Five Shortcuts for Improved Productivity in Jupyter Notebooks

Data Scientists can and should emulate software engineers’ obsession with productivity hacks. Keyboard shortcuts are a quick and dirty way you can become better at your job. (Disclaimer: these shortcuts are specifically for Mac Users!)

If you know one thing, know how to execute your cells without clicking “Run.” This command also automatically creates the next cell:

SHIFT + ENTER

Since proper documentation is key, the second thing to master is switching between code and markdown cells without reaching for your mouse or trackpad.

Markdown:

ESC + M then hit ENTER

Code:

ESC + Y then hit ENTER

Sometimes you end up with code you no longer want or need. Deleting old or dead code is one of the great joys of software engineering.

(Shout out to all you vim users, this may look familiar to you!)

ESC + D + D

There’s a wonderful world of shortcuts to explore in Jupyter Notebooks and you can have the rest of them at your fingertips by using this keyboard shortcut:

ESC + H

Thanks for reading! Hope this helps you become more productive and efficient while working in Jupyter Notebooks!