1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> 2<html lang="en"> 3<head> 4 5<meta name="copyright" content="Copyright (c) IBM Corporation and others 2000, 2013. This page is made available under license. For full details see the LEGAL in the documentation book that contains this page." > 6 7 <LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="../../book.css" CHARSET="ISO-8859-1" TYPE="text/css"> 8 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> 9 <title>Navigating the user interface using the keyboard</title> 10</head> 11 12 <body> 13 14 <h1>Navigating the user interface using the keyboard</h1> 15 <p>The user interface is navigable using the keyboard. The Tab key is used to 16 iterate through the controls in a window (for example, a dialog, or the current 17 perspective's views and editors and the main controls for the Workbench window). 18 To tab out of views that use the Tab key (such as editors) use Ctrl+Tab. 19 When the focus is on an editor or view tab, pressing the left/right arrow key moves 20 to the previous/next tab and pressing Enter moves the focus to the current selection 21 in the editor or view.</p> 22 <h2>Menus</h2> 23 <p>Most menus are assigned mnemonics for each entry which allow you to 24 select them by typing the underlined letter instead of the mouse. You can also 25 select an item by moving through the menus and sub-menus with the arrow keys. </p> 26 <p>The various menus available can be accessed using the keyboard in the 27 following ways: </p> 28 <ul> 29 <li>F10 accesses the menus on the main menu bar.</li> 30 <li>Shift+F10 pops up the context menu for the current view. (Note: this 31 shortcut is actually dependent on your window manager, but for most people it 32 should be Shift+F10.)</li> 33 <li>Ctrl+F10 will open the pull down menu for the current view if there is 34 one. For editors, Ctrl+F10 will open the menu for the marker bar on the left of the 35 editor area.</li> 36 <li>Alt+mnemonic will activate the Workbench menu for a particular entry 37 (e.g., Alt+W will bring down the Window menu).</li> 38 <li>Microsoft Windows only: Pressing Alt will give focus to the menu 39 bar.</li> 40 </ul> 41 <h2>Controls</h2> 42 <p>Mnemonics are assigned to most control labels (e.g., buttons, checkboxes, 43 radio buttons, etc.) in dialog boxes, preference pages, and property pages. To 44 access the control associated with a label, use the Alt key along with the 45 letter that is underlined in the label.</p> 46 <h2>Navigation Context</h2> 47 <p>Navigation context is saved for the packages, navigator views, Workbench preferences and properties dialogs. 48 The selected page for the preferences and properties dialog is saved between 49 invocations of the dialog but are not saved between workbench invocations. </p> 50 <h2>Cycling Editors, Views and Perspectives </h2> 51 <p>To switch between editors, views and perspectives, the workbench provides a cycling 52 function that is invoked by Ctrl and a function key. All of these cycling 53 functions recall the last thing selected to allow for rapid cycling back and 54 forth between two items. The cycling functions are </p> 55 <ul> 56 <li>Ctrl+F6 - Cycle to Editor</li> 57 <li>Ctrl+F7 - Cycle to View</li> 58 <li>Ctrl+F8 - Cycle to Perspective</li> 59 </ul> 60 <p>If you use the "StickyKeys" input, you might need to enable the "Keep next/previous editor, 61 view and perspectives dialog open" option on the 62 63<a class="command-link" href='javascript:executeCommand("org.eclipse.ui.window.preferences(preferencePageId=org.eclipse.ui.preferencePages.Workbench)")'> 64<img src="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.help/command_link.svg" alt="command link"> 65<strong>General</strong></a> 66 67 preference page.</p> 68 <p>Also, Ctrl+E can be used to activate the editor drop-down, and Ctrl+PageUp 69 and Ctrl+PageDown can be used for switching between open editors, or between views 70 within the same context.