Today’s Question: Is there a way in Lightroom to quickly jump back to the “Basic” tab in the Develop module? I spend a lot of time in the Masking areas and other parts of the Develop module while developing my photos, and I’d be even happier if there were a keyboard shortcut to open that Basic tab.
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can switch to (or expand) the Basic section of the right panel in the Develop module by pressing Ctrl+1 on Windows or Command+1 on Macintosh.
More Detail: You can switch between sections on the right panel in all modules in Lightroom Classic by holding the Ctrl key on Windows or the Command key on Macintosh while pressing the number associated with the particular section. In the Library and Develop modules the Histogram is assigned the number zero, so you could press Ctrl+0 on Windows or Command+0 on Macintosh to expand or collapse the Histogram section, for example.
For all other sections in all modules, the numbering starts with one and goes from there. So, in the context of the Develop module with the default panel configuration the Basic section has a keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+1 or Command+1, the Tone Curve section has a keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+2 or Command+2, and so on.
These keyboard shortcuts serve as a toggle beyond just navigating to a section. They will also expand or collapse the section. So, for example, if you were currently looking at the Basic section you could press Ctrl+4 or Command+4 to quickly scroll to the Color Grading section. At that point if you were to press Ctrl+4 or Command+4 again the Color Grading section would collapse. You could then press the keyboard shortcut yet again to expand the section once more.
These shortcuts will work even if you haven’t collapsed the panel associated with one of the special tools, such as the Crop or Masking tool. The only issue is that if you haven’t collapsed the section for the tool, that section will take away from the space that is available for the other sections on the right panel.
