How to change, save and reset After Effects shortcuts

How do I open the keyboard shortcut editor in After Effects?

Choose Edit › Keyboard Shortcuts, or press Ctrl + Alt + ' on Windows or Option + Command + ' on macOS. The visual shortcut editor opens. If the key combination does nothing, open it from the menu instead.

Adobe splits the editor into three parts:

• Keyboard layout: a picture of your keyboard that shows which keys already carry a shortcut and which are free.
• Command list: every command that can take a shortcut. You can search it by name.
• Key modifier list: you can also drop commands here, as described below.

Note two things before you change anything. First, the editor opens on the preset named After Effects Default. Second, if After Effects doesn't recognise your keyboard, it draws a U.S. English layout instead. On a non-US keyboard, the picture can then show keys in places that don't match the keys in front of you.

If you only want to look up a key, our full list of After Effects keyboard shortcuts is faster than opening the editor.

What do the gray, purple and green keys mean in the shortcut editor?

The colour of a key tells you what it does now. Gray keys are free, purple keys hold an application-wide shortcut and green keys hold a shortcut that works only in one panel.

Hover over any key to see a tool tip. It gives the full name of the command and says whether it is an Application or a Panel shortcut. To see only the shortcuts for one panel, such as the Timeline, switch to the panel-specific view from the Command drop-down list.

Before you assign anything, scan the layout for gray keys. If you start from a free key, you skip the conflict step entirely.

How do I change a keyboard shortcut in After Effects, step by step?

Select the command in the Command list, click its shortcut column and press the keys you want. You can also type the shortcut into the text field. Modifiers count, so Ctrl, Alt and Shift (or Command, Option and Shift) are part of what you press.

1. Open Edit › Keyboard Shortcuts.
2. Type the command name into the Command list search, for example "Precompose".
3. Select the command. If you want a panel shortcut, pick the panel from the Command drop-down first.
4. Click in the shortcut column for that command.
5. Press the new key combination, including any modifiers. You can also type it into the text field.
6. Read the bottom of the editor. If a conflict warning appears, fix it as described in the next section.
7. Press Save As and give the set a name you will recognise.

Assign by dragging

The editor also works by drag and drop. There are two ways:

• Drag a command from the Command list onto a key in the keyboard layout, or onto the Key modifier list.
• Drag a key from the keyboard layout onto a command in the Command list.

Dragging is quicker when you can already see the free gray key you want. Typing is quicker when you know the exact combination.

If you also edit in Premiere Pro, our guide to changing keyboard shortcuts in Premiere Pro walks through its editor.

What happens when a new After Effects shortcut conflicts with another one?

After Effects shows a warning at the bottom of the editor and turns on two buttons, Undo and Clear, in the lower right. The command that already uses those keys is highlighted in blue. Click it to select it in the Command list.

Adobe lists three cases that trigger the warning:

• An Application shortcut is already used by another Application shortcut.
• A Panel shortcut is already used by another shortcut in the same panel.
• A Panel shortcut overrides an Application shortcut while that panel has focus.

The third case trips people up most. When a panel shortcut and an application shortcut share the same keys, the application-wide one stops working whenever that panel is active. The key still "works", but only in other panels. That looks like a broken shortcut when it isn't.

To resolve a conflict, click the blue command and decide which of the two should keep the keys. Then give the other command a free gray key, or back out of the change with Undo.

Which After Effects keys can't be reassigned?

After Effects does not let you reassign 20 keys: A, AA, E, EE, F, FF, L, LL, M, MM, P, PP, R, RR, S, SS, T, TT, U and UU. Several of them are the letters that reveal layer properties in the Timeline panel.

These are the ones Adobe's reference lists:

• P: Position only
• S: Scale only
• T: Opacity only (Intensity for lights)
• U: properties with keyframes
• RR: Time Remap only

If a letter in this list does something you rarely need, you can't free it up. Choose another key for your command, or put the command on a mouse button or a wheel, as described below.

How do I save, export or reset After Effects shortcuts?

Change the shortcuts, then press Save As in the editor to save them as your own set. The editor starts on the After Effects Default preset. Saving under a new name keeps your changes apart from the stock keys.

Adobe's shortcut reference publishes the Save As button, but not the saved file's name, the folder it lives in, or an import or export button. We won't guess a folder path that may be wrong for your version. Check Adobe's help for your release before you copy files between computers.

Two habits help:

• Name sets with a date, for example "Mine 2026-11", so you know which one is current.
• Keep a short list of every command you moved and its new keys. If a set goes missing, the list lets you rebuild it by hand. It also tells you which mouse buttons to update.

To go back to the stock keys, switch to After Effects Default. Your own set stays saved under its name.

Why are my After Effects keyboard shortcuts not working?

The most common cause is that the wrong panel has focus. Panel shortcuts work only while their panel is active, and a panel shortcut can hide an application shortcut on the same keys. Work through these checks in order.