</p> 71 <h2>Accelerators </h2> 72 73<p>Many of the actions in Eclipse have an accelerator assigned to them. For additional 74 information on accelerators, see <a href="keyboardshortcuts.htm">Keys</a>. </p> 75 <h2>Find Actions </h2> 76 77<p>To quickly access UI elements such as views, 78commands, preference pages, and others, you can use the Find Actions dialog, 79available under <a class="command-link" href='javascript:executeCommand("org.eclipse.ui.window.quickAccess")'> 80<img src="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.help/command_link.svg" alt="command link"> 81<b>Window > Navigation > Find Actions</b></a> and bound to <b>Ctrl+3</b> by 82default. Start typing in the filter field to see matches. For example, 83to open the help view, type <b>Ctrl+3</b> followed by "help". One 84of the first matches will be to open the help view; other matches show 85commands and preference pages related to help. You can use the 86arrow keys to select a different match for a given filter string. Press 87Enter to select the highlighted entry. This will execute the command, or 88open the view, perspective, or wizard etc.</p> 89<h2>Following Embedded Links</h2> 90<p>For links embedded in dialogs, such as the links between preference pages, 91or hyper-links in the About dialog, press "Space" key to activate the currently 92selected link. 93</p> 94<h2>Changing Size of Views and Editors</h2> 95<p>You can adjust size of most views and editors using commands in the "Size" 96 system menu. By default the system menu for the active part is bound to <b>Alt+"-"</b>. 97 After a "Size" submenu (Left, Right, Top, or Bottom) is selected, the selected 98 part's side will be highlighted and can be moved using the arrow keys. 99</p> 100 101 <h2>Help system</h2> 102 <p>You can navigate the help system by keyboard using the following key 103 combinations:</p> 104 <ul> 105 <li>Pressing Tab inside a frame (page) takes you to the next link, button or 106 topic node. </li> 107 <li>To expand/collapse a tree node, press Right/Left arrows. </li> 108 <li>To move to the next topic node, press Down arrow or Tab </li> 109 <li>To move to the previous topic node, press Up arrow or Shift+Tab </li> 110 <li>To display selected topic, press Enter. </li> 111 <li>To scroll all the way up or down press Home or End. </li> 112 <li>To go back press Alt+Left arrow; to go forward press Alt+Right arrow. 113 </li> 114 <li>To go to the next frame, or toolbar press Ctrl+Tab 115 (Ctrl+F6, if using Mozilla, or Mozilla based browser).</li> 116 <li>To move to previous frame, press Shift+Ctrl+Tab. 117 (Shift-Ctrl+F6, if using Mozilla, or Mozilla based browser).</li> 118 119 <li>To move to the frame displaying topic content press Alt+K (when using 120 embedded help browser on Windows, or Internet Explorer).</li> 121 <li>To move to Contents tab, press Alt+C</li> 122 <li>To move to Search Results tab, press Alt+R</li> 123 <li>To move between tabs, press Right/Left arrows.</li> 124 <li>To switch view, select a tab and press Enter.</li> 125 <li>To switch and move to a view, select a tab and press Up arrow.</li> 126 <li>To move to the search entry field, press Alt+S</li> 127 <li>To print the current page or active frame, press Ctrl+P. </li> 128 <li>To find a string in the current page or active frame, press Ctrl+F 129 (when using embedded help browser on Windows, or Internet Explorer). </li> 130 </ul> 131<p>Most labels of controls 132on help system pop-up dialogs have mnemonics are assigned to them. To access 133 the control associated with a label, use the Alt key along with the letter 134 that 135 is underlined.</p> 136 137<h3 class="related">Related concepts</h3> 138 <a href="accessmain.htm">Accessibility features in Eclipse</a><br> 139 <a href="text_editor.htm">Accessibility features in textual editors</a><br> 140 <a href="../../tasks/tkeybindings.htm">Changing the key bindings</a><br> 141 <a href="keyboardshortcuts.htm">Keys</a> <br> 142 <a href="../help.htm">Help</a> 143 144<h3 class="related">Related reference</h3> 145 <a href="fontsandcolors.htm">Font and color settings in Eclipse</a> 146 147</body> 148</html> 149
