Quick Search
Quick Search is the editor's command palette.
It lists the commands available on the tab you are on. Start the search with #, @, or : to search the diagram instead and jump to a table, a column, or a comment or memo.
Open it with Ctrl + K (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + K (Mac), or click Search in the toolbar.
The same shortcut closes it, as do Esc and a click outside the panel. Opening it closes Table Properties, the theme builder, the Display Language picker, the Export image dialog, and Map Columns, which drops what you had picked in it. It does not open while you are editing a table cell, a memo, a table group's name, or a cell on the Dictionary tab.
The toolbar button right after Search is Explorer. It opens or closes the Explorer, a tree of the diagram docked at the left of the canvas, with Find and Replace at its top.
Opening the palette leaves the Explorer open, and Esc then closes only the palette. Ctrl + F (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + F (Mac) pressed in the palette closes it and takes the keyboard to the Explorer's Find field, opening the Explorer on its search if it is not showing. Unlike the Toggle Explorer entry, the key never closes the Explorer from the palette — see Opening and Closing. While the diff viewer, time travel, or the Auto Layout preview is open, the editor leaves the key alone: the palette stays open and the key goes on to the browser or host — see The Browser's Find Bar.
A host embedding the editor can bind Quick Search to another key, which the Search tooltip then shows — see Shortcuts.
Searching and Navigating
Type to filter the list. Each keystroke searches the whole list in front of you afresh, so deleting characters, or typing a new word over one that found nothing, brings matching entries back.
The match is fuzzy and covers both the name of an entry and the keywords shown beside it. Inside the Import submenu, for example, sdl finds GraphQL, dbdiagram finds DBML, and azimutt finds AML. A near typo still finds its entry, as tabel finds New Table and imprt finds Import, but an entry that only loosely resembles what you typed is left out: memo lists New Memo alone. An entry whose name or keywords contain what you typed, ignoring case, is always listed, and one the fuzzy match misses comes after the fuzzy matches. What you typed is highlighted wherever an entry contains it, ignoring case.
In a display language other than English, commands and submenu entries are also found by their English names and keywords, which the list does not show, so new table finds New Table whatever language it is shown in.
Move through the list with ↑ and ↓ — it wraps at both ends — and run the highlighted entry with Enter. A command that has a shortcut of its own shows it at the end of its row: on the right, or on the left in a right-to-left display language. While an input method is still composing, as in the middle of a Korean syllable, ↑, ↓, and Enter belong to it and neither move the highlight nor run an entry.
An entry such as Database, Import, or Auto Layout opens a submenu: its entries replace the list and the search box is cleared. The submenus of Name View, Database, Bracket, Language, the two name cases, Schema SQL: Statements, Schema SQL: Header, Theme, and Display Language check the current choice and open with the highlight on it, so Enter keeps it; the other submenus open with nothing highlighted.
Filtering only ever applies to the list in front of you, and there is no way back up a level, so close and reopen the palette to start over. Inside a submenu, #, @, :, and ? are plain text, not prefixes.
What the Palette Lists
The list depends on the tab you are on. Every tab starts with Tab, which switches to Entity Relationship Diagram, Visualization, Schema SQL, Code Generator, Dictionary, or Settings, leaving out the tab you are already on.
On the ERD tab: Name View and up to four rows that derive physical names again, then Database, Import, Import and Add, and Export, then New Table, New Memo, New Table Group, and Group Selected Tables, the four relationship types, and Auto Layout. Tables are not listed here; type # to go to one.
Name View opens Physical Names, Logical Names, and Both Names, with the view in force checked, and a choice switches the view as the canvas context menu's Name View does — see Switching the View. It is listed on the ERD tab alone, in a read-only editor as well.
The derive rows are told apart by the keywords beside them. Derive Physical Name Again, with column beside it, derives the focused column. Derive Physical Names Again comes as three rows: with table, for the table the focus is in, its name and every column; with selected tables, for the selected tables while two or more are selected; and with whole document, for every table in the diagram. Each is listed only while it has something to cover, and none in a read-only editor.
