Keyboard Shortcuts?

[Kimberly]

I'm interested in learning about possible keyboard shortcuts,
especially pertaining to scheduling/programming.

Thanks, all!

[Dave Becker]

Hi, Kimberly.

Keyboard shortcuts can make working in Facil, or other Windows programs,
much more efficient. Interrupting your typing to use the mouse in the
middle of your flow of data entry will really kill your speed!

There is a Help topic in Facil titled "Shortcut Keys" - it covers the use of
a number of specific shortcut keystrokes in Facil and some common Windows
shortcut keys. I won't repeat the Help content here - just click the Help
button in Facil and select the "Shortcut Keys" topic from the drop down menu
at the bottom.

Two other Help topics that talk about navigating with keystrokes and
keyboard shortcuts are "Data Entry" and "Date and Time, Entering and
Editing".

One VERY USEFUL and very simple keyboard shortcut that a lot of Windows
users miss: You're typing along when a message box pops up and takes the
"focus". This happens a lot in Facil! You can't do anything else until you
deal with that message, usually by clicking OK, or sometimes by choosing
between Yes/No, Save/Cancel, etc. Almost everyone stops typing and grabs
for the mouse. Don't do that! Simply press Enter or the spacebar. Either
one will "click" the active button in the message box. If there is more
than one button / choice in the message box, you'll note that one of them is
highlighted with a dark border - that's the active button and that's the
choice you'll make when you press Enter or spacebar. If you want a
different choice, you still don't need the mouse. Just press Tab to move
from one button to the other, then press Enter or spacebar when your choice
is active.

On Facil forms and menus, you'll also find that many of the command buttons
have a shortcut keystroke that "presses" the button. Look on the button's
text label for an underlined letter. This indicates the shortcut key -
press Alt and the underlined letter to perform the same function as clicking
the button with the mouse.

Using editing the Program Schedule as an example, here's how you could take
advantage of shortcut keys:

* Open the Program Schedule form.

* Note in the Criteria area that the "C" in Channel is underlined. Press
Alt-C to begin setting criteria.

* Tab through the Criteria fields, to make your choices. In any field with a
"dropdown arrow", press Alt-Down Arrow to drop down the choices - this
includes calendars and times. The calendar/time form can be navigated with
tab and cursor keys to reach any date/time, press Enter to confirm your
choice.

* When you are in the Criteria area, Tab and cursor movements will just move
through the Criteria fields. To move from the Criteria area to the list of
scheduled events, press Page Up.

* Now the focus is on the list of events and you can move through it in
several ways: Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDn to move one row at a time, PgUp/PgDn
to move a page at a time, Ctrl-Home/Ctrl-End to jump to the first or last
event. You can use the up/down cursor to move through the list, but this
actually moves to each of the two "link" buttons in each row so it takes two
keystrokes to move one row.

* When you're on the time slot you want to edit, press Alt-E. Note the
underlined "E" on the Edit button at the top of the form. The Edit subform
opens and again you can navigate through it using Tab and Shift-Tab, and
Alt-Down Arrow to "drop down" the choices.

* Alt-S will save your changes in the Edit subform and update the Schedule
display.

* When the Edit subform is open, you can only navigate the event list with
the mouse - all keystrokes are processed by the Edit subform. Close the
Edit subform by clicking on the "<<<" button and you can again scroll
through the event list, then press Alt-E for your next edit.

Unfortunately, there is no keystroke for closing the Edit subform, so that's
the one thing that keeps the process from being completely "mouse free".
That's something I'll address in a future update.

I hope you found this helpful. There are many "secrets" to using Facil most
efficiently and effectively and I hope other Facil users will contribute
their favorite techniques through this discussion group. Don't forget to
start a new post for each topic! And please sign your name and organization
to your posts.

Dave Becker
Becker Software