Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Everyone knows the Shift-Return keyboard shortcut to run the current cell in the IPython Notebook, but there are actually three ‘running’ shortcuts that you should know:

Shift-Return: Run the current cell and move to the cell below

Ctrl-Return: Run the current cell and stay in that cell

Opt-Return: Run the current cell, create a new cell below, and move to it

Once you know these you’ll find all sorts of useful opportunities to use them. I now use Ctrl-Return a lot when writing code, running it, changing it, running it again etc – it really speeds that process up!

Also, everyone knows that TAB does autocompletion in IPython, but did you know that Shift-TAB pops up a handy little tooltip giving information about the currently selected item (for example, the argument list for a function, the type of a variable etc. This popup box can be expanded to its full size by clicking the + button on the top right – or, by pressing Shift-TAB again.