Import and Add is left out in a read-only editor, and New Memo while View Option → Memos hides the memos. New Table Group starts drawing a table group on the canvas, and Group Selected Tables puts the selected tables in a new group and opens its name for typing. Both are left out in a read-only editor and while View Option → Table Groups hides the groups, and Group Selected Tables also needs at least one table selected. Their rows show the keys: Alt + G (Windows/Linux) or ⌥ + G (Mac) for drawing a group, and T then G for grouping the selected tables.
These run the same commands as the canvas context menu, except where they run the table menu's: Group Selected Tables runs its Group selected tables, and the column, table, and selected tables derive rows run its Derive Physical Name Again or Derive Physical Names Again, on the focus or the selection rather than on where you right-click. View Option and Diff Viewer are in the context menu only. Export offers the same json, Schema SQL, and Image as the context menu, and typing png or svg inside it finds Image.
See Importing or Exporting Files for what each format, Import and Add, and the image export do, and Table-related Functions for what the database choice affects.
On the Schema SQL tab: Database again, and Bracket, which sets the quote character wrapped around table, column, constraint, and index names in the generated SQL — SingleQuote, DoubleQuote, Backtick, or None for no quoting at all. Then Schema SQL: Statements and Schema SQL: Header, which make the same choices as the tab's options panel but list only those the selected database writes, and Schema SQL: Options panel, which shows or hides that panel. See Schema SQL for what each choice writes.
On the Code Generator tab: Database, Bracket while the language is Doctrine, JPA, or SeaORM, then Language, Table Name Case, Column Name Case, and Code Generator: Options panel, which shows or hides the tab's options panel. See Code Generator for what each target produces.
The Visualization, Dictionary, and Settings tabs have no commands of their own, only Tab and the commands below that every tab lists.
Near the end of every tab's list, in a read-only editor as well, is Toggle Explorer, which shows its shortcut, Ctrl + F (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + F (Mac). Typing find, replace, rename, tree, outline, or objects also finds it.
Running it closes the palette and does what the shortcut does on the canvas. While the toolbar's Explorer button shows pressed, that is, while the Explorer is open on the ERD tab and not hidden by zen mode, it closes the Explorer. Otherwise it switches to the ERD tab and opens the Explorer on its search, with the caret in the Find field — see Opening and Closing. It is left out while the diff viewer, time travel, or the Auto Layout preview is open.
Theme and Display Language
After Toggle Explorer, every tab lists Theme and Display Language, in a read-only editor as well. Each is listed only where the editor offers its picker, as the toolbar's Theme and Display Language buttons show. The web app, Google Drive, VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, and Obsidian offer both — see In Each Host.
Theme opens System, Light, and Dark, with the current appearance checked. Choosing one changes the appearance alone and keeps the gray and accent colors, as the theme builder's Appearance buttons do.
Display Language opens System, then the 25 languages, each in its own name and in the picker's order, with the current option checked. Here a language is also found by its English name or its code: german or de-DE finds Deutsch, and korean finds 한국어.
A choice in either takes effect at once, closes the palette, and is kept just as one made in the theme builder or the Display Language picker is. If the display language changes while the palette is open, the list switches to it, keeping what you typed and the submenu you are in.
Searching the Diagram
Start the search with a prefix to search the diagram rather than the commands: # for tables, @ for columns, : for comments and memos, or ? to list the prefixes. A prefix works from any tab. It counts only as the first character, ignoring spaces before it. A space after it is optional, so #users and # users are the same search, and the full-width ＃, ＠, ：, and ？ that a Japanese or Chinese input method types count as well.
While the input is empty at the top level, a line under it shows the four prefixes; click one to type it. While a prefix is in effect, the end of the input names its scope: Tables, Columns, Comments & memos, or Help. Delete the prefix to get the commands back.
# lists the tables, each with Table beside it. A row names its table as the Name View does, such as Accounts (users) in Both Names, and a table with no name to show is listed as unnamed. With nothing after #, the tables are sorted by name, never by logical name, in every view. Text after # is matched fuzzily, as above, against each table's name and its logical name whatever the view shows, so #accounts lists users even in Physical Names. Tables whose name or logical name contains the text come first. Table group names and index names are not searched under any prefix; Find and Replace searches both.
