Microsoft Project 2010: 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, then you really haven’t saved any time. Mercifully, Project shares many keyboard shortcuts with other 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.

Now that Project 2010 uses the ribbon, you have two ways to use keyboard shortcuts. You can press tried-and-true keyboard combinations like Ctrl+S to save a file just as you could in previous versions of Project. Or you can display KeyTips and press letters to move around the ribbon and choose the command you want. This chapter tells you how to use both methods.

How to Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts can be a single key, like F3 to show all tasks or resources. But usually you have to press a combination of Ctrl, Shift, or Alt along with other keys.

If ...