Google Forms keyboard shortcuts

Last updated September 2026 · ~8 minute read

The fastest one to remember: Ctrl + / on Windows and Chrome OS, or ⌘ + / on a Mac. That opens Google's own shortcuts panel inside the form editor, so you never have to keep the rest in your head. Everything below is taken from Google's published shortcuts page for Forms and nothing has been added to it.

Form+ edits the forms already in your Drive — your account, no migration, and iPad key commands when a keyboard is attached. Get Form+ free on the App Store.

Google Forms has a smaller shortcut vocabulary than Docs or Sheets, and the list that circulates online is usually padded with Docs shortcuts that do nothing in Forms. This page reproduces only what Google actually documents — which turns out to be twenty-eight shortcuts, including five unusual two-step insert sequences that most write-ups get wrong.

The official list

Google groups its shortcuts into seven sections, and we have kept its grouping and its wording. The Mac column is Google's own Mac column, not a mechanical substitution of ⌘ for Ctrl — note that Delete item uses Alt on Windows and Option on a Mac, and is the only shortcut in the list that does not involve Ctrl or ⌘ at all.

The Ctrl-then-i insert sequences

These are the ones worth learning, and the ones most third-party lists reproduce incorrectly. They are not chords. Google's own phrasing is “holding Ctrl, press i then v”, which means: hold the modifier down for the whole sequence, tap i, tap the second letter, then let go. Release Ctrl between the two letters and nothing happens.

There are five of them, and the second letter is a rough mnemonic:

• i then i — insert a question (this one also has a plain chord, Ctrl + Shift + Enter)
• i then h — insert a title and description (a heading)
• i then p — insert an image (a picture)
• i then v — insert a video
• i then b — insert a section (a break)

Between them these five cover the whole of the Forms floating insert toolbar, which is why a keyboard user can build an entire form without reaching for the mouse. If you want the surrounding detail on embedding media, we have separate guides on embedding a video and adding an image.

Editor shortcuts or respondent shortcuts?

Worth being precise here, because it is the question people actually arrive with. Google does not draw the line. Its shortcuts page has no “editing a form” versus “answering a form” split, and no note about which role each shortcut applies to. What it does do is list actions that are all unambiguously editor actions: inserting items, moving items, duplicating and deleting them, opening the settings and send menus, previewing, and grading responses. There is no respondent anywhere in that list.

The two apparent exceptions are Tab and Shift + Tab for moving between fields. Those do work while filling in a form, but they work in any web form in any browser — that is the browser's focus behaviour, not something Google documents as a Forms respondent feature. So the honest summary is: every shortcut Google publishes for Forms is an editor shortcut, and Google is silent on shortcuts for the person filling the form in.

The grading section is the one that surprises people. Ctrl + Shift + c, Ctrl + Shift + i and the two focus-grade arrows only mean anything while you are marking a quiz response — which makes them, in practice, a third context alongside building and sending a form. If you mark by hand regularly, they are the highest-value four on the page.

Screen readers and accessibility

Google's shortcuts page says nothing about screen readers, and it lists no “turn on screen reader support” shortcut for Forms. That is a genuine gap rather than an omission on our part: the separate Use Google Forms with a screen reader page does not document turning support on either — it assumes a screen reader is already running and describes working with Forms from there. It does repeat Ctrl + / as the way into what it calls the Keyboard shortcuts panel, which you can search or browse. What it does carry — including a handful of details no other Google page documents — is in our guide to Google Forms screen reader support.

Accessibility in Forms is bigger than a shortcut table, so we have not tried to squeeze it in here — see our full Google Forms accessibility guide instead.

None of this exists on a phone

This is the part a shortcuts page usually leaves out. Every shortcut above needs a Ctrl or ⌘ key, and an iPhone's touch keyboard has neither. The shortcut layer is not slower on a phone, or partly available — it is simply unreachable. The equivalent of a shortcut on a touch screen is the on-screen control it stands in for, so the handful people actually use map like this:

Nothing is lost in capability, only in speed — which is the real argument for a keyboard-driven desktop session when you are building a long form, and for a touch-first interface when you are checking responses on the move.

Where a hardware keyboard does come back

Form+ is a native iPhone and iPad client for your real Google Forms, and on an iPad with a hardware keyboard attached it defines its own key commands. They are the app's, not Google's, and there are only a few — hold ⌘ anywhere in the app to see the ones available on that screen:

• ⌘ + N — create a form, from the forms list
• ⌘ + 1 … ⌘ + 9 — switch between the tabs of the form you have open, bounded by the tabs actually on screen
• ⌘ + S — save, when there is something to save

That is a deliberately short list rather than a reimplementation of Google's, and the Ctrl-then-i sequences have no equivalent in the app.

Frequently asked questions

How do I see the keyboard shortcuts inside Google Forms?

Press Ctrl + / on Windows and Chrome OS, or ⌘ + / on a Mac. Google documents this on both its shortcuts page and its screen reader page, where it calls the result the Keyboard shortcuts panel and says you can search or browse it.

Does Ctrl then i then v insert a video?

Yes. Google's shortcuts page lists insert video as: holding Ctrl, press i then v, and holding ⌘, press i then v on a Mac. It is one of five insert sequences that share the same shape — i then i for a question, h for a title and description, p for an image, v for a video and b for a section.

Are there Google Forms keyboard shortcuts on iPhone?

No. Every shortcut Google publishes needs a Ctrl or ⌘ key, and an iPhone touch keyboard has neither, so the shortcut layer simply is not reachable. On a phone the equivalent of each shortcut is its on-screen control.

Do these shortcuts work for people filling in a form?

Google does not say. Its shortcuts page draws no line between editing a form and answering one, and every shortcut it lists is an editing action — insert, move, duplicate, grade. Tab and Shift + Tab move between fields in any browser form, but that is browser behaviour rather than something Google documents for Forms respondents.

Is there a shortcut to turn on screen reader support?

Google's shortcuts page for Forms lists none, and its separate Use Google Forms with a screen reader page does not document turning screen reader support on either — it assumes a screen reader is already running. Google is silent on this for Forms, unlike some of the other Docs editors.