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Creating Control Shortcut Keys

Creating shortcut keys for individual data entry controls can help users move quickly from one control to another on a form. This feature can be especially useful when your tab order includes controls that routinely use a pre-defined default and seldom need user input, as the user can quickly move to the control that does require input.

You can assign a shortcut key to a control using one of the following methods.

ClosedTo create a shortcut key using the control's text label

  1. Double-click on the control you want in order to open the Control Properties dialog. Alternatively, select Properties from the control's context menu.

  2. In the Navigation Pane, select Text to open the Text property page.

  3. If the properties on this page are not available for editing, click Show Text Label to enable a label for the control.

  4. In the Text field, type the character "&" directly before the letter that you want to use as the shortcut key for the control.

  5. Click Close to close the Control Properties dialog.

At print time, shortcut keys created on control labels are visible by pressing the Alt key; press the Alt key followed by the letter shown "underlined" in the label to move the form focus to that control.

ClosedTo create a shortcut function key

  1. Double-click on the control you want to open the Control Properties dialog. Alternatively, select Properties from the control's context menu.

  2. In the Navigation Pane, select Data Entry to open the Data Entry property page.

  3. In the dropdown list for Function Key, select the key that you want to assign to the control.

  4. Click Close to close the Control Properties dialog.

At print time, press the shortcut function key to move the form focus to the control assigned that function key (for example, F4 or Shift+F4).