Markdown Shortcuts: Keyboard Shortcuts in Popular Editors
September 11, 2026 · 9 min read
Markdown Shortcuts: Keyboard Shortcuts in Popular Editors
Markdown shortcuts come in two kinds. Keyboard shortcuts wrap your selection in syntax (press Ctrl+B, get **bold**), and type-to-format triggers convert # or - as you type. Markdown itself defines neither. This cheat sheet lists both kinds for our editor, VS Code, Obsidian, Typora, GitHub, Notion, and Jira.
Two Meanings of Markdown Shortcuts
Search for "markdown shortcuts" and half the results are keybinding tables for editors. The other half are help pages from Notion, Jira, and similar apps. Those apps are rich-text editors that accept Markdown characters as a shortcut for their own formatting. Type ** around a word in Notion and the asterisks vanish, leaving bold text. The document never stores Markdown.
A Markdown editor does the opposite. Its keyboard shortcut inserts the characters and leaves them visible, because the file is the Markdown. If you want to learn the characters themselves, the Markdown cheat sheet covers syntax. This post covers only the keys and the triggers.
Markdown Shortcuts in Our Editor
Our online editor binds nine shortcuts, and Ctrl swaps for Cmd on a Mac. Each one toggles: press it once to wrap the selection, press it again on wrapped text to unwrap.
| Shortcut | Inserts | Result |
|---|---|---|
Ctrl+B | ** around selection | Bold |
Ctrl+I | _ around selection | Italic |
Ctrl+D | ~~ around selection | Strikethrough |
Ctrl+K | [selection](url) | Link |
Ctrl+E | Fenced code block | Code block |
Ctrl+Q | > at line start | Blockquote |
Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3 | # , ## , ### | Heading 1 to 3 |
Ctrl+S | Nothing | Saves the file when you're signed in |
Bullet lists, tables, and horizontal rules have toolbar buttons but no key, which is a limitation we know about. Try the shortcuts below: select a word, press Ctrl+B, and watch the asterisks appear in the left pane and the bold text in the right.
Which Keyboard Shortcuts Work in VS Code, Obsidian, and Typora?
VS Code ships two Markdown keys out of the box and gets the rest from the Markdown All in One extension. Obsidian and Typora bind formatting keys natively. Every key below is the Windows and Linux form; on macOS replace Ctrl with Cmd and Alt with Option.
| Action | VS Code (built in) | VS Code + Markdown All in One | Obsidian | Typora |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bold | none | Ctrl+B | Ctrl+B | Ctrl+B |
| Italic | none | Ctrl+I | Ctrl+I | Ctrl+I |
| Strikethrough | none | Alt+S | none by default | Alt+Shift+5 |
| Link | none | none | Ctrl+K | Ctrl+K |
| Heading level up / down | none | Ctrl+Shift+] / Ctrl+Shift+[ | none by default | Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+6, Ctrl+0 for paragraph |
| Toggle checkbox | none | Alt+C | Ctrl+L | none listed |
| Code block | none | none | none by default | Ctrl+Shift+K |
| Table | none | Format Document aligns tables | none | Ctrl+T |
| Preview | Ctrl+Shift+V | same | Ctrl+E (reading view) | Ctrl+/ (source mode) |
| Preview to the side | Ctrl+K V | same | split via command palette | n/a |
The two built-in VS Code keys come from the VS Code Markdown docs: Ctrl+Shift+V toggles the preview and Ctrl+K V opens it beside the editor. The extension column is from the Markdown All in One listing, which also adds Ctrl+M for a math environment. Our VS Code Markdown guide covers the extension in more depth.
Obsidian is the one app here where you should verify the table against your own install. Its help site documents the system editing shortcuts but leaves command hotkeys to Settings, Hotkeys, where every binding is customisable. The values above are the defaults as of the current 1.x releases when we checked.
