More draw.io Shortcuts to Streamline Your Diagramming

draw.io has made its name on being not only powerful but easy to use. The overall vibe of draw.io is one of intuitiveness, but when there are so many time-saving shortcuts to be had, it’s easy to sometimes overlook some of them. We’ve already told you about Five draw.io Shortcuts that You Didn’t Know About. In this blog we’ll review five more shortcuts that you may or may not have used in the past, but that we think everyone needs to be reminded of.

You’ll want to check these out:

Group therapy

Sometimes you’re making a diagram and objects start to multiply beyond the space available to clearly display them. Fortunately, draw.io’s grouping feature lets you remedy that with a simple “Ctrl+G” to group multiple objects AND make single shapes a container.

Want to ungroup things? Just hit them with a “Ctrl+Shift+U”.

Size matters

Whether you’re inflating or deflating them, sometimes you simply need to tweak the dimensions of the objects in your diagram. If you’ve worked with other tools, you know that it can sometimes be difficult to change the dimensions while also maintaining the correct proportions.

With draw.io, you can maintain the proportions of a shape while resizing it, with just a tap and hold of the “Shift” key while resizing. Want to keep a shape centered while resizing? Press and hold “Ctrl” while resizing.

And. Are you ready for this? You can combine both for a centered resizing while maintaining proportions by using Shift+Ctrl+Drag.

That’s called draw.io Magic.

Pixel-perfect

Usually, resizing in draw.io works in 10-pt steps (meaning one step of the grid equals 10 pt). But sometimes you want to paint with a finer brush, so to speak. With this shortcut, you can resize your shapes down to a 1 pt level.

I know. Even we can’t believe it sometimes.

All you have to do is click on the shape resizing points, hold the mouse button, and hit the Alt key. Now the shape is no longer bound to the grid, and you can change the size of your shape pixel by teeny-tiny pixel. And if you hit Alt+Shift, you can have it both pixel-perfect and centered.

Replace through sidebar

Want to replace a shape? You can easily do so by selecting the shape of your choice, dragging the new shape from the shape library onto the target shape and releasing the mouse when the replace icon appears.

But we’ve made it even easier. Just select the shape that you want to replace, hit the “Shift” key and click on the replacement shape in the shape library.

Delete shape with connector

Want to delete a shape with its connector? Just click on the shape of your choice and hit “Ctrl+Shift+Delete” to delete the shape and all of the connectors attached to it.

And there’s more where that came from. Visit our YouTube Shortcuts Playlist and our Keyboard Shortcuts Chart to see it all.