Adobe After Effects Keyboard Shortcuts

Windows Ctrl as the primary modifier, Alt for secondary variants and tool-cycling.

Mac Command as the primary modifier, Option for secondary variants. A handful of shortcuts (font tracking reset, the proportional-grid toggle, a few Opacity/Scale nudges) use Control on Mac rather than the usual Command or Option.

Showing one property at a time. A, P, R, S, T, and similar single letters isolate Anchor Point, Position, Rotation, Scale, or Opacity in the Timeline panel, and pressing the same letter twice (like TT or RR) reaches a related property.

Keyframes and easing. F9 applies Easy Ease to selected keyframes, and Alt+Left/Right (Option+Left/Right on Mac) nudges a keyframe by a frame at a time.

Masks and shapes. Single letters switch between mask combine modes (Add, Subtract, Intersect, and so on) while dragging, the same convention as the shape tools.

Numeric-keypad shortcuts. A meaningful share of the shortcut set, marker placement, paint tool opacity and flow, memory purge, lives on the numeric keypad rather than the main keyboard, and Mac often adds a Control-based alternate for keyboards without one.

A printable PDF of After Effects shortcuts is available for each platform. Given the size of the full list, the property-revealing single letters and the keyframe-navigation shortcuts are the ones worth learning first.

Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign sit near Adobe After Effects because they're the other Adobe Creative Cloud apps most motion graphics projects reach for, video editing, still frames and photo assets, vector graphics, and layout for print or export. They're related by ecosystem and workflow, not because every project touches all of them.

How do I show only one property, like Position, in the Timeline panel?

Select the layer and press P for Position, R for Rotation, S for Scale, T for Opacity, or A for Anchor Point. Shift-clicking a second letter adds that property to the ones already shown.

What is the fastest way to ease keyframes in After Effects?

Select the keyframes and press F9 for Easy Ease on both sides, Shift+F9 for ease in only, or Ctrl+Shift+F9 (Cmd+Shift+F9 on Mac) for ease out only.

Are After Effects keyboard shortcuts the same on Windows and Mac?

Mostly, following the usual Ctrl-to-Cmd and Alt-to-Option pattern. A few genuinely differ: resetting text tracking adds an extra Control on Mac, and several Opacity and Scale nudge shortcuts use Control instead of Command on Mac.

This section lists official sources and documentation for Adobe After Effects. Use these references to verify shortcut behavior instead of relying on memory, old screenshots, or another person's setup.