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 items at once? Hold SHIFT + Click on each object you want to include in your selection. Multi-select works across Puzzle canvases, allowing you to select multiple items such as steps, sections, tools, people cards, or roles.
When multiple items are selected, Puzzle displays a bulk action bar with available actions based on the object type:
Steps support Move, Duplicate, Edit, Clear Connectors, and Delete.
Sections support Move, Duplicate, and Delete.
People Cards support Clear Connectors, Bulk Edit Type, Bulk Edit Status, Bulk Associate Roles, Bulk Associate Tools, and Delete.
Roles on the Teams Canvas support Clear Connectors, Bulk Associate People to Roles, and Delete.
Tools support bulk deletion and bulk cost updates via MCP.
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 |
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. |
Open Tab Options | Click the ⌄ arrow next to a tab name | Access Rename, Duplicate, Move Right, Delete, and Permissions (Enterprise only) |
Editing |
|
|
Open Comments Sidebar | C | Access the comments for team collaboration. |
Delete Selected Steps, Roles, People, Tools | BKSP / Delete | Removes selected steps, roles, people, and tools from the Workflow, Teams, People, and Tools canvases. |
Multi-Select Items | SHIFT + Click | Select multiple items for bulk actions. |
Undo | ⌘ + Z | Undo layout moves, single step creation, or deletion (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. |
Appearance & Display |
|
|
Toggle Dark Mode | Click the 🌙 moon icon in the top nav | Switch between light and dark mode. Applies across canvases, sidebars, and org views. |
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.
⏪ Undo & Redo: Manage Layout and Step Changes with Confidence
Puzzle’s Undo and Redo features help you confidently manage structural and layout edits in your workflow canvas, from moving steps to reversing accidental deletions.
🔄 Keyboard Shortcuts
Undo:
⌘ + Z(Mac) orCtrl + Z(Windows)Redo:
⇧ + ⌘ + Z(Mac) or⇧ + Ctrl + Z(Windows)
🖱️ On-Screen Controls
Located in the bottom toolbar, near the Zoom controls
Buttons become active only when there’s an action to undo or redo
🧠 Supported Actions
Undo/Redo currently supports:
Moving steps or sections within the canvas
Creating or deleting steps (single steps only)
Repositioning elements for layout clarity
Bulk changes prompt confirmation — Puzzle displays a confirmation modal when performing multi-item actions such as bulk deleting selected steps, roles, people cards, or tools, helping prevent accidental changes.
📌 Important Notes
Limit: Supports up to two undo/redo actions per session.
Scope: Applies only to structural layout changes such as moving steps or sections, or creating and deleting single steps. It does not cover changes to step notes, roles, or tools.
Session Reset: The undo/redo history clears when the page is refreshed.
🌙 Dark Mode
Reduce eye strain and match your working environment by switching Puzzle to dark mode. The setting applies across your workspace and organization views.
🎯 How to toggle dark mode:
Look for the 🌙 moon icon in the top navigation bar (upper right, next to your settings and profile icons)
Click the moon icon to switch to dark mode
Click again (the icon becomes a ☀️ sun) to switch back to light mode
🖥️ What dark mode covers:
Workflow, Teams, People, and Tools canvases
Sidebars, modals, and Nova chat
Organization and workspace views
💡 Available anywhere in Puzzle. The toggle stays visible in the top nav so you can switch themes on the fly.
🔗 Related Guides
Mastering Tabs in Puzzle — Organize workflows with tabs and manage tab permissions (Enterprise)
Workflows: View & Edit Your Process Diagrams — Includes the new Default Connector Style setting in Workflow Settings
Structuring the People Canvas — Bulk actions on the People Canvas
Designing Teams: Plan and Organize Roles — Bulk actions on the Teams Canvas
If you have additional feature requests, feel free to submit them on our Feature Request Board.