Keyboard Shortcuts in Google Data Studio [Guide 2023]

data studio keyboard shortcuts
Key Takeaways: Keyboard Shortcuts in Google Data Studio

Top 5 Best Keyboard Shortcuts in Google Data Studio

  • Precise Element Placement (Shift + Arrow)
  • Quick Layer Adjustment (Ctrl + Arrow)
  • Group & Ungroup Elements (Ctrl + G & Ctrl + Shift + G)
  • Instant Data Source Refresh (Ctrl + Shift + E)
  • Efficient Unselect (Ctrl + Left Click)

Hi, and welcome to another guide in this Google Data Studio series. Today, we will learn about keyboard shortcuts in Google Data Studio. There are so many keyboard shortcuts that are general, such as ctrl + c = copy, ctrl + v = paste, ctrl + a = select all, and so on. These keyboard shortcuts are universal and work with almost every screen, on the web, on tools, on native applications, and so on. But, today, we are going to learn some exciting and super cool keyboard shortcuts that are only in Google Data Studio, and they help us by saving a lot of time, and energy.

An average user prefers to press multiple keys from the keyboard, instead of holding the mouse taking it to a specific position by rotating on a specific angle and then pressing a click. Both of the ways of doing anything are quite similar and can be interchangeably used, but keyboard shortcuts are more accurate, if you press ctrl + c it will always copy, but clicking sometimes can be wrong, we mistakenly click on the other button or position, and that’s irritating for a user. So, with that said, I have brought some excellent keyboard shortcuts that will blow your mind and will help you while working with Google Data Studio.

Importance of learning Keyboard shortcuts in Google Data Studio

We also love keyboard shortcuts in our day-to-day tasks. We also use ctrl + c instead of right click and selecting the copy option. Keyboard shortcuts make our tasks quicker and we have to put in less effort. Keyboard shortcuts are memorized when we keep on using them, and after a good time, we are used to using the keyboard shortcuts, and it makes our work most fast.

In Google Data Studio, we have so many keyboard shortcuts, not as many as we had in Google Sheets, but still, when working with charts we don’t want to use a touch-pad or mouse most of the time, keyboard shortcuts look more professional while dragging mouse looks like a noob.

Today, I will teach you some good handy keyboard shortcuts that will help you in your regular job. Whether you use Google Data Studio as your primary job, for your projects, or even for a hobby project, these keyboard shortcuts are going to help you a lot.

Keyboard shortcuts in Google Data Studio

In this section, we will learn some general keyboard shortcuts in Google Data Studio. I am using a table pattern in this article to provide all these shortcuts very cleanly and easily without any confusion, I am including all these shortcuts for two popular operating systems, Windows and Mac. So, let’s get started.

Keyboard Shortcut

Functionality

Windows

Mac

Cut

Cut the selected element, text, object, or chart

Ctrl + X

Cmd + X

Copy

Copy the selected element, text, object, or chart

Ctrl + C

Cmd + C

Undo

Undo the last action performed

Ctrl + Z

Cmd + Z

Redo

Redo the last action performed

Ctrl + Y

Cmd + Y

Paste

Paste the copied or cut content into the clipboard

Ctrl + V

Cmd + V

Paste Special > Style only

work like paste, but pastes only the style not the overall content, if there is no styling in the copied or cut content, there nothing will be pasted. Mainly used as format painter & conditional formatting

