Microsoft Project 2007: The Missing Manual

Appendix C. Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are tremendous timesavers, because your fingers can press a key combination in a fraction of a second compared to the seconds it takes to grasp the mouse and move the pointer to the correct location. Those seconds saved add up when you stick to the keyboard for your most frequent tasks—like saving a file regularly to make sure you don’t lose any work or adjusting the position of tasks in the outline.

The only apparent disadvantage to keyboard shortcuts is learning their obscure keystroke combinations. If it takes you 10 seconds to remember that Alt+Shift+* displays all tasks in the project, you really haven’t saved any time. Mercifully, Project shares many keyboard shortcuts with Microsoft programs, so you may not have to memorize as much as you think. On the other hand, a few minutes spent memorizing vital keyboard shortcuts can add up to hours saved down the line.

How to Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts can be a single key, like F4 to repeat the last action. But usually, you have to press a combination of Ctrl, Shift, or Alt along with other keys. To find out whether a command comes with a keyboard shortcut, look to the right of the command’s menu entry. For example, on the File menu, the Save command’s keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+S, as shown in Figure C-1.

Note

The keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Help refer specifically to the U.S. keyboard layout. If you use a keyboard layout for another language, your keyboard shortcuts vary ...