SQLPro Keyboard Shortcuts

Posted by Kyle Hankinson July 27, 2026

Most of the time you spend in a database client is spent in three places: the query editor, the results grid, and the connection sidebar. Moving between them with the mouse works, but it is the slowest way to do it. This article lists every keyboard shortcut ships with, notes which actions deliberately arrive unassigned, and shows how to rebind any of them.

Where the shortcuts live

On macOS, open Preferences (Cmd + ,) and choose Keyboard in the sidebar. Every shortcut listed below has its own row. Click the field beside an action, press the combination you want, and it is saved immediately. There is no Apply button.

To remove a binding, click the field and press the delete button that appears at its right edge. To restore an individual shortcut, clear it and reopen the window.

On Windows, open Preferences and choose Keyboard. The Windows build currently exposes a smaller set of rebindable actions than the macOS build; the table further down lists what is configurable today.

macOS defaults

Running queries

Action Default
Query execution Shift + Cmd + E
Query execution (secondary) not assigned
Format query Shift + Cmd + K
Comment/uncomment Cmd + -

Query execution (secondary) exists so you can bind a second key to the same action. A common setup is to leave the primary at Shift + Cmd + E and add Cmd + Return as the secondary, which matches the muscle memory from a lot of other tools.

Comment/uncomment works on the current line, or on every line touched by the selection. It uses -- followed by a space, which matters for MySQL, where a comment marker without trailing whitespace is not treated as a comment.

Connections and navigation

Action Default
Connect Shift + Cmd + C
Focus database tree Ctrl + D
Focus database tree search Ctrl + F
Previous tab Shift + Cmd + [
Next tab Shift + Cmd + ]

Ctrl + F jumps straight to the sidebar filter, which is usually faster than scrolling a large schema. Note that these two use Ctrl rather than Cmd, so they do not collide with the standard macOS find and duplicate shortcuts in the editor.

Alongside the tab shortcuts above, Cmd + 1 through Cmd + 9 switch directly to a tab by position. That behaviour is on by default and can be turned off with the checkbox in the same Keyboard preferences pane, which is worth doing if you would rather those keys stay free.

Results

Action Default
Hide/show query results Cmd + K
Find column Cmd + B
Toggle results/messages not assigned
Copy selected with headers as CSV not assigned
Export full result set as CSV not assigned
Export full result set as JSON not assigned
Export full result set as XML not assigned

Find column is the one people tend to miss. On a result set that is a hundred columns wide, Cmd + B beats horizontal scrolling.

The five unassigned actions here are the ones worth setting up first, because they have no default and are easy to reach for repeatedly. If you export the same result set shape every day, giving CSV export a binding removes several clicks each time.

Text editing

Action Default
Make uppercase not assigned
Make lowercase not assigned

Both are unassigned by default. They apply to the current selection in the editor.

Multiple cursors

Multi-cursor editing has its own set of keys, and they are not configurable:

  • Hold Option and drag the mouse up or down between lines
  • Cmd + Option + ↑/↓ to add cursors above or below
  • Shift + Option + I turns a multi-line selection into one cursor per line

Once several cursors are active, the usual text-movement keys apply to all of them at once: ←/→ by character, Option + ←/→ by word, adding Shift to any of those to select rather than move. Cmd + Delete deletes to the end of the next word from every cursor, and Option + Delete deletes to the end of the line.

Windows defaults

Action Default
Query execution Ctrl + Shift + E
Format query Ctrl + K
Hide/show query results Ctrl + R
Query history Ctrl + Shift + H

The first three are rebindable from Preferences > Keyboard. Query history has a working default but no row in the preferences pane yet, so it cannot currently be changed.

If you are coming from SQL Server Management Studio, the layout will feel close but not identical. Ctrl + K is format-query here rather than the first half of a chord, so the SSMS comment pair Ctrl + K, C and Ctrl + K, U do not carry over.

Picking bindings that stick

Two things are worth knowing before you rebind much.

Shortcuts are validated as you set them. If you choose a combination the system has already claimed, or one already used by another action in , the field will reject it rather than silently create a conflict. Reassigning an action to the combination it already has is allowed, so you can safely re-enter the same keys.

Your choices are stored per application rather than per connection, so a binding you set while working against Postgres applies just as well when you open a SQL Server connection later.

If a shortcut you want is missing

The list above is what exists today. If there is an action you reach for constantly and it has no row in the Keyboard pane, that is worth telling us about, because the pane is straightforward to extend and requests genuinely drive what gets added. The same goes for defaults that feel wrong for your platform.

Tags: Feature Support

Export from to CSV, JSON or XML

Posted by Kyle Hankinson August 9, 2023

export to CSV, JSON or XML

You can use to export a table or view directly, or to export the results of a result set. Results can be exported to CSV, JSON or XML.

To export from a table or view, find the target in the database tree and right click on it. Choose 'Export as', then pick from either CSV, JSON or XML from one of the submenus.

Similar, when exporting from a results set either right click (or single click the arrow at the top left of resutls) and choose 'Export result set as' and pick from one of the options.

Video example:

Tags: MySQL Feature PostgreSQL Microsoft SQL Server SQLite Snowflake

Features

Posted by Kyle Hankinson August 9, 2023

Feature list

A list of some of SQLPro's features.

  • Intellisense/SQL autocompletion
  • Syntax highlighting with customizable themes (including dark)
  • Tabbed based interface for an optimal user experience
  • Context aware database tree navigation, including quick access to tables, views, columns, indexes and much more!
  • SQL Beautifier/formatter
  • Database wide searching
  • NTLMv2 supported (but not required)
  • Netbios support
  • Master password support for additional security
  • Supports Handoff from iOS to macOS
  • Cloud support (Amazon RDS, Microsoft Azure, Heroku and many others)
  • Support for multiple result sets at once
  • Inline results editing
  • Automatic foreign key detection
  • No Java. SQLPro is native code
  • Intuitive interface
  • Import from CSV, JSON or XML
  • Export to CSV, JSON or XML (link)
  • Multiple cursor support (link)
  • Execute query in cursor range (link)
Tags: Feature

Execute query in cursor range

Posted by Kyle Hankinson September 29, 2020

Disabled

When the option is disabled, no Current query background highlighting will occur. The Run query button will default to Run all and will not contain a Run current option.

Enabled (as default)

When enabled, the Current query will have a slight highlight. The Run query button will default to Run current, however the dropdown will contain a Run all option.

Enabled (but not default)

When enabled, the Current query will have a slight highlight. The Run query button will still default to Run all, however the dropdown will contain a Run current option.

Tags: Feature

Multi-cursors

Posted by Kyle Hankinson September 23, 2020

SQLPro supports multiple cursors. This allows a users to perform certain actions with fewer keystrokes.

There are two different ways available to select multiple cursors. The first, is by holding Option while dragging the mouse cursor up or down between lines.

The second method is by using the keyboard shortcut Command + Option along with ↑/↓.

Once multiple cursors have been selected, the following keyboard shortcuts are available.

  • ←/→ to move text selection to the left and right one character.
  • Option + ←/→ to move text selection left/right one word.
  • Shift + ←/→ to move and highlight text selection to the left and right.
  • Shift + Option + ←/→ to move and highlight text selection left/right one word.
  • Cmd + Delete to delete from the curors beginnings to the end of the next word.
  • Option + Delete to delete from the curors beginnings to the end of the line.
  • Shift + Option + I turns selected text over multiple lines into multiple cursors.

Any feedback or issues with multi-cursor support should be added to the origional request ticket.

Tags: Feature

More articles:

Server based results sorting
Autocomplete delay