Minecraft keyboard and mouse controls – TAF Help Desk

This article explains how to move around with one of the most common interfaces for Minecraft: Education Edition, a keyboard and mouse. We encourage you to bookmark or print out this page while you are learning how to play, you’ll likely refer to it often.

This article will cover:

Moving around Minecraft

W - Move forward

A - Strafe left

S - Move backward

D - Strafe right

CONTROL - Sprint

SPACE

Jump by pressing space bar when walking.
Hop to the block in front of you up by pressing space bar and W at the same time.
- Hint: This is great for moving up staircases.
When swimming, space bar will bring you to the surface.
- Hint: When playing in Survival mode, you can't hold your breath under water forever! Use the space bar to catch a breath.
Fly in Creative mode by pressing space bar twice
- Use these tips when trying to get somewhere quickly:
  - Press space bar once more and you'll levitate upwards.
  - Press space bar twice again to drop back to the ground.

SHIFT

When on the ground, press shift to crouch down and sneak.
When in the air (Creative mode), press shift to fly downwards.

Mouse controls

1 - Attack/Destroy

2 - Pick block. In Creative mode, "2" will place a copy of the target block in your Hotbar.

3 - Use item/place block

Other useful buttons

ESC - Returns you to the menu and then back to the game.

Q - Drops the item you are carrying.

E - Opens and closes your inventory. In creative mode, you can view all the building blocks at your disposal this way.

C - Opens Code Builder.

T - Opens the chat window. Press RETURN to send message.

/ - Opens the chat window with a / already typed. This is handy to quickly enter commands.

1-9 - Selects the appropriate slot in the Hotbar.

F1 - Toggles the interface visibility. This is handy when you want to take a screenshot.

F5 - Changes your player perspective. Toggle to select from the following: First Person → Third Person Rear → Third Person → back to First Person

Changing settings

If these keyboard settings are non-intuitive, you can change them. You can also see how to move around with a controller, a touch interface, or modify any or all of these settings:

Press ESC to return to the menu.
Select Settings
Scroll down to Controls and click on the desired interface.
Modify as needed – if you make a mistake or want to go back, you can find the reset button to change everything back at the bottom of the list.
No need to save, the settings are updated automatically. Find out what works best for you!

Additional resources