Keyboard shortcuts for working in Team Web Access and Team Explorer

Article
04/21/2015

You can use the keyboard shortcuts listed in this topic when you work within Team Web Access (TWA) or Team Explorer. In addition to these shortcuts, you can assign your own shortcuts on the Tools/Options/Environment/Keyboard page.

Navigate within Team Web Access
Navigate within lists
Navigate within Team Explorer
- Execute work item commands in Team Explorer
- Navigate within the query editor
- Navigate within the query results list view
- Open and close query views

Navigate within Team Web Access

In TWA, you can’t move the focus in the left pane on backlog pages, but you can move the focus in the left pane on the Queries page using the Tab key.

To do this	Press
Move the focus up	UP ARROW
Move the focus down	DOWN ARROW
Move a highlighted work item up in the list (on a backlog page, TWA only)	CTRL+ALT+UP ARROW
Move a highlighted work item down in the list (on a backlog page, TWA only)	CTRL+ALT+DOWN ARROW
Open a context menu	Menu or Application key
Dismiss a context menu	ESC
Move focus within a context menu	ARROW keys
Choose a highlighted selection with the context menu	ENTER
Move the focus left or right	RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW
Move the focus to the right, one field at a time	TAB
Move the focus to the left, one field at a time	SHIFT+TAB
Move a selected tile on the Home page left or right (using Internet Explorer 10 or Internet Explorer 11)	SHIFT+L or SHIFT+R

Navigate within lists

Unless otherwise indicated, these actions apply equally to working within TWA and Team Explorer.

To do this	Press
Move the focus up	UP ARROW
Move the focus down	DOWN ARROW or ENTER
Move the focus left or right	LEFT ARROW or RIGHT ARROW
Move the focus to the top of the list	CTRL+UP ARROW, HOME
Move the focus to the bottom of the list	CTRL+DOWN ARROW, END
Open a highlighted work item	ENTER
Highlight consecutive items	SHIFT+UP ARROW or SHIFT+DOWN ARROW
Move the focus to the right, one field at a time (within a work item form)	TAB
Move the focus to the left, one field at a time (within a work item form)	SHIFT+TAB

Navigate within Team Explorer

To do this	Press this
Go to Team Explorer	ALT+HOME
Go to the Home page	CTRL+0,H
Go to the Connect page	CTRL +0,C
Refresh	F5
Move the focus to the search box	CTRL+'
Open Team Web Access	Ctrl+0,A
Open My Work	CTRL+0,M
Open (Git) Changes	CTRL+0,G
Open Pending Changes	CTRL+0,P
Open Work Items	CTRL+0,W
Open Build	CTRL+0,B
Open Documents	CTRL+0,D
Open Reports	CTRL+0,R
Open Settings	CTRL+0,S
Move the focus to the top of the page	ALT+0
Move the focus to the visible section [1-9] level content	ALT+[1-9]
Move the focus to the previous visible section	ALT+UP ARROW
Move the focus to the next visible section	ALT+DOWN ARROW
Expand folder	ALT+RIGHT ARROW
Collapse folder	ALT+LEFT ARROW

To do this	Press
Open a context menu	DOWN ARROW
Dismiss a context menu	ESC
Move focus within a context menu	ARROW keys
Choose a highlighted selection with the context menu	ENTER

Execute work item commands in Team Explorer

To do this	Press
Add a work item	ALT+M,I
Go to a work item	ALT+M,G
Add a new query	ALT+M,Q
Create copy of selected work item	SHIFT+ALT+C
Link to new work item	SHIFT+ALT+L
Open selected work item	ENTER

Navigate within the Query editor

To do this	Press
Move the focus up or down	UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW
Move the focus left or right	RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW
Move the focus down	ENTER
Move the focus to the right, one field at a time	TAB
Move the focus to the left, one field at a time	SHIFT+TAB
Copy the selected clause	CTRL+C
Save changes made to the query or work items in the query results list	CTRL+S
Paste the copied clause, and overwrite the selected clause	CTRL+V
Move the focus to the end of the current clause	END
Delete the contents of the current field or the selected clause	DELETE
Highlight consecutive clauses	SHIFT+UP ARROW or SHIFT+DOWN ARROW

Navigate within the query results view

Most of the shortcuts that are listed below can be used wherever you have a list of work items, such as the query results view or a list of linked work items within a work item form.

To do this	Press
Highlight a row	Select the row
Highlight consecutive rows	SHIFT+UP ARROW or SHIFT+DOWN ARROW
Go to next work item	SHIFT+ALT+N
Go to previous work item	SHIFT+ALT+P
Refresh list	F5
Expand the current row	Choose the PLUS SIGN key on the numeric keypad, or the equals key on the keyboard
Collapses the current row	Choose the MINUS SIGN key on the numeric keypad or on the keyboard
Save changes made to the query or work items in the query results list	CTRL+S
Sort the list by the values of a column, toggling between ascending and descending The up-chevron indicates an ascending sort, and the down-chevron indicates a descending sort	Choose a column heading
Sort the list based on values in multiple columns	Hold down SHIFT and choose the columns in sequence
Resize a column	Drag an edge of a column header
Move a column (Team Explorer only)	Drag the column left or right to a new location.
Select the previous row or the next row	UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW
Scrolls right or left	RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW
Scrolls up or down	PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN
Selects the first row or the last row	HOME or END
Open the selected work item	ENTER key on the keypad or on the keyboard

Open and close query views

When you open a work item query, there are two panels that could display concurrently: the query editor and query results or the query results and the work item form that is currently selected in the query results view.

To do this	Choose this icon
Collapse bottom panel
Collapse left panel
Collapse right panel
Collapse upper panel
Restore bottom panel
Restore left panel
Restore right panel
Restore upper panel
Switch to side-by-side, horizontal panels
Switch to stacked (vertical) panels
Next work item in results list
Previous work item in results list