Keyboard shortcuts for canvas apps

Note

Shortcuts might vary based on keyboard layout.

File

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+O (or Alt+F)	Open a file
Ctrl+Shift+S (or Alt+P)	Save the app with a different name
Ctrl+S	Save the app with the same name or for the first time
Ctrl+Shift+P	Save the app and activate the publish dialog
F12	Download the app file (.msapp)
Alt+F	Open the File menu

Ribbon

Shortcut	Action
Enter	Run the selected command
Tab	Move between commands on the selected tab and then to the next tab
Alt+I	Select the Insert tab

Editing

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+X	Cut
Ctrl+C	Copy
Ctrl+V	Paste
Ctrl+Z	Undo command
Ctrl+Y	Redo command
Ctrl+M	Add a screen
Ctrl+= or Ctrl+Shift+=	Zoom in
Ctrl+- or Ctrl+Shift+-	Zoom out
Ctrl+0	Fit canvas to page
Shift+Enter	Break a line in a formula

Preview

Shortcut	Action
F5	Open Preview mode
Esc	Close Preview mode, a dialog box, or a flyout pane

Canvas

Shortcut	Action
Tab	Select the next control
Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click	Select multiple objects at once
Right arrow	Nudge the selected control to the right
Left arrow	Nudge the selected control to the left
Up arrow	Nudge the selected control up
Down arrow	Nudge the selected control down

Tree view

Note

These shortcuts require the Tree view pane to have focus.

Shortcut	Action
F2	Rename a control
Esc	Cancel renaming a control
Ctrl+G	Group/ungroup controls
Ctrl+]	Bring a control forward
Ctrl+[	Send a control backward
Ctrl+Shift+]	Bring to front
Ctrl+Shift+[	Send to back

Resize

Shortcut	Action
Shift+Left arrow	Decrease width
Ctrl+Shift+Left arrow	Decrease width slightly
Shift+Down arrow	Decrease height
Ctrl+Shift+Down arrow	Decrease height slightly
Shift+Right arrow	Increase width
Ctrl+Shift+Right arrow	Increase width slightly
Shift+Up arrow	Increase height
Ctrl+Shift+Up arrow	Increase height slightly

Text format

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+B	Cycle through levels of bold
Ctrl+I	Turn italic on or off
Ctrl+U	Add or remove underline

Alternate behavior

Shortcut	Action
Alt or Ctrl+Shift	1. Before selecting a control, hide design elements so that you can interact with the controls as the app's user would. 2. After initiating a resize or reposition of a control, holding down these keys overrides any snap points.

Like an Excel spreadsheet, canvas apps are live and operating even when they're being edited. There's no need to change to preview mode in order to exercise your app, making the editing and test cycles much faster. But this poses a problem: How do we differentiate selecting a button control so that it can be resized from selecting a button control to exercise the logic in our app?

When in design mode, by default, selecting an object is for editing—moving, resizing, changing properties, and otherwise configuring the object. This default can be overridden by holding down the Alt or Ctrl+Shift keys before initiating the selection, which treats the selection as if a user of the app had done it.

In the following animation, a button control is first selected for editing. Adorners appear around the control and the formula bar shows the OnSelect property, ready to be edited. The button is then released. With the Alt key first depressed, the button control is again selected, but this time the OnSelect property is evaluated and the notification is displayed, just as if the button was selected in a running app.

The Alt key can also be used after a control has been selected to override snap points for moving and resizing. The next animation shows the resize of a data card within an Edit form control. Initially, the resizing is restricted to specific snap points. Later, without releasing the mouses button, the Alt key is depressed along with the mouse button. The addition of the Alt key overrides the snap points and any width can be obtained with the mouse.

Other

Shortcut	Action
F1	Open documentation
Ctrl+F6	Navigate to the next landmark
Ctrl+Shift+F6	Navigate to the previous landmark
Shift+F10	Open a shortcut menu in, for example, Tree view