DaVinci Resolve on a Mac: learning the editing shortcuts

27 October 2026 · 6 min read

The DaVinci Resolve shortcuts to learn first on a Mac are J, K and L to play backward, stop and play forward, I and O to set In and Out points, A for Selection mode, B for the Blade tool and T for Trim mode, N to turn snapping on and off, Command-Backslash (⌘) to cut the clips under the playhead, and F9 and F10 to insert and overwrite. To see every shortcut, or change one, open DaVinci Resolve > Keyboard Customization, or press Option-Command-K.

The keys below are Resolve’s defaults on a Mac (its own DaVinci Resolve keyboard preset), and they are for the Edit page. If you or a previous editor changed the keyboard, Keyboard Customization shows what is set now.

Play and look

Editing is mostly watching, so the playback keys come first.

Space: play and stop.
J, K and L: play backward, stop, play forward. Your right hand rests on them, with the index finger on J. This is the same layout most editing apps use, so it carries over if you move between them.
Left Arrow and Right Arrow: back and forward one frame.
Up Arrow and Down Arrow: previous and next edit. The playhead jumps to the cut before or after it, the quickest way to move through a timeline cut by cut.
Option-L: play again, and Option-K: stop and go back to where the playhead was when you started playing. The pair is useful when you are judging the same few seconds over and over.
Slash (/): play around the current selection, to see how an edit plays in context.
Q: switch focus between the Source and Timeline viewers, so the playback keys control the other one.

Mark In and Out

I and O: set the In and Out points, in the Source viewer or the Timeline.
Shift-I and Shift-O: move the playhead to the In or Out point.
Option-I and Option-O: delete the In or Out point. Option-X deletes both.
X: set In and Out around the clip under the playhead, which marks a whole clip in one key.
M: add a marker without stopping playback. Shift-Up Arrow and Shift-Down Arrow jump between markers.

The edit modes: A, B, T and N

The single letters are where most of the speed is, and where new editors get caught out, because each one changes what a click on the timeline does.

A: Selection mode. Click to select and drag clips. Come back to A when in doubt.
B: Blade. Click a clip to cut it where you click. Press A afterwards, or the next click cuts again.
T: Trim mode. Dragging an edit ripples the timeline, and dragging a clip slips or slides it.
W: Dynamic Trim mode, which trims with J, K and L instead of the mouse.
N: snapping on or off.
Shift-Command-L: linked selection on or off, so you can select a clip’s video without its audio, or the reverse.

Cutting and trimming at the playhead

Once you can park the playhead where you want it, these let you cut without the mouse at all.

Command-Backslash: cut the clips at the playhead. The keyboard version of the Blade, with no mode to switch back from.
Shift-[ and Shift-]: trim the start or end of a clip to the playhead.
E: extend edit, which moves the selected edit point to the playhead.
V: select the nearest edit to the playhead. Shift-V selects the clip under the playhead.
Comma and Period: nudge the selected clip or edit one frame left or right. With Shift, the nudge is bigger.
Forward Delete: ripple delete, which removes the clip and closes the gap. A MacBook has no Forward Delete key; press fn-Delete instead. The keys a MacBook leaves out covers the rest of those.
D: disable or enable the selected clips, to hide a clip without removing it.
Command-D: change clip duration.

Editing into the timeline: F9 to F12, and a Mac catch

Resolve puts its edit types on the function keys:

Key	Edit
F9	Insert
F10	Overwrite
F11	Replace
F12	Place On Top
⇧F10	Ripple Overwrite
⇧F11	Fit to Fill
⇧F12	Append to End

On a Mac these need two things sorted.

The top row. On a MacBook and on Apple keyboards, the top row controls brightness, volume and media by default, so pressing F10 mutes the sound instead. Hold fn (or the Globe key) while you press it, or make the top row act as F1 to F12: in System Settings, choose Keyboard, click Keyboard Shortcuts, choose Function Keys, and turn on “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys”. Function keys on a MacBook explains the trade.

F11 belongs to macOS. By default F11 is Show Desktop, so a Replace edit sweeps your windows aside instead. To give it back to Resolve, open System Settings, choose Keyboard, click Keyboard Shortcuts, choose Mission Control, and turn off Show Desktop or give it another key.

Change them, or bring your old editor’s layout

DaVinci Resolve > Keyboard Customization (Option-Command-K) lists every command with a search field, and lets you assign your own keys. It also has presets that copy other editors’ layouts, including Premiere Pro’s and Final Cut Pro’s, which can make a switch less painful. Save your own changes as a preset of your own rather than editing the built-in one, so you can always get back to the defaults.

Before you put a command on a key, check what is already there; Which keys does an app leave free? goes through how to find a spare one.

Learning them

Two habits help more than any list. Learn the letters as a set (A, B, T, N, then I, O, X, M) rather than one at a time, and switch modes from the keyboard every time, even when the mouse is already near the toolbar, until you stop thinking about it.

Typebar has a hand-made DaVinci Resolve pack covering most of the keys above. Hold fn in Resolve to see the single-key tools, A, B, T, N and the rest, labeled on an on-screen keyboard, or search its Cheatsheet List and pick a command to see its keys light up. The pack shows Resolve’s defaults; if you changed some in Keyboard Customization, you can rename, hide or add shortcuts on the sheet to match, and export it as a PNG or PDF to print.

If you make Resolve tutorials, Typebar also lights every key you press on an on-screen keyboard, so a viewer can see that you pressed B before the clip was cut. Typebar is $9 once, with a 24-hour free trial, on macOS 14 or later.

Questions

Why does F11 show my desktop in DaVinci Resolve?

macOS uses F11 for Show Desktop by default. Turn it off in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Mission Control.

Do I need to hold fn for F9 and F10 on a MacBook?

Yes, unless you turn on “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Function Keys.

Can I use Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro shortcuts in Resolve?

Yes. Keyboard Customization has presets for other editors. Only commands Resolve has can be mapped, so a few keys may not do the same thing.