Move Lines with Option or Alt and the Arrow Keys

Move Lines with Option or Alt and the Arrow Keys

Reordering a checklist, outline, or paragraph should not require a cut-and-paste round trip. Markdown Explorer moves the current block with the keyboard.

The shortcut

• macOS: Option + Arrow Up or Option + Arrow Down
• Windows and Linux: Alt + Arrow Up or Alt + Arrow Down

Place the cursor anywhere in a line and press the shortcut. The containing Markdown block moves above or below its neighbor, and the cursor follows it.

Move several lines together

Select the lines before pressing the shortcut. Markdown Explorer moves every selected block as one unit and keeps the selection active.

Starting text:

- Draft the guide
- Capture the screenshots
- Review the examples
- Publish

Select the middle two items and press Option/Alt + Arrow Up:

- Capture the screenshots
- Review the examples
- Draft the guide
- Publish

This is especially useful for:

• changing the priority of task-list items;
• rearranging headings in an outline;
• moving a paragraph closer to the section it explains;
• reordering several adjacent blocks without damaging formatting.

What moves

The editor works with structured Markdown blocks rather than blindly swapping individual visual lines. A wrapped paragraph remains one paragraph. A selected group remains together. At the first or last available position, the command stops instead of moving content outside its valid parent.

For deeply nested lists, put the selection around the complete list items you want to reorder. If your goal is to change nesting rather than order, use the list indentation controls instead.

A safe editing rhythm

Move the content, read the surrounding heading and preview, and use Cmd/Ctrl + Z if the new order is not clearer. Because the selection remains with the moved content, it is easy to repeat the command.

For navigation across many documents, continue with Quick Open file search.