Roam Research Shortcuts - A Lightweight Guide
General
Go to today's daily note
Roam relies heavily on daily notes. Getting back to your current daily note is the first shortcut you should memorize.
From any page, press
From any page, press
Ctrl + Shift + d
to jump back to today's page. In the screen capture below, we're jumping from a page about Planets
back to our daily notes page.
Go to search bar
The search bar helps you navigate to pages efficiently.
Use
You can also create a new page from the search bar by typing in the name of the new page and pressing
Use
⌘ + u
and type the first few letters of the page you're looking for. When you see the page you want, arrow or mouse down and Click / Enter
to open it.You can also create a new page from the search bar by typing in the name of the new page and pressing
Enter
.
Bracket links
Double brackets create links to other pages. These bidirectional links are what make Roam special. In effect, they allow you to build your own wiki.
If you create a bracket link to a page that doesn't exist, Roam creates a new page for you automatically.
The example below shows us creating a bracket link to the Planets page.
If you create a bracket link to a page that doesn't exist, Roam creates a new page for you automatically.
The example below shows us creating a bracket link to the Planets page.

Parentheses links
Parentheses links are similar to the bracket links above, except they link to specific blocks (i.e., lines) instead of whole pages.
The example below shows us creating a link to the Pluto block.
The example below shows us creating a link to the Pluto block.

Inline commands
Inline commands are a fast way to add new pages, formatted content, and other tools to your Roam pages as you type. Roam provides a number of unique tools from the inline command menu, including pomodoro timers, date selectors, sliders, kanban boards, queries, and encrypted text.
The example below scrolls through all the inline command options before creating a page reference. Creating a page reference this way is the same as creating a page reference with brackets (See,
The example below scrolls through all the inline command options before creating a page reference. Creating a page reference this way is the same as creating a page reference with brackets (See,
[[page link]]
above).
Page Navigation
Open link in sidebar with mouse
Hold
Shift
while clicking to open links in a sidebar.
Open link under cursor
To open pages without the mouse, press
Ctrl + o
while your cursor is over a link.
Open link under cursor in sidebar
Open pages in the sidebar without the mouse using
Ctrl + Shift + o
while your cursor is over a link.
Toggle brackets
Pressing
Ctrl + c
and then Ctrl + b
toggles the visibility of brackets around links. The links work the same whether the brackets are displayed or not.
Toggle edit icon
Pressing
Ctrl + c
and then Ctrl + s
toggles the icon showing whether you edited a block.
Lists
Select block above/below
Select blocks above and below by holding
Shift
while moving up and down.
Formatting
Headings
Format header font.
⌘ + Alt + 1
Large Header⌘ + Alt + 2
Medium Header⌘ + Alt + 3
Small Header⌘ + Alt + 0
Regular Font

Markdown
Versions
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Thank you to Compound Writing members Stew Fortier and Eugene Yan for reviewing a draft of this post!