The Obsidian cheat sheet lists the syntax those keys produce. Typora's keys come from its own shortcut reference, which also gives Ctrl+Shift+Q for a quote, Ctrl+Shift+[ for an ordered list, and Ctrl+Shift+] for a bulleted one.
How Do You Format Markdown Faster in GitHub Comments?
Every GitHub comment box, issue description, and pull request body has its own Markdown shortcut set, documented under Comments in GitHub's keyboard shortcuts. These are the ones worth learning:
| Shortcut | Inserts |
|---|---|
Ctrl+B | Bold |
Ctrl+I | Italic |
Ctrl+E | Inline code |
Ctrl+K | Link |
Ctrl+V over selected text | Wraps the selection as a link to the pasted URL |
Ctrl+Shift+7 | Ordered list |
Ctrl+Shift+8 | Unordered list |
Ctrl+Shift+. | Quote |
Ctrl+Shift+P | Switch between Write and Preview |
Ctrl+Enter | Submit the comment |
The paste-over-selection trick is the one most people miss. Select a word, paste a URL, and GitHub writes [word](url) for you. Note that Ctrl+E means inline code on GitHub, a code block in our editor, and reading view in Obsidian. That is why no key is portable beyond Ctrl+B and Ctrl+I.
Type-to-Format Triggers in Notion and Jira
Rich-text apps convert Markdown characters the moment you type the trailing space or closing marker. The triggers overlap with real Markdown but are not identical, so a habit from one app can misfire in another.
| Trigger | Notion | Jira Cloud |
|---|---|---|
# , ## , ### | Heading 1 to 3 | Headings 1 to 6 |
- , * , + | Bulleted list | Bulleted list (* or -) |
1. | Numbered list | Numbered list |
[] | To-do checkbox | Action item |
> | Toggle list | Block quote |
" | Quote block | not a trigger |
**text** | Bold | Bold (also __text__) |
*text* | Italic | Italic (also _text_) |
~text~ | Strikethrough | ~~text~~ for strikethrough |
``` | Code block | Code block |
--- | Divider | Divider (also ***) |
The Notion column is from Notion's keyboard shortcuts page. The biggest surprise is >, which makes a toggle block in Notion but a quote in Jira and in every Markdown editor. Notion's quote trigger is a double-quote character. The Jira column comes from Atlassian's Markdown and keyboard shortcuts page. Jira also binds Ctrl+Shift+K for a link and Ctrl+Shift+M for code, different keys from the GitHub set. See the Notion Markdown guide for what Notion does with pasted Markdown.
Why Markdown Shortcuts Differ Between Apps
The CommonMark spec describes how text becomes HTML and says nothing about keyboards. So each app maps its own keys, and the only convention that survived is the one inherited from word processors: Ctrl+B and Ctrl+I. Even Ctrl+K splits, meaning link in Obsidian, Typora, GitHub, and our editor, but nothing in stock VS Code, where it starts a chord.
That is why the type-to-format triggers are the more portable Markdown shortcut. # for a heading and - for a bullet work in Notion, Jira, and every real Markdown editor, because they are the syntax itself. We prefer learning the syntax over memorising keybindings for that reason: it moves with you.
Common Markdown Shortcut Mistakes
Expecting Ctrl+B to work in stock VS Code. It doesn't; VS Code binds Ctrl+B to toggling the sidebar. Install Markdown All in One or remap the key in Keyboard Shortcuts.
Typing > for a quote in Notion. You get a toggle block. Use " followed by a space for a quote, or paste Markdown and let Notion convert the block.
Toggling a checkbox with the wrong key. The Markdown checkbox toggle is Alt+C in VS Code with the extension and Ctrl+L in Obsidian by default. GitHub has no key for it; click the rendered box instead.
Markdown Shortcuts FAQ
Keys differ, syntax doesn't. Learn Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, and Ctrl+K for the editor you use most, then lean on # , - , and ** everywhere else. The markdown shortcuts in the first table are live in the editor right now, so open it, select a word, and try them before you bookmark this page.