Ctrl + Alt + V

Cmd + Option + V

Duplicate

Duplicate the Performed task or object

Ctrl + D

Cmd + D

Select All

Selects all the data on the page

Ctrl + A

Cmd + A

Select none

Unselect all or select none on the entire page

Ctrl + Shift + A

Ctrl + Shift + A

Delete

Delete the selection on the overall page

DELETE

DELETE

New page

Insert a new page

Ctrl + M

Cmd + M

Refresh data source

Refreshes all the connected data sources

Ctrl + Shift + E

Ctrl + Shift + E

Previous page

Jumps to the previous page of the report

Pg + Down Arrow

Fn + Down Arrow

Next page

Jumps to the next page of the report

Pg + Down Arrow

Fn + Down Arrow

First page

Jump to the first page of the report

Home

Fn + Left Arrow

Last page

Jumps to the last page of the report

End

Fn + Right Arrow

Bring forward

Bring the selected object, element, text, or chat to one step forward

Ctrl + Up Arrow

Cmd + Up Arrow

Bring to front

Bring the selected object to the front of all the objects on the page

Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow

Cmd + Shift + Up Arrow

Send to back

Send the selected object to the back of all the objects on the page

Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow

Cmd + Shift + Down Arrow

Send backward

Send the selected object, element, or chart one step backward

Ctrl + Down Arrow

Cmd + Down Arrow

Ungroup

Ungroup the selected grouped elements, objects, or charts

Ctrl + Shift + G

Cmd + Shift + G

Group

Group the selected elements, objects, or charts

Ctrl + G

Cmd + G

Version History > See version history

Shows the version history

Ctrl + Alt + Shift + H

Cmd + Option + Shift + H

Move 1 pixel

Move an item by 1 pixel

Shift + Arrow

Shift + Arrow

Unselect item from the selection

Unselect a single item, object, or chart from the selection

Shift + Left Click

Shift + Left Click

Bold

Makes the text bold

Ctrl + B

Cmd + B

Italic

Makes the text italic

Ctrl + I

Cmd + I

Underline

Makes the text underline

Ctrl + U

Cmd + U

Left arrow

Move the selected object to 48 pixels left

Left Arrow

Left Arrow

 

 

Right arrow

Move the selected object to 48 pixels right

Right Arrow

Right Arrow

Up arrow

Move the selected object to 48 pixels up

Up Arrow

Up Arrow

Down arrow

Move the selected object 48 pixels down

Down Arrow

Down Arrow

Refresh

Refresh the overall report

Ctrl + R

Cmd + R

Print

Open the print preview to print the overall report

Ctrl + P

Cmd + P

Save

Save the file in a local directory

Ctrl + S

Cmd + S

Top 5 Keyboard shortcuts in Google Data Studio

The above list is good for reference but for practical usage to save time and effort here is a top-five list for you. As you have seen some of the above keyboard shortcuts are very basic, and you already know and use them but some others are mind-blowing. Here, I will cut those and will tell you about the top five keyboard shortcuts in Google Data Studio.

Moving Things 1 Pixel – (Shift + Arrow)

When you create your report, you have so many elements, objects, and charts in it, and for a perfect report setup, you need to keep the things in their perfect places. Moving an element by selecting and then dragging the mouse is a more than a classical way to organize the elements on a page. In Google Data Studio, we need this feature very frequently so we use a keyboard shortcut, simply select any element, and then press the left, right, up, or down arrow to move the element by 1 pixel in the respective direction. It keeps the dimensions accurate and sharp to make a pixel-perfect report even when zoomed in. Additionally, you have guides, guide are thin lines that tell you if you are in the same direction as the other element, or misdirected. This helps a lot in the alignment of the elements.

Bring Elements Forward/Backward (Cmd + Arrow)

When you have so many elements on a single page, you need to have multi-dimensional. Sometimes, you want to have your object right on the front, and sometimes on the back, you can control this by right click and select an option from send backward, bring forward, send to back, and bring to front. But here we are on Google Data Studio, and it never disappoints us. We have four quick keyboard shortcuts for this feature. We can use it to increase the workflow by 30%.

Group & Ungroup Elements (Cmd + G) & (Cmd + Shift + G)

When you are done with a specific section of your report, you may need to group elements to perform actions contiguous to them, for example, if you have created two tables on the top side of your report, now you may want to align their center, doing this to each table will make both tables one over another, but first grouping them and then center align, will treat both of them as a single entity and you will get the perfect center. There can be more reasons to use group and ungroup entities. Amazing is that we have extremely quick keyboard shortcuts for group and ungroup. We can use them to quickly group elements, and also to ungroup them. It’s my personal favorite when making a bigger report.

Refresh Data Source (Ctrl + Shift + E)

There are some errors and bugs in Data Studio caused due to data source, or connector, we so many times need to reconnect or refresh our data to avoid these errors, so we need to make a journey and go to Resource > Manage added data sources, and then we click on refresh fields to refresh the data source. But now we have a 100 times better solution, and a quicker one as well. So, from today, we will only use Ctrl + Shift + E to refresh data source quickly on the main screen of our Data Studio

Unselect item from selection (Ctrl + Left Click)

We sometimes have so tightly packed elements on our page and we need to select most of them, so to unselect, we can first select all using Ctrl + A, then we can press Ctrl + left click on an element to unselect it from the group. This is also a universal keyboard shortcut, but it’s very useful in Google Data Studio.

Conclusion

Wrapping up keyboard shortcuts in Google Data Studio, we have learned so many almost all keyboard shortcuts in Google Data Studio, and for your ease, I have summarized them into the top 5. I hope you like all these keyboard shortcuts, and that you have successfully tried them on your data. I will see you soon with another helpful tutorial. Keep learning with Office Demy.

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M. Shaiq Ansari

Hi, I am Shaiq, I am a highly skilled technical writer working full-time for Office Demy. I am specialized in Google Workspace and Microsoft Office applications. With a background in Software Engineering, I possess a deep understanding of the intricate functionalities and features of these productivity tools. Connect me on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaiq-ansari/

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