Tips and Tricks for Scratch

Contributed by Ashley Lee, November 11, 2009

A list of tips and shortcuts from the Scratch programming team

Original Author: Natalie, Scratch Team
Education Level: Preschool and Kindergarten, Elementary School, Middle School, High School, College and University, Professional Development, Other
Content Types: Reference Guide, Tutorial
Curricular Areas: Computer Science, Engineering, Language Arts, Mathematics, Music, Science, Social Studies, Teacher Education, Technology, Visual Arts, Other
Keywords: reference, shortcuts, tips

Here's a list of tips and shortcuts from the Scratch programming team.

SPRITES

Find a sprite: To show a sprite that's off the screen or hidden, Shift+click on its thumbnail in the sprite list (bottom right-corner of screen) - this will bring the sprite to the middle and show it.
To turn a costume into a separate sprite, right-click (Mac Ctrl+click) and select "turn into a sprite".
Drag the blue line on sprite thumbnail (in the middle of the screen) to rotate the sprite.
To rotate a sprite from the stage, shift+click on the sprite.
Shortcut to get a sprite to "point in direction 90": double-click on sprite thumbnail in the top middle of the screen.
To delete a sprite, use the Scissors tool (or Right-click and choose "delete")
To delete multiple sprites, Shift+click with the Scissors (it won't revert to the arrow)
To make multiple copies of a sprite, Shift+click with the Copy tool (it won't revert to the arrow)
Drag to reorder thumbnails in sprite list (bottom right corner of screen)
Drag to reorder costumes in the Costume tab area
To make a sprite that looks like part of the background, Right-click (Mac Ctrl+click) the stage to grab a portion of the image on the stage.

BLOCKS AND SCRIPTS

To copy a stack of blocks from one sprite to another, drag the stack to the thumbnail of the other sprite (at the bottom right corner of the screen).
To clean up the script area, right-click (Mac Ctrl+click) in Scripts area.
Get help for any block: right-click (Mac Ctrl+click) on the block
You can fit some blocks within other blocks. For example, you can put any Number or Sensing blocks with curved edges inside a "switch to costume" block or any block that has a white number or text area.
Want to get the current x-y of a sprite? Click on the Motion category to update the x-y numbers in the glide and go-to blocks in the palette.

PAINT EDITOR

To crop an image, outline it with the Selection tool, then Shift+delete (or Shift+backspace)
To rotate part of a costume, use the selection tool, then click the left or right Rotate button (curved arrows).
To rotate more precisely: Shift+click on the left or right Rotate button. It will let you enter a # of degrees to rotate
Grow or shrink more precisely: Shift+click on the Grow or Shrink button (arrows pointing out or in). It will let you enter a % size for a costume
To stamp multiple times, press Shift while using the Stamp tool.
Press Shift with the Rectangle tool to make a square.
Press Shift with the Oval tool to make a circle.
Press Shift with Line tool to make a straight horizontal or vertical line.
Press Shift key when clicking on a color square to change the other color.
To pick up a color from outside the paint editor, select the Eyedropper tool, click in the Paint editor, then drag while holding down the mouse key.

REPORTERS & VARIABLES

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS (some of these are repeats with above)

To delete multiple sprites, Shift+ click with the Scissors tool (it won't revert to the arrow).
Check boxes to show monitors on stage
To make multiple copies of a sprite, Shift+click with Copy tool (it won't revert to the arrow).
Ctrl+S to save your project.

OTHER

You can drag multiple images at once into Scratch. They will become costumes within a sprite.
You can drag in an animated gif.
You can drag in images from a web browser, Word, and some other programs (on Windows).
You can drag in a Scratch project from a file folder.

Other Files:

Links:

Source