Using Shortcuts (Keyboard Commands)

You can define and use keyboard shortcuts to execute various Optimal Desktop™ functions. Your keyboard shortcuts must be preceded with either CTRL, SHIFT or ALT.

You can use shortcuts to apply to a State, toggle between States, insert or delete a Drawer, etc,. When you use keyboard shortcuts, you optimize on time, increasing task management efficiency. We recommend that you use more keyboard shortcuts, to realize and make full use of the scope and range of Optimal Desktop™'s total desktop control.

You can create a maximum of 128 shortcuts for your desktop.

Before you create a new shortcut, you need to go through the list of Optimal Desktop's reserved shortcuts. You can create a shortcut that has not already been used by Optimal Desktop™.

Note: You can also change and customize Optimal Desktop's reserved shortcuts.

Creating a Shortcut

You can create a shortcut, as follows:

Click Tools > Desktop Manager > Shortcut Manager. The window opens with the Shortcuts tab, as shown below:

You can create shortcuts for the commands listed under various categories in the Shortcut Manager window.

Choose a category from the Category drop-down list.

Select a command within the chosen category, for example Drawer Tabs On/Off.

Place your cursor in the Enter new Shortcut text field and hold down the CTRL, ALT or SHIFT key. You will see your keyboard shortcut key (CTRL, ALT, SHIFT) in the shortcut field. Next, press a character or number for the shortcut command, for example, C, while still holding down the shortcut key. You now must click the '+' to add this new shortcut command. The "Currently assigned to" field on the bottom left will tell you of the shortcut you created is already in use or not. If so the new command will over write the existing command.

Your new shortcut for turning Drawer Tabs on/off is CTRL+ ALT + O.

Your new shortcut appears in the Assignments pane of the Shortcut Manager window.

The next time you want to turn Drawer tab on/off, you can just click CTRL+ ALT + O!

Note: You can create several shortcut combinations using the keyboard shortcuts CTRL, ALT, SHIFT and Function keys F1 to F12 with alphanumeric characters. For example, you can define a shortcut for creating a new Drawer in this form: CTRL+ALT+F2. If the shortcut that you specify has already been assigned to a different function, Optimal Desktop™ displays a message, along with details of the assigned shortcut. You can specify more than 1 shortcut for an action.

Using this highly flexible feature, you can arrive at an infinite number of shortcut combinations. Note that you can create a maximum of 128 shortcuts for your desktop.

Optimal Desktop™ provides you with a list of pre-configured shortcuts that you can select for any command. To view this list, click the drop-down arrow next to the Enter new Shortcut text field.

Deleting a Shortcut

You can delete a shortcut as follows:

Click on Tools > Desktop Manager > Shortcut Manager.

Open the Shortcuts tab.

Choose a category and navigate to the function whose shortcut you want to delete.

In the Assignments pane of the Shortcut Manager window, you will see the assigned shortcut for the selected function.

Select the shortcut and click the delete icon . Your shortcut is deleted from Optimal Desktop™. To reverse your deletion, click Undo at the bottom of the Shortcut Manager window.