Blog
Tips - How to improve productivity with shortcut keys
March 17. 2021
In the canvas app designer, we can use shortcut keys to perform tasks more quickly. Here's a summary of some of the more useful shortcut keys that can help improve productivity.
The canvas app designer supports a wide range of shortcut keys. Here's some of the more useful key combinations that can help us improve productivity.
1. Saving changes
The CtrlS key combination saves the changes to our app.This simple key combination makes it very simple to save changes frequently, which reduces the possibility of losing work.
Another useful key combination is CtrlShiftP. This saves the app and opens the publish dialog. This is particulary useful in cases where we frequently need to publish our apps during the development phase. Examples include cases where we're developing deep-link navigation features, or cases where we're developing apps for offline use.
The F12 key provides a quick way to download a copy of the msapp file.
2. Editing screens
2. Editing screens
Most of all the familiar shortcut keys from Windows/Microsoft Office works in the designer. This includes the copy, cut, and paste shortcut keys: CtrlC / CtrlX / CtrlV
The undo and re-do shortcuts also work: CtrlZ / CtrlY
The text formatting shortcut keys also work when we edit controls such as labels. This includes shortcuts to bold, italizize, and to underline text: CtrlB / CtrlI / CtrlU
The text formatting shortcut keys also work when we edit controls such as labels. This includes shortcuts to bold, italizize, and to underline text: CtrlB / CtrlI / CtrlU
3. Creating screens
A very convenient shortcut key is CtrlM. This shortcut creates a new screen. There are often cases where we want to quickly create a new screen to test a formula or to experiment. This shortcut saves us from needing to navigate to the top of the designer in order to click the 'new screen' button.
4.Resizing and moving controls
When we select a control in the designer, we can move the control by using the arrows keys: ←→ ↑↓ . We can use this technique to more precisely move and to position controls.
If we press the Shift key when a control is selected, the arrow keys will increase or decrease the height and width of the control.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The canvas app designer supports many familiar shortcut keys, such as CtrlS to save changes. These shortcut keys help improve productivity. For a full list of supported shortcut keys, we can refer to the documentation here:.
