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| <title>Navigating the user interface using the keyboard</title> |
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| <h1>Navigating the user interface using the keyboard</h1> |
| <p>The user interface is navigable using the keyboard. The Tab key is used to |
| iterate through the controls in a window (for example, a dialog, or the current |
| perspective's views and editors and the main controls for the Workbench window). |
| To tab out of views that use the Tab key (such as editors) use Ctrl+Tab. |
| When the focus is on an editor or view tab, pressing the left/right arrow key moves |
| to the previous/next tab and pressing Enter moves the focus to the current selection |
| in the editor or view.</p> |
| <h2>Menus</h2> |
| <p>Most menus are assigned mnemonics for each entry which allow you to |
| select them by typing the underlined letter instead of the mouse. You can also |
| select an item by moving through the menus and sub-menus with the arrow keys. </p> |
| <p>The various menus available can be accessed using the keyboard in the |
| following ways: </p> |
| <ul> |
| <li>F10 accesses the menus on the main menu bar.</li> |
| <li>Shift+F10 pops up the context menu for the current view. (Note: this |
| shortcut is actually dependent on your window manager, but for most people it |
| should be Shift+F10.)</li> |
| <li>Ctrl+F10 will open the pull down menu for the current view if there is |
| one. For editors, Ctrl+F10 will open the menu for the marker bar on the left of the |
| editor area.</li> |
| <li>Alt+mnemonic will activate the Workbench menu for a particular entry |
| (e.g., Alt+W will bring down the Window menu).</li> |
| <li>Microsoft Windows only: Pressing Alt will give focus to the menu |
| bar.</li> |
| </ul> |
| <h2>Controls</h2> |
| <p>Mnemonics are assigned to most control labels (e.g., buttons, checkboxes, |
| radio buttons, etc.) 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.</p> |
| <h2>Navigation Context</h2> |
| <p>Navigation context is saved for the packages, navigator views, Workbench 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 workbench invocations. </p> |
| <h2>Cycling Editors, Views and Perspectives </h2> |
| <p>To switch between editors, views and perspectives, the workbench 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 </p> |
| <ul> |
| <li>Ctrl+F6 - Cycle to Editor</li> |
| <li>Ctrl+F7 - Cycle to View</li> |
| <li>Ctrl+F8 - Cycle to Perspective</li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>If you use the "StickyKeys" input, you might need to enable the "Keep next/previous editor, |
| view and perspectives dialog open" option on the |
| |
| <a class="command-link" href='javascript:executeCommand("org.eclipse.ui.window.preferences(preferencePageId=org.eclipse.ui.preferencePages.Workbench)")'> |
| <img src="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.help/command_link.svg" alt="command link"> |
| <strong>General</strong></a> |
| |
| preference page.</p> |
| <p>Also, 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, or between views |
| within the same context.</p> |
| <h2>Accelerators </h2> |
| |
| <p>Many of the actions in Eclipse have an accelerator assigned to them. For additional |
| information on accelerators, see <a href="keyboardshortcuts.htm">Keys</a>. </p> |
| <h2>Find Actions </h2> |
| |
| <p>To quickly access UI elements such as views, |
| commands, preference pages, and others, you can use the Find Actions dialog, |
| available under <a class="command-link" href='javascript:executeCommand("org.eclipse.ui.window.quickAccess")'> |
| <img src="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.help/command_link.svg" alt="command link"> |
| <b>Window > Navigation > Find Actions</b></a> and bound to <b>Ctrl+3</b> by |
| default. Start typing in the filter field to see matches. For example, |
| to open the help view, type <b>Ctrl+3</b> followed by "help". One |
| of the first matches will be to open the help view; other matches show |
| commands and preference pages related to help. You can use the |
| arrow keys to select a different match for a given filter string. Press |
| Enter to select the highlighted entry. This will execute the command, or |
| open the view, perspective, or wizard etc.</p> |
| <h2>Following Embedded Links</h2> |
| <p>For links embedded in dialogs, such as the links between preference pages, |
| or hyper-links in the About dialog, press "Space" key to activate the currently |
| selected link. |
| </p> |
| <h2>Changing Size of Views and Editors</h2> |
| <p>You can adjust size of most views and editors using commands in the "Size" |
| system menu. By default the system menu for the active part is bound to <b>Alt+"-"</b>. |
| After a "Size" submenu (Left, Right, Top, or Bottom) is selected, the selected |
| part's side will be highlighted and can be moved using the arrow keys. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h2>Help system</h2> |
| <p>You can navigate the help system by keyboard using the following key |
| combinations:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li>Pressing Tab inside a frame (page) takes you to the next link, button or |
| topic node. </li> |
| <li>To expand/collapse a tree node, press Right/Left arrows. </li> |
| <li>To move to the next topic node, press Down arrow or Tab </li> |
| <li>To move to the previous topic node, press Up arrow or Shift+Tab </li> |
| <li>To display selected topic, press Enter. </li> |
| <li>To scroll all the way up or down press Home or End. </li> |
| <li>To go back press Alt+Left arrow; to go forward press Alt+Right arrow. |
| </li> |
| <li>To go to the next frame, or toolbar press Ctrl+Tab |
| (Ctrl+F6, if using Mozilla, or Mozilla based browser).</li> |
| <li>To move to previous frame, press Shift+Ctrl+Tab. |
| (Shift-Ctrl+F6, if using Mozilla, or Mozilla based browser).</li> |
| |
| <li>To move to the frame displaying topic content press Alt+K (when using |
| embedded help browser on Windows, or Internet Explorer).</li> |
| <li>To move to Contents tab, press Alt+C</li> |
| <li>To move to Search Results tab, press Alt+R</li> |
| <li>To move between tabs, press Right/Left arrows.</li> |
| <li>To switch view, select a tab and press Enter.</li> |
| <li>To switch and move to a view, select a tab and press Up arrow.</li> |
| <li>To move to the search entry field, press Alt+S</li> |
| <li>To print the current page or active frame, press Ctrl+P. </li> |
| <li>To find a string in the current page or active frame, press Ctrl+F |
| (when using embedded help browser on Windows, or Internet Explorer). </li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>Most labels of controls |
| on help system pop-up dialogs have mnemonics are assigned to them. To access |
| the control associated with a label, use the Alt key along with the letter |
| that |
| is underlined.</p> |
| |
| <h3 class="related">Related concepts</h3> |
| <a href="accessmain.htm">Accessibility features in Eclipse</a><br> |
| <a href="text_editor.htm">Accessibility features in textual editors</a><br> |
| <a href="../../tasks/tkeybindings.htm">Changing the key bindings</a><br> |
| <a href="keyboardshortcuts.htm">Keys</a> <br> |
| <a href="../help.htm">Help</a> |
| |
| <h3 class="related">Related reference</h3> |
| <a href="fontsandcolors.htm">Font and color settings in Eclipse</a> |
| |
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