1. Click into the right panel. Green keys work only in their own panel. Click the Timeline or Composition panel first, then press the key again.
2. Look for a panel override. Open the editor and hover over the key. If the tool tip shows a Panel shortcut on keys you expected to be application-wide, the panel version wins while that panel is active.
3. On a Mac, check F9 to F12. Adobe warns that shortcuts using F9 to F12 can clash with macOS shortcuts. Easy Ease is F9, so it is one of the shortcuts this warning covers. Reassign the system shortcut (Adobe points to macOS Help), or move the command to a free key. Our Easy Ease guide covers the ease shortcuts in detail.
4. Check the keyboard layout. If After Effects doesn't support your keyboard, the editor shows a U.S. English layout. Punctuation keys such as ', [ and ] may then be in a different place from where you expect.
5. Check the locked list. You can't reassign the 20 locked letters, so a change to one of them won't take.
6. Press double letters quickly. RR, UU and the other doubles need two presses close together.
7. Quit other hotkey utilities. If another app on your computer listens for the same combination, test again with that app closed.
8. Check which set is in use. If your keys behave like the stock ones, make sure your own saved set is selected, not After Effects Default.

If it's a mouse side button that does nothing, rather than a key, the cause is usually somewhere else. See mouse side buttons not working.

Which After Effects shortcuts are worth moving to the mouse?

Move the ones you press most, and the ones that need a two-handed stretch. In practice that means easing, trimming, splitting and new layers. These are the default keys from Adobe's reference.

Three-key combinations with Ctrl + Alt or Command + Option are the best ones to move. On the keyboard they take two hands. On a mouse they take one press.

How do I put After Effects shortcuts on mouse buttons?

Use a per-app mapper, so a side button does one thing in After Effects and something else in your browser. After Effects' own editor maps keys only. Our guides to remapping mouse buttons on Windows and remapping mouse buttons on a Mac cover the options on each system.

Where mouzeclick fits (we make it)

We make mouzeclick, so weigh this part with that in mind. The mouse app runs on Windows 10 and 11 and on macOS 12 or newer. It works with any mouse your computer sees, wired, wireless or Bluetooth, and there's no driver. It uses up to five standard buttons (left, right, middle, Mouse 4 and Mouse 5), plus scroll and tilt.

• Per-app buttons. Mouse 4 can run Easy Ease in After Effects and do something else in every other app. The mapping changes the moment you switch windows.
• Eleven slots per button. Tap, hold, move in four directions, a chord with another button, or hold and scroll. That gives one side button room for ease in, ease out, split and trim.
• Gestures. Any button can be the gesture button. "Add editing gestures" fills the empty directions: up plays, down splits, left undoes and right moves one frame forward.
• Your own shortcuts and macros. Record any combination you set in After Effects' editor, or chain keys, clicks, waits and typed text. The built-in library holds 309 shortcuts on Windows, 44 of them for After Effects.
• Options wheel. 48 favourites per app on three rings of 12, 16 and 20, with a ready-made wheel for After Effects.

Watch the F9 clash

mouzeclick's Orbit switch opens on F9 by default, which is the same key as Easy Ease. Any key or mouse button can open the Orbit switch, so give it a side button and leave F9 to After Effects. On a MacBook keyboard the wheels use Fn + F8 and Fn + F9, unless you turn on "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys".

Things to know

• mouzeclick needs an internet connection while it runs. If the connection drops, the shortcuts pause and the mouse acts as a normal mouse.
• On Windows, apps running as administrator ignore apps that aren't elevated. If you run After Effects as administrator, pick Restart as administrator in mouzeclick's tray menu.
• On a Mac, mouzeclick needs Accessibility and Input Monitoring turned on. The steps are on installing mouzeclick on a Mac.

The trial is 3 days with no card, and every Premiere Pro and After Effects tool works fully. After that it's one plan: $25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys. See pricing.

Are there better options than more shortcuts for commands you rarely use?

Yes. Once the free keys run out, a radial menu or a button panel is easier to remember than yet another modifier combination.

• The After Effects Tool wheel. It holds 114 tools in 13 groups and opens with F10, any key or mouse button, or a held right button after a delay you set from 80 to 600 ms. A quick right click still opens After Effects' own menu. Each action is one undo step. It runs on Windows and Mac, and it needs the bridge: press Install After Effects bridge on the app's Tool wheel page, then restart After Effects. The details are on the After Effects radial menu page.
• Your own buttons. mouzerun makes one-click buttons from a script, an expression, an animation preset, a menu command or a keyframe ease. A menu command or script you run often then becomes one click in a panel. See mouzerun's tools and the other After Effects extensions.
• Toolbar panels. If you prefer a docked panel of buttons, we compare that approach with a wheel on the KBar alternative page.

A sensible order: put your top ten commands on keys in the native editor, your top five on mouse buttons, and the long tail on a wheel. Our shortcuts and key mapping hub has the same approach for other editors.

Questions people ask

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-03. Prices and features change: each link goes to the maker's own page.

1. Adobe: Keyboard shortcuts in After Effects (shortcut editor and reference), checked 3 Nov 2026

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