Favorite Shortcut Keys for Microsoft Access – crystal (strive4peace) – www.MsAccessGurus.

com - 1/7

Favorite Shortcut Keys

Many of the shortcut keys for Access also work in Excel. This isn’t a complete list, just shortcuts I like a lot.

Table Design
F6 to jump to Field Properties from field definition
Tab➔ and Shift Tab➔ to move back and forth

Data
Datasheet view, forms
Editing
Tab➔ Move to next field (or control for forms)
Shift Tab➔ Move to previous field
Enter Move to next field OR, if “Move after enter” is set to “Next record” in
Options, then next row
Ctrl + = New Record
Ctrl - Delete record
F2 Toggle mode between Edit (Insertion Point) and Navigation (Whole Value). F2
is also Rename where that’s applicable.
Shift F2 Zoom
Ctrl F2 Builder

General
Ctrl F Find
Ctrl H Replace (He-place)
Ctrl A Select All
Esc Cancel entry, record, dismiss dialog box, collapse list, activate “Cancel”
command button, etc
Enter Activate “Default” command button
F12 Save As
Ctrl G Goto the Immediate Window from anywhere in Access
Alt F11 Goto the Visual Basic Editor or go back to the previous active window.
Shift press Shift while moving to select as you go
F1 Help
Alt  Open floating Date Picker
 Favorite Shortcut Keys for Microsoft Access – crystal (strive4peace) – www.MsAccessGurus.com - 2/7
Data Entry
Ctrl Enter New Line
(c) ©
Ctrl ; Current Date
Ctrl : ; Current Time
Ctrl Alt Spacebar Enter Default Value
Alt Hold Alt and type number on the numeric keypad to get an ASCII or extended
+ #
character. A is 65, a is 97, C is 67, ° is 248.
Ctrl " ' copy value from above

Back Delete character to left of cursor
space

Delete Delete character to right of cursor

Ctrl Z Undo
Spacebar Toggle choices of a checkbox or option frame
Ctrl X Cut
Ctrl C Copy
Ctrl V Paste
Insert Toggle insert and typeover mode
F7 Check Spelling

Navigation
Cursor control keys have similar effects to navigate forms.
  ,
move up or down

Ctrl  ,
Ctrl  move to top or bottom of current column (field)
Page Page move up or down one screen
Up Down
Page Page move right or left one screen
Ctrl Up ,
Ctrl Down

Navigation or Edit Mode

F2 Toggle Edit Mode (Insertion Point) Navigation Mode (Whole Value)

 ,
➔ Move within value (+ Ctrl for word Go to previous or next field
at a time)
Home Move to beginning of line Go to first field of current record
End Move to end of line Go to last field of current record
Ctrl Home Move to beginning of value Go to first field of first record
Ctrl End Move to end of value Go to last field of last record
 Favorite Shortcut Keys for Microsoft Access – crystal (strive4peace) – www.MsAccessGurus.com - 3/7
Datasheet
Tables, Queries, SQL Statements

Ctrl Spacebar Select Column {navigation mode}

Shift Spacebar Select Row { navigation mode}
select range … use shift-arrows or shift-click again to change end. Then you
… Shift
may wish to (1) copy the range or (2) paste a range over it.

Windows
Alt Spacebar Show the Access application Window menu
Ctrl W or Ctrl F4 Close the active object window in Access. Use Ctrl-F4 to close VBA module.
Alt F4 Exit Access
F6 switch or cycle between panes of a window
Ctrl F6 Next database (or VBE) window
Ctrl Shift F6 Previous database (or VBE) window
Print
Scrn Copy image of screen to Windows Clipboard (press Ctrl C to copy text in
SysReq message boxes to paste as text – first make sure that works, then maybe you
don’t need the image).
Win- Shift  Maximize height of window

Win- Shift ➔ Switch window to other monitor (you can also use  )

Query Design

F12 is handy to remember to Save As so you can pick a new name, or modify the existing name.
 Favorite Shortcut Keys for Microsoft Access – crystal (strive4peace) – www.MsAccessGurus.com - 4/7
Form
Alt  Drop a list. Press Esc to collapse.
 , ➔ , Home , etc Navigation – cursor control keys when looking at data
F5 Requery
F9 Requery a combo or listbox that you’re in
Ctrl Tab➔ exit subform and go to next control on mainform
Ctrl Shift Tab➔ exit subform and go to previous control on mainform
Tab➔ , Shift Tab➔ Move to next or previous control

You can make your own HotKeys by prefacing a letter in a Caption with &. To literally display & in the
Caption, use &&. Hotkeys appear with an underline. The Caption for the associated label for the first date is
“&Start Date:”

Alt S go to Start Date

Alt E go to End Date

Report

P or Ctrl P Print Dialog box

Form/Report Design
F5 Run the form – switch to Form View from Form Design
F7 Code window (goto code behind form or report)
Alt Enter Show or Hide Property Sheet
Alt F8 Field List
   ➔ move selected control(s)
 Favorite Shortcut Keys for Microsoft Access – crystal (strive4peace) – www.MsAccessGurus.com - 5/7
Modules
Many of the shortcut keys in different sections of this handout also work in modules like Ctrl-F, Ctrl-H, and
Navigation keys.

Ctrl Spacebar Activate Intellisense

F1 Help (on keyword – works in Immediate window too)
F2 Object Browser
Shift F2 