Top Keyboard Shortcuts in SQL Server Management Studio Express

SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) is the primary SQL Server Express management and development tool. Using keyboard shortcuts lets you do more work faster, so one of the best ways to be productive with SSMSE is to understand the available keyboard shortcuts. SSMSE supports quite a few keyboard shortcuts, but here are the most common.

SSMSE supports the standard Microsoft editing keyboard shortcuts. CTRL+C copies the selected text, CTRL+X cuts the selected text, CTRL+V pastes the contents of the clipboard, CTRL+Z undoes the most recent change, and CTRL+Y restores the last undo action.

An incredibly handy shortcut, the F5 key runs either the selected text in the Query Editor window or all of the statements in the window if nothing is selected.

Commenting and uncommenting lines in the Query Editor window is one of the common actions that you'll perform when creating larger queries and stored procedures. To comment a line, select the line and type CTRL+C. You can uncomment the line by using CTRL+U.

By default, SSMSE displays query results in a grid format. However, it’s sometimes better to see the results as text. Typing CTRL+T switches the output to text format. CTRL+D toggles the output back to grid format.

You might find it handy to see the execution plan that a query will use to make sure the query is being executed as you expect. Typing CTRL+L executes either the selected text in the Query Editor window (or all the statements in the window if nothing is selected) and displays the execution plan.