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Keyboard Shortcuts Reference for map.army
The keyboard shortcuts available in map.army. They are grouped by what they affect — application chrome, editing actions, map navigation, the geometry editors, and symbol selection in the Layer-Manager.
Application
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
F11 | Your browser’s full-screen key — map.army does not bind it, though the Full screen [F11] button names it. Works where the browser makes F11 full screen (Windows, Linux), not where it does not (macOS). The button always works: see Introduction. |
Ctrl + F5 | Force a clean reload — bypasses the browser cache and pulls the latest version of the PWA. Use it after an update prompt or when the application takes more than ~20 seconds to load. See Update the Application. |
Ctrl + S | Updates the share with your changes to its layers — see How to create a share. It does not save local MilX layers to a file; use Save as MilX in the Layer-Manager for that. |
Editing — undo, redo, copy, paste
Undo and redo cover more than deletions: deleting a symbol, moving one, editing its modifiers, moving one to another layer, adding or removing graphics, reordering them within a layer, and layer-level changes such as read-only, approved and the layer’s symbol format all go onto the history. Renaming a layer does not.
Deleting a whole MilX layer is on the history, so Ctrl + Z brings the layer back with its symbols — at the bottom of its group rather than in its old position, renamed if the name has since been taken, and editable again if it had been read-only. Track layers and vector or image layers are deleted with no undo record.
The history is per-session — it does not survive a reload, and a reload loses your layers outright, so keep saving to .milxlyz (see Export Overlays).
It is also finite: at most 100 steps, and fewer if they are large, since older ones are dropped to stay within memory. Loading or replacing a project clears it completely, as does changing the project’s reference system — recorded geometry no longer means the same thing afterwards. Treat undo as a way back from the last few actions, not as a safety net for the session.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl + Z | Undo — reverse a delete, a move, or a modifier edit; also restores layers removed via the MilX Exchange dialog. |
Ctrl + Y | Redo — re-apply the change you have just undone. |
Ctrl + C | Copy — the focused map graphic, or the symbol in the Symbol Editor. Which one it acts on depends on where the focus is: the shortcut resolves against the innermost element that accepts it. |
Ctrl + V | Paste — a previously copied symbol onto the focused graphic or the active layer. Pasting a symbol onto selected graphics is one of the ways to re-base an imported symbol; see Symbol Editor. |
Mouse
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Double-click a symbol on the map | Opens the MSS Symbol Editor for it — the fastest route into editing, and not mentioned anywhere in the interface. |
Ctrl + scroll | Zoom. Contributed by the browser, not by map.army. |
Map navigation
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
ArrowLeft / ArrowUp / ArrowRight / ArrowDown | Pan the map. Works in 2D and 3D. |
Shift + ArrowUp / Shift + ArrowDown | Raise / lower height above the surface (3D). |
Ctrl + ArrowLeft / Ctrl + ArrowUp / Ctrl + ArrowRight / Ctrl + ArrowDown | Pan heading / pitch (3D view). |
Z / + | Zoom in. |
X / - | Zoom out. |
N | Face north. 3D view only — there is no 2D binding, and the 2D map has no compass. In 3D, the round heading button (compass) does the same when clicked. |
D (hold) | Magnifier lens while held. 2D view only. |
Geometry editors
Active while you edit a tactical graphic on the map and in other geometry editors.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Space | Editor confirm action — finish the current drawing or commit the current edit. |
Escape | Cancels — when you are drawing something new. When you are editing an existing multi-point graphic it does the opposite: it finishes and keeps your edit. |
Delete | Delete a path point, or delete the focused item in the editor. |
Shift + Delete | Reset the point direction. |
S | Toggle snapping. |
N-point editor modes
Available while editing a multi-point tactical graphic — which means in the 2D view, since 3D is read-only. There is no clash with the 3D heading-pan bindings above, because the two never apply at the same time.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl (hold) | Insert-mode — add a new point on click. |
Shift (hold) | Delete-mode — remove a point on click. |
Ctrl + ArrowLeft / Ctrl + ArrowRight | Select the previous / next point in the geometry. |
Symbol selection in the Layer-Manager
When the Layer-Manager is open you can act on more than one symbol at a time. See Symbols on Layers for the full workflow.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl + click on a symbol | Toggles the symbol in the selection — clicking a selected one removes it again. |
Shift + click on a symbol | Selects the whole range from the nearest already-selected symbol to this one; on a selected symbol it clears the selection. |
Ctrl + drag a rectangle over symbols | Selects every symbol inside the rectangle — but only from the active layer, not from every visible layer. Useful when consolidating or merging. |
After multi-selecting, you can drag the whole selection onto another layer in the Layer-Manager to move all selected symbols in one step.
A note on completeness
The keys above were checked against the application itself. They are not guaranteed to be every binding that exists: key handling is spread across the map view, the 3D scene and the individual editors rather than declared in one place, so a shortcut may exist that this page does not list. Your browser also contributes its own — Ctrl + scroll to zoom, back and forward — which behave as they do on any web page.
If you find an in-app shortcut missing from this page, tell us through the contact form and we will add it.
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