# Bomb Manual Shortcuts: Find a Page in Two Keys

- Author: Bomb Appétit (https://bombappetit.com)
- Published: 2026-10-20
- Category: Modules and the manual
- Canonical: https://bombappetit.com/blog/bomb-manual-shortcuts-find-a-page-fast

> Bomb manual shortcuts save seconds: press / to filter the sections, Enter to jump, and j or k to move one page. How an Expert finds a module fast.
The online bomb manual has three keyboard shortcuts. The slash key jumps the cursor into the "Find a module" box, Enter scrolls to the first section whose name matches what you typed, and j or k moves one section down or up. Together they put an Expert on the right page before the Defuser finishes describing the panel.

## What the manual sidebar offers besides shortcuts

The manual's sidebar holds four tools: a filter box labelled "Find a module", a list of every section, a rule seed box with an Open button, and a button that says "Print or save as PDF". The keyboard shortcuts drive the first two. The other two set up the round before it starts.

The section list has seventeen entries. It opens with "How to use this manual", then the eleven regular modules from Wires to Passcode, then the three needy modules, then "Appendix: edgework" and "Glossary". Each name is a link, so clicking or tapping one scrolls straight to that page.

The rule seed box takes a whole number from 1 to 999,999. Type the seed shown on the Defuser's bomb and press Open, and the browser loads that manual. Do this before the round, because a manual for the wrong seed gives confident, wrong answers. The print button opens the browser's print dialog for anyone who wants paper.

On a wide screen the sidebar stays in view while the page scrolls. On a narrow one it sits above the opening page and the section names wrap across several lines. You can try all of this now on [the standard manual, seed 1](/manual/1).

## How does the / shortcut filter the manual?

Pressing the slash key moves the cursor into the filter box. Each letter typed then hides every section whose name does not contain those letters. Pressing Enter scrolls to the first section still listed and takes the cursor out of the box, so the next keys you press act on the page again.

The match is on the section title only, ignores capital letters, and finds the letters anywhere in the name, not just at the start. That is why three letters are usually enough. Here is what each key does and when to reach for it.

| Key   | What it does                                          | When to use it                                          |
| ----- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| /     | Puts the cursor in the "Find a module" box            | The Defuser has just named a module you are not on      |
| Enter | Scrolls to the first matching section, leaves the box | The letters typed narrow the list to the page you want  |
| j     | Scrolls to the next section down                      | The module you need is the one after this page          |
| k     | Scrolls to the previous section up                    | You overshot, or the module is the one before this page |

An example exchange, with the keystrokes counted:

1. The Defuser says, "Next one is a Passcode, five letter wheels."
2. The Expert presses /, which is one key.
3. The Expert types p, a, s. Only "Passcode" is left in the list. That is three keys.
4. The Expert presses Enter, one more key, and the Passcode page is at the top of the screen.

Five keystrokes in this example, and nobody scrolled past ten other modules to get there. The slash key does nothing while the cursor is already in a text box, such as the seed box, and it is also ignored when Ctrl, Alt or Command is held down, so browser shortcuts still work.

## Moving page by page with the j and k shortcuts

The j key scrolls to the next section and k to the previous one. They work from wherever the page currently sits. Stepping beats filtering when the next module you need sits right beside the one you are on, which happens often because the manual keeps modules in a fixed order.

That order runs Wires, Big Button, Glyph Keypad, Color Echo, Word Grid, Recall, Blinker, Tangled Wires, Wire Panels, Labyrinth, Passcode, then Pressure Vent, Discharge Lever and Dial Alignment. A Defuser who works from Tangled Wires to Wire Panels needs one press of j, which is faster than four keys of filtering.

The keys decide where you are from the section whose top edge has scrolled past the top of the window. Pressing k on the opening page stays put, and pressing j on the Glossary does too. Both keys are ignored while the cursor sits in the filter box, so if j types a letter into the box instead of moving, press Enter or click the page first.

## When are shortcuts slower than scrolling?

Shortcuts need a keyboard and a screen. An Expert reading on a phone has neither the slash key nor j and k within easy reach, and an Expert holding a printout has no sidebar at all. In both cases the fastest route is different, and planning it before the round saves fumbling.

On a phone, tap the section name in the list near the top of the page. That jumps as fast as Enter does, as long as you scroll back up to the list first. Typing into the filter box on a touch keyboard works too but costs a tap to open the keyboard.

On paper the sidebar is left out of the print. Each section begins on its own sheet, in the same fixed order as the screen. A sticky tab on each module's sheet, or a stack split between two people, does the job the filter does on screen. The guide on [how the bomb game manual is organized](/blog/the-bomb-game-manual-how-pages-are-organized) shows what each page holds.

Scrolling also wins when you are already on the page and only need the section below. On the Big Button page, the strip color table sits under the rule list. A short scroll reaches it, while j would jump past it to Glyph Keypad.

## The shortcut mistake: filtering for a word the title lacks

The filter matches section titles and nothing else. Typing a word that describes a module, rather than its name, empties the list and shows "No section matches". The most common case is typing maze: the maze puzzle is called Labyrinth, so maze finds nothing and Enter goes nowhere.

The same trap catches other descriptive words. Typing symbols will not find Glyph Keypad. Typing code to reach the blinking light is worse, because it quietly opens Passcode, the only title containing those letters. Lever does find Discharge Lever, because that word is part of its name. Learning the fourteen module names once fixes the problem for good.

Short filters cause a quieter version of the mistake. The filter matches letters anywhere in a title, so typing re lists Wires before Recall, because "wires" contains those two letters, and Enter goes to Wires. Typing w alone lands on "How to use this manual". Three letters from the start of the module's name avoids both: rec, wir, pas, lab.

Once the page is open, the work moves to reading it. Pages built as numbered lists are covered in [reading a manual rule list to the first true line](/blog/manual-rule-lists-first-true-line), and pages built as grids are covered in [reading manual lookup tables row first, then column](/blog/manual-lookup-tables-row-then-column). For the step after the shortcut, the advice on [finding the right line once on the page](/blog/the-bomb-game-manual-how-pages-are-organized#finding-the-right-line-while-the-clock-runs) explains how to read only the part the Defuser's answer points to.