🤖 AI feature hotkeys)
- Click the entry you want to change
- Press the new key combination (pressing an unsupported key shows the toast
This key is not currently supported as a global hotkey) - Click Apply or OK at the bottom to save
Avoiding conflicts
If a hotkey conflicts with other software, a "Hotkey conflict" toast appears in the tray; please choose another combination (the settings page itself does not check for duplicates).
Built-in system hotkeys cannot be changed
The hotkeys marked "built into the system" in the tables above cannot be modified in Settings — they are fixed behavior. If you need to adjust them, please send us feedback.