Hotkeys, or keyboard shortcuts, whichever you call them, are not just for power users and anti-mouse proponents. If you've spent hours in an app doing the same thing again and again, it may be time to move beyond ⌘C and ⌘V.
In PDFpen, and PDFpenPro, the main tools in the editing bar are all assigned hotkeys. This means it's easy to do something basic such as switch between the select text tool (⌘1 to select text for copying or correcting) and the edit tool (⌘2 to select images, text boxes or other objects and move them around). Here are a few sequences you might find handy.
Highlighting:
⌘3 - Turn on the Highlight Text Tool or
⌘⌥⇧5 - Go to the Highlight Text Tool in your custom highlighter color.
Adding text:
⌘5 - Add a text box with the Text Tool.
⌘2 - Switch to the Edit tool to drag the text box into place or
⌘⌥1 - Open the Alignment tab of Inspector to perfectly align several selected text boxes.
⌘< and ⌘> - Make selected text in a text box bigger or smaller.
The same process works for
⌘8 - Comments (like a text box, but with more color options)
and
⌘7 - Notes (the yellow sticky note/speech bubble with the collapsable text field). ⌘< and ⌘> do not work with Notes.
Adding a signature:
⌘6 - Turn on the Scribble Tool to draw your signature or
⌘Y - Open the Library to drag a saved signature onto your document.
Organizing your PDFs
⌘9 - Create a link to a URL or another page. Turn on this tool, then drag the cursor where you want your link button to appear. The button is invisible, so place it over something that looks clickable.
PDFpenPro users can create a Table of Contents (ToC).
⌘1 - Select some text to be the ToC entry title for that page then
⌘⇧<= - Make it a new entry.
Finally, when you select a tool you can have it active for multiple uses, or as a one shot only. You choose by turning on or off "Keep tools selected after use" in the Editing tab of the Preferences (⌘comma).
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