My favorite keyboard commands
A while back I published this article on my personal blog. I'm republishing it hear for the benefit of the broader audience.
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I have a confession to make… I started hacking around in computers with Windows 3.1—never learned how to really use the command line. I know—I have fallen from grace for many of you developers. The mouse has been my friend. I’m trying to change and use keyboard shortcuts more often. Here is a list of keyboard commands I’m trying to use more frequently:
| To do this | Press |
| Refresh a view if the object is in browse view. If a form is in design view it will open in the default view. F9 – Refreshes the list contents of a combo or recalc expressions for the current record. Record focus is not changed. Shift-F9 – Requeries the object. Record focus back to the top with the current data. Combo/List box contents may not be refreshed. F5 should do both or Refresh All. – Shawn (test lead) | F5 |
| Open an object in design view from the nav pane | CTRL ENTER or SHIFT-F10, D |
| Cycle between windows in SDI | CTRL F6 |
| Toggle between panes (nav pane, ribbon, open object) | F6 |
| Expand/collapse the navigation pane | F11 |
| Open a builder or zoom window (when you have focus in a property) | SHIFT + F2 |
| Close an open Window | CRTL + F4 |
| Expand/Collapse the ribbon (You can also double click on the active tab) | CTRL + F1 |
| Set focus to the search box in the nav pane (once it has focus) ENTER while in the nav pane search box opens the top item in the nav pane in browse. CTRL+ENTER while in the nav pane search box opens the top item in the nav pane in design. –Scott (nav pane developer) | CTRL + F |
| Flip an object into design mode | ALT, H, W, D |
| Set focus to the search box in record navigation bar If you have the focus in the record navigation bar search box and press ESC, we’ll take the focus to the form/grid in the selection you had. So you can quickly do CTRL+SHIFT+F, search for something, press ESC, edit it, CTRL+SHIFT+F, etc… --Marcus (new look developer) | CTRL + SHIFT + F |
| Insert the current date | CTRL+SEMICOLON (;) |
| Insert the current time | CTRL+SHIFT+COLON (:) |
| Insert the value from the same field in the previous record | CTRL+APOSTROPHE (') |
| Add a new record | CTRL+PLUS SIGN (+) |
| In a datasheet, delete the current record | CTRL+MINUS SIGN (-) |
| Drop down a combo box when it has focus | F4 |
| Save changes to the current record | CTRL S |
| Switch between Edit mode (with insertion point displayed) and Navigation mode in a datasheet. When using a form or report, press ESC to leave Navigation mode. | F2 |
| Toggle the Field List | ALT + F8 |
| Open the VBE Immediate window | CTRL G |
| Open VBE | ALT + F11 |
Here are a couple help article that provides far more references http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HP100913941033.aspx?pid=CH101326501033 and http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HA100919081033.aspx.
Many thanks to all the Access team members that chipped in with comments.
