Navigating the user interface using the keyboard

The user interface is navigable using the keyboard. The Tab key is used to iterate through the controls in a particular scope (for example, a dialog or a view and its related icons). To navigate to the main controls for the user interface or to tab out of views that use the Tab key (such as editors), use Ctrl+Tab.

Menus

Menus can be accessed using the keyboard in the following ways:

F10 accesses the menus on the main menu bar.
Shift+F10 opens the context menu for the current view.
Note: This shortcut is dependent on your window manager. In most cases, it is Shift+F10.
Ctrl+F10 opens the pull down menu (if there is one) for the current view. For editors, Ctrl+F10 will open the menu for the marker bar to the left of the editor area.
Alt+mnemonic will activate the main menu for a particular entry (for example, Alt+W will open the Window menu).
Microsoft® Windows® only: Pressing Alt will give focus to the menu bar.

Controls

Mnemonics are assigned to most control labels (for example, buttons, check boxes, and radio buttons) in dialog boxes, preference pages, and property pages. To access the control associated with a label, use the Alt key along with the letter that is underlined in the label.

Navigation Context

Navigation context is saved for preferences and properties dialogs. The selected page for the preferences and properties dialog is saved between invocations of the dialog but are not saved between user interface invocations.

Cycling Editors, Views and Perspectives

To switch between editors, views and perspectives, the user interface provides a cycling function that is invoked by Ctrl and a function key. All of these cycling functions recall the last thing selected to allow for rapid cycling back and forth between two items. The cycling functions are:

Ctrl+F6 - Cycle to Editor
Ctrl+F7 - Cycle to View
Ctrl+F8 - Cycle to Perspective

In addition, Ctrl+E can be used to activate the editor drop-down - and Ctrl+PageUp and Ctrl+PageDown can be used for switching between open editors.

Key Assist

Many of the actions in the user interface have keyboard bindings assigned to them. To access the list of available keyboard bindings, select Help > Key Assist from the main menu.

Help system

You can navigate the help system by keyboard using the following key combinations:

Pressing Tab inside a frame (page) takes you to the next link, button or topic node.
To expand a tree node, press the Right arrow. To collapse a tree node, press the Left arrow.
To move to the next topic node, press the Down arrow or Tab.
To move to the previous topic node, press Up arrow or Shift+Tab.
To display the selected topic, press Enter.
To scroll all the way up, press Home. To scroll all the way down, press End.
To go back, press Alt+Left arrow. To go forward, press Alt+Right arrow.
To go to the next frame or toolbar, press Ctrl+Tab (Ctrl+F6 if using Mozilla or a Mozilla-based browser).
To move to the previous frame, press Shift+Ctrl+Tab. (Shift+Ctrl+F6 if using Mozilla or a Mozilla-based browser).
To move to the frame displaying topic content, press Alt+K (when using the embedded help browser on Windows or Internet Explorer).
To move to the Contents tab, press Alt+C.
To move to the Search Results tab, press Alt+R.
To move between tabs, press the Right/Left arrows.
To switch to another view, select a tab and then press Enter.
To switch and move to a view, select a tab and then press the Up arrow.
To move to the search entry field, press Alt+S.
To print the current page or active frame, press Ctrl+P.
To find a string in the current page or active frame, press Ctrl+F (when using the embedded help browser on Windows or Internet Explorer).

Most labels of controls on help system pop-up dialogs have mnemonics assigned to them. To access the control associated with a label, use the Alt key along with the letter that is underlined.