Keyboard and mouse
Unmodified letter keys control SideScopes while its main window is active. Command, Control, or Option suppresses those single-letter shortcuts so system and window commands continue to work. Shift modifies several SideScopes actions.
Scopes
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| V | Show Vectorscope |
| W | Show Waveform |
| L | Show Luma Waveform |
| R | Show RGB Parade |
| H | Show Histogram |
| C | Show Color Picker |
| Z | Cycle Vectorscope zoom: 1x, 2x, 4x |
A scope key shows that instrument by itself. Hold Shift to add it to the current layout, or to remove it if already visible. At least one scope remains open. Pane order follows the scope selector, regardless of the order in which the shortcuts were pressed.
Region
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| A | Select or draw a window-attached region |
| D | Draw or replace the global region |
| F | Select a detected face |
| Escape | Clear the region |
While a region picker is open, A, D, and F switch its mode without closing it. Escape closes the Settings window first when that window is open; otherwise it clears every attached and unattached region. It does not restore a previous selection.
On the desktop border, drag the striped band to move the region, drag a corner to resize it, or drag an edge midpoint to move one edge.
Color pins
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| P | Open the color-pin tool |
Click to pin the pixel under the pointer. Drag to pin the average of a rectangle. Hold Shift while clicking or dragging to keep the tool open for additional pins. P has no effect when no visible scope accepts color pins.
Layout presets
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| 1–9 | Load that preset slot |
| Command+S / Control+S | Save the current layout to the active slot |
| Shift+1–9 | Save the current layout to that slot without loading it |
Saving to another slot does not change the active slot. The toolbar save button remains lit when the on-screen arrangement still differs from the active preset.
Application window
Windows
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Control+W | Minimize |
| Control+Q | Quit |
| Alt+F4 or the close button | Quit |
macOS
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Command+W or the red window button | Hide SideScopes |
| Command+comma | Open Settings |
| Command+Q | Quit |
The Dock icon or Command+Tab restores the application and its region border after Command+W hides it.
The website initially shows the table for the detected platform. Both tables remain available from the platform selector.
Mouse
- Scroll over Vectorscope or Waveform to change trace intensity; double-click to restore its default.
- Right-click a scope pane for that instrument’s options. Right-click elsewhere for the complete menu.
- Drag a divider to change adjacent pane sizes.
- Drag rows in the scope selector to reorder panes.
- While the color-pin tool is open, hold Shift during a click or drag to keep it active.
Rebinding
The letter bindings are stored in the application preferences. Each value is
one letter A–Z, or Escape; invalid values are ignored and the default is used.
The keys are:
shortcut_attach_windowshortcut_draw_regionshortcut_attach_faceshortcut_pin_colorshortcut_vectorscope_zoomshortcut_clear_regionshortcut_<scope id>for each scope
The preferences file is located at:
- macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/SideScopes/preferences.conf - Windows:
%APPDATA%\SideScopes\preferences.conf
This is a strict key=value configuration file, not a prose document. Quit
SideScopes before editing it and change only documented keys.
This page is generated from
docs/SHORTCUTS.md
in the application repository and follows the current source. It may
include changes made after the latest downloadable release.