5 Essential Crafting Shortcuts for Minecraft

(Estimated Read Time: 6 minutes)

From speedruns to adventuring with friends, crafting is an important part of any Minecraft playthrough. But did you know there are ways to take crafting one step further? Today we explore the 5 Essential Crafting Shortcuts for Minecraft that will leave anyone crafting like a pro.

Mouse Shortcuts

Everyone knows the basics of selecting and placing items within a crafting table, but a surprisingly large number never hold the button down! Our first two tricks start with the mouse.

Left Clicking

Left-clicking picks up an item, but if held and dragged, it will split the stack evenly across the crafting table, player inventory, or chest. Taking it a step further, double left-clicking will sort all loose items of the same kind into a single stack!

Right Clicking

Right-clicking places a single block on the crafting table, but if held and dragged, it will place one item from the stack on each slot of the crafting table. And much like left-clicking, there is one more feature that is simply underused. Right-clicking a stack of items splits it in two!

Shift Shortcuts

Now we combine the keyboard and mouse for even more power! Shift controls may seem a bit daunting, but they are worth every second saved.

Shift + Clicking: Inventory Management

A single shift-click automatically moves items/blocks between the player inventory and open crafting table/chest/furnace/enchanting table/etc. This allows for the quick placement of stacks on a crafting table, fast storage to and from chests, and even sending coal directly into the furnace. All without dragging and dropping!

If shift-clicking while only the inventory is open, the game will instead send items directly to and from the hotbar. A speedy way to get more potions out mid-combat, for example! Shift-clicking armor and shields will also equip them automatically from the inventory if nothing is already in place.

Shift + Clicking: Crafting

If making multiple of one item, shift-clicking the crafting table output will automatically craft the maximum number of blocks/items based on the resources provided. No more clicking arrows individually, for example!

Shift + Left Clicking

The final control requires a block/item to be held with a single left-click. Once done, holding shift and double left-clicking a block/item of the same kind will automatically move all items/blocks of that kind between the player inventory and whatever happens to be open.

For example, this can be used to instantly move a full inventory of cobblestone into a chest or instantly move nine stacks of diamonds into a crafting table.

Advanced Crafting (Modded Java Edition)

For those looking to truly optimize their crafting experience, client-side mods are the way to go. There have been many famous options, some borderline cheating, but the optimization can’t be beat! These require forge or fabric to be installed client-side, however.

Crafting Tweaks

Since the early days of 1.12, Crafting Tweaks has remained a must-have client-side companion for over fifty million players. Some even claim they can’t play without it! To quote the Crafting Tweaks curseforge page, their handy mod offers the following:

• Rotate the outer circle of the crafting grid
• Balance the materials in the crafting grid to even stack sizes
• Clear the crafting grid into your inventory
• Transfer items into the grid by holding the W key while clicking them (Shift+W transfers all of type)
• Instantly compress or decompress blocks into their block/ingot forms through a keybind
• Right-click the result slot to craft a full stack
• Supports many modded Crafting Tables
• Bi-optional. Only those who want to use it need to install it, and if the server doesn’t have it installed, it will still work for people who do have it installed.

EasierCrafting

Growing in popularity since its debut in 1.16, the fabric mod EasierCrafting has been making crafting easier every day since! This is achieved by completely removing the need for the vanilla crafting grid and instead listing every recipe that can be crafted with your current inventory. With a simple click or shift-click, crafting is done instantly.

EasierCrafting comes with other neat features as well, such as percent progression on furnaces and repeated crafting of saved recipes on looms! But be warned, this mod is so efficient some servers consider it cheating!

5 Essential Crafting Shortcuts for Minecraft

With these helpful tips and perhaps a few mods, your crafting speed will be up there with the likes of Dream! Okay, maybe not that fast, but they are useful just the same! We hope these tips have helped in any small way.

Until Next Time,

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