@ lists columns, each with where it is beside it, such as users.email · Column. Text after @ has to appear in the column's name or its logical name, ignoring case and whatever the Name View shows; this match is not fuzzy. Each name that holds it is a row of its own: a logical name match shows the logical name, with users.email · Logical name beside it, so a column whose name and logical name both hold the text is listed twice. Text before the first . narrows the search to the tables whose name or logical name contains it: @users.em lists the columns containing em in tables whose name or logical name contains users, @users. lists the columns of those tables, and @.em searches every table. A table's own logical name makes no row under @; # finds it. With nothing after @, each column is listed once, by its name.
: lists table comments, column comments, and memos, never names or logical names. Each row shows an excerpt of the text around the match, with users · Table comment, users.email · Column comment, or Memo beside it. Text after : has to appear in the comment or memo, ignoring case, as with @. With nothing after :, the comments and memos that are not empty are listed. While View Option → Memos hides the memos, : lists no memo.
@ and : list their rows in the order the document holds them: table by table, each table's comment before its columns in column order, and memos last. Under @, a column's logical name row comes before its name row.
The place beside an @ or : row gives the table's and the column's names, never their logical names, in every view.
? lists Tables, Columns, and Comments & memos, and text after ? filters them. Choosing one replaces the input with its prefix and leaves the palette open.
A prefixed list holds every match, however many there are. A prefix whose search finds nothing leaves the list empty, with no message.
Choosing a table, column, comment, or memo closes the palette and switches to the ERD tab if you are on another one.
The canvas scrolls to it unless it already shows well — see Where a Jump Lands. A table is then selected alone and brought to the front. Unless the focus was already in that table, the first cell of its header is focused: its name, or its logical name in Logical Names and Both Names.
A memo is selected alone and brought to the front. For a column or a comment, its table is selected alone, brought to the front, and focused on the cell that holds the text. Where the view does not draw that cell, the focus goes on the cell drawn in its place: a logical name found in Physical Names lands on the name, and a name found in Logical Names on the logical name. A comment that a table view option hides lands on the name beside it, or, in Logical Names, on the logical name.
No jump starts or finishes a relationship being drawn.
For Match Case, Match Whole Word, or Use Regular Expression, or to replace text, use Find and Replace at the top of the Explorer.
When No Command Matches
At the top level, with no prefix, if no listed command contains what you typed, ignoring case, three rows follow the commands: Search tables for "…", Search columns for "…", and Search comments & memos for "…", each with its prefix as the icon. Choosing one types that prefix before your text, so users becomes #users, and the palette stays open on those results.
If the search finds no command at all, No commands match appears above the list, which then holds only the three rows. If it finds only commands that do not contain the text, they come first: on the ERD tab with no table selected, tables lists New Table, Database, and, where it is offered, New Table Group before the three rows. With a table selected, Group Selected Tables, where it is offered, contains tables, so the three rows do not appear.
Inside a submenu, a search that finds nothing leaves the list empty, with no message.
Searching in Korean
A search that contains Hangul also matches by its letters, in the commands, in submenus, and under every prefix.
Each step a Korean input method passes through keeps finding the row you are typing toward, so ㅅ, 사, 상, 사요, and 사용 all find 사용자. A search made only of initial consonants matches the initial consonants of the syllables, with spaces skipped: ㅅㅇㅈ finds 사용자, and ㅈㅁ finds 주문 내역. A consonant cluster that a Windows input method composes from two initials typed in a row, such as ㅄ, counts as the two (ㅂㅅ), while a double consonant such as ㄲ stays one letter. Text stored decomposed, as macOS file names are, matches as if it were composed.
Rows whose whole text spells the search, letter by letter or initial by initial, come first, then rows starting with it, then rows containing it. Under @ and :, rows that contain the search as typed come before all of these, in document order. The highlight covers whole syllables, so 상 lights 사용 in 사용자.