Adding and Editing Keyboard Shortcuts

Whether you love navigating an interface with keyboard shortcuts or just want to assign keyboard shortcuts to your favorite commands, the easiest way to create your own shortcuts is in LayOut’s Preferences dialog box, shown in the following figure.

To create your own shortcuts, follow these steps:

1. Select Edit > Preferences (Microsoft Windows) or LayOut > Preferences (Mac OS X). The LayOut Preferences dialog box appears.
2. Select Shortcuts in the sidebar on the left.
3. To find a specific command, type its name in the Filter box at the top of the dialog box or browse through the list in the main list box.
4. In the list box, select the command to which you want to assign a keyboard shortcut.
5. In the text box at below the list of commands, press the keyboard shortcut you want to assign to the command. For example, to assign Shift+B to the Arrange/Send to Back command, press Shift+B to make that shortcut appear in the text box. After you add your desired shortcut, on Mac OS X, the shortcut appears in the Key column of the list box, and you can skip to Step 7. On Microsoft Windows, go to Step 6.
   Caution: Do not hit enter as it will erase the value entered!
   Tip: On Microsoft Windows, you use Shift, Ctrl, and Alt as keyboard shortcut modifier keys. On Mac OS X, you can use Shift, Control, and Option keys as modifiers.
6. Click the + button to assign the keyboard shortcut. The shortcut appears in the Shortcuts column of the list box.
7. You can repeat Steps 3–6 to keep assigning keyboard shortcuts, or click Close if you’re done.

To remove an assigned keyboard shortcut, select it in the list box and click the - key (Microsoft Windows) or delete the shortcut from the text box (Mac OS X).

On Microsoft Windows, the Customize Keyboard dialog box gives you a few extra options for adding and managing keyboard shortcuts. Because this dialog box lets you assign shortcuts only from a preset list of options, this dialog box isn’t the best place to create your keyboard shortcuts. However, if you ever want to reset LayOut’s keyboard shortcuts to the default settings, follow these steps:

1. From the menu bar, select View > Toolbars > Customize. Or click the Toolbar Options drop-down menu (the down arrow at the end of each toolbar) and select Add or Remove Buttons > Customize. Either way, the Customize dialog box appears.
2. Click the Keyboard button at the bottom of the dialog box. The Customize Keyboard dialog box appears.
3. Click the Reset All button. The Reset Shortcut Combinations dialog box that appears.
4. To reset the customizations, click OK and all your custom shortcuts disappear. If you change your mind at the last minute, click Cancel and then close the Customize Keyboard and Customize dialog boxes.