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Mastering Navigation and Shortcuts in Puzzle

Learn the essential keyboard shortcuts to enhance your Puzzle experience, whether you're using a mouse, trackpad, or both.

Brian Ragone avatar
Written by Brian Ragone
Updated over 2 weeks ago

Navigating and building processes in Puzzle is faster and smoother when you know the keyboard shortcuts and navigation tips.

Whether you're a beginner exploring Puzzle for the first time or an advanced user optimizing your workflow, understanding these shortcuts will significantly improve your experience. Mastering navigation and key commands allows you to build, edit, and manage workflows effortlessly, helping you work more efficiently and collaborate seamlessly with your team.

This guide walks you through essential shortcuts, navigation methods, and best practices to streamline your workflow and improve efficiency.


Benefits of Using Keyboard Shortcuts and Navigation Tips in Puzzle

🚀 Increased Efficiency: Shortcuts save time by reducing the number of clicks needed for everyday actions, allowing you to focus more on process building than on navigation.

🤝 Enhanced Collaboration: With easy access to comments, multi-select, and step duplication, collaborating with team members becomes quicker and more intuitive.

⚙️ Streamlined Process Management: Shortcuts enable faster and more organized editing, whether adding new steps, creating sections, or transferring workflows between workspaces.

🎯 Consistency in Workflow Design: Using templates and shortcuts ensures uniformity in process structures, which is valuable for onboarding new team members and maintaining standards across projects.


1️⃣ Getting Started with Navigation Basics

Puzzle offers various ways to move around and zoom in on your workspace, depending on your device:

  • 🖱️ Using a Mouse:

    • Click and drag to pan around the canvas.

    • Scroll the wheel to zoom in and out.

  • 🔳 Using a Trackpad:

    • Use a two-finger swipe to pan.

    • Pinch to zoom out or reverse pinch to zoom in.

  • ⌨️ Keyboard Shortcut:

    • Click and drag to pan the canvas.

    • Hold SHIFT + Click for multi-select.

Multi-Select for Bulk Actions: Need to edit or delete multiple steps? Hold SHIFT + Click on each step you want to include in your bulk action. This feature allows you to perform tasks like bulk deleting, duplicating, and editing steps, roles, or tools.


2️⃣ Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Quick Actions

Use these shortcuts to speed up your tasks within Puzzle. The table below groups them by their primary function:

Action

Shortcut

Description

Workspace Management

Add New Step

N

Quickly add a new step to your process.

Add New Section

S

Add a new section to structure workflows.

Cancel Actions

ESC

Exit or cancel the current action.

Editing

Open Comments Sidebar

C

Access the comments for team collaboration.

Delete Selected Steps

BKSP

Removes selected steps from the canvas.

Multi-Select Items

SHIFT + Click

Select multiple items for bulk actions.

Undo

⌘ + Z

Undo your most recent layout move (up to 2 per session)

Redo

Shift + ⌘ + Z

Redo an undone action if available

View Control

Pan Around Canvas

Click + Drag

Left click on the canvas to pan

Zoom In

⌘ + Scroll Up

Zoom into the workspace.

Zoom Out

⌘ + Scroll Down

Zoom out of the workspace.

Open Template Gallery

T

Quickly open templates for new workflows.

Note: Some shortcuts, such as copy/paste (⌘ + C and ⌘ + P), are experiencing bugs. Updates are coming soon! Please use the duplicate action at the top left of each step to quickly duplicate steps.


3️⃣ Building Process Maps Using Step Shortcuts

Puzzle simplifies process mapping with shortcuts for structuring steps:

  • Use "@" in step descriptions to access step sidebars and relevant fields instantly.

    • Tag Tools and Roles: Tag essential tools and involved team members directly in each step for easy reference.

    • Tag Step Types: Categorize each step by its function to add structure and clarify the workflow.


💡 Tool Tip for Hot Keys

Puzzle makes it easy to learn and reference keyboard shortcuts with a built-in Hot Key Tooltip, so you don't have to memorize every command.

 

This feature provides quick access to all available hotkeys directly from your workspace — perfect for both new and experienced users.

 

How to Access Hotkeys:

  1. 🔓 Open any Workspace in Puzzle.

  2. 💻 In the bottom-left corner of your screen, hover over the laptop emoji.

  3. 💡 A tooltip will appear, listing all available hotkeys for quick reference.

This built-in guide ensures you can navigate, build, and edit workflows more efficiently—without interrupting your momentum.


⏪ Undo & Redo Workflow Layout Changes

Puzzle includes built-in Undo and Redo controls to help you manage layout changes more confidently while working on your workflow canvas.

This feature supports:

  • Moving steps from one place to another

  • Rearranging sections within the canvas

🔄 Keyboard Shortcuts:

  • Undo: ⌘ + Z (Mac) or Ctrl + Z (Windows)

  • Redo: Shift + ⌘ + Z (Mac) or Shift + Ctrl + Z (Windows)

🖱️ On-Screen Controls:

  • Undo and Redo buttons are located near the Zoom In/Out controls in the bottom toolbar.

  • These buttons become clickable only when there are changes that can be undone or redone.

🧠 Feature Details:

  • Supports up to two undo and redo actions per session

  • Applies to layout-based edits only (e.g., moving steps or sections)

  • Does not track changes to step content like notes, tools, or roles

  • Undo/Redo history resets with each new session (such as after refreshing the page)

These controls help reduce friction during layout adjustments, allowing you to experiment and reposition elements without losing your progress.


If you have additional feature requests, feel free to submit them on our Feature Request Board.

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