Keyboard cheatsheet¶

sadda's desktop app is built for mouse-free scanning and annotation: a two-handed home-row scheme drives playback, cursor/selection movement, and view scroll/zoom, so you can audition and mark up a recording without leaving the keyboard.

Bound by physical position, not layout

Every shortcut on this page is matched by the physical key position (US-QWERTY), not the character your layout produces. If you type Dvorak or AZERTY, the keys are where a s d f / h j k l sit on the board — your hands fall on the same shape regardless of layout. All shortcuts are suspended while a text field is focused, so they reach the editor instead.

Playback — left hand¶

Key	Action
`D`	Play the selection (or the whole view if nothing is selected). Press again to pause/resume.
`S`	Play left of focus — left of the selection if there is one, else left of the cursor.
`F`	Play right of focus.
`Shift`+`D` / `Shift`+`S` / `Shift`+`F`	Loop the same span (0.5 s gap between repetitions).
`A`	Stop and return the cursor to where playback started.
`Space`	Alias for `D` (play / pause). `Shift`+`Space` loops.
`Esc`	Alias for `A` (stop).

Cursor & selection — right hand¶

The right-hand home row moves a point through the recording. The modifier picks which point:

no modifier → the cursor (playhead)
Shift → the selection start edge
Alt → the selection end edge

With no selection yet, the first Shift/Alt move seeds one at the cursor, then moves that edge.

Key	Movement
`H`	Jump to the start of the recording
`J`	Jump to the start of the window
`K`	Glide left (hold to keep moving; speeds up the longer you hold)
`L`	Glide right
`;`	Jump to the end of the window
++quote++	Jump to the end of the recording

The view follows the moved point off-screen, so a glide scrolls smoothly and a jump brings its target into view.

View: scroll & zoom — lower-right row¶

The lower-right row controls the window itself. Bare keys scroll; Shift zooms.

Key	Scroll (bare)	Zoom (`Shift`)
`N`	View → start of recording	Fit the whole recording
`M`	Pan left (¼ window)	Zoom out
`,`	Pan right (¼ window)	Zoom in
`.`	View → end of recording	Zoom to selection

Zoom is anchored at the cursor. The mouse wheel also zooms (Shift + wheel pans); the arrow keys pan a quarter-window and Home / End jump the view to the file ends.

Bundles¶

Key	Action
`Q`	First bundle
`W`	Previous bundle
`E`	Next bundle
`R`	Last bundle

Annotation¶

Navigation — moves the current-annotation highlight independently of the timeline selection, so you can step through annotations without disturbing the cursor/selection you set for playback:

Key	Action
`U` / `I`	Previous / next annotation on the current tier
`O` / `P`	Previous / next tier (up / down)
`Y`	Grab the current annotation into the timeline selection + cursor (so playback acts on it)

Editing:

Key	Action
`1` … `9`	Activate the tier at that lane position (top = 1)
`Shift`+`1` … `Shift`+`9`	Toggle that tier in / out of the active set (several at once)
`0`	Clear all active tiers
`Enter`	Edit the current annotation's label if one is highlighted; otherwise commit the selection to the active tiers (span → intervals, point → points)
`Esc`	Cancel a label edit / clear the current-annotation highlight
`Backspace` / `Del`	Delete the selected annotation

Panes & focus¶

Key	Action
`Shift`+`Down`	Focus the Python console — every key then types into it (a clean slate for a future Vim/Emacs mode); a ring marks it
`Shift`+`Up`	Leave the console, back to the main view (shortcuts resume)

Global¶

Key	Action
`Ctrl`+`P` / `Cmd`+`P`	Open the command palette
`Ctrl`+`Enter` / `Cmd`+`Enter`	Run the script buffer (when the script panel is open)

Mouse¶

Action	Effect
Click	Place the cursor (and a selection point)
Drag on a lane	Draw a span selection
Double-click an interval	Edit its label
Wheel	Zoom around the pointer
`Shift` + wheel	Pan the view

The cursor/view/selection model is also exposed to Python as sadda.Timeline, with a move-to (absolute) / move-by (relative) method for each action — e.g. set_cursor(t) vs move_cursor_by(dt), set_view_range(start, end) for fit/zoom-to-selection. The desktop keys and the Python API share one implementation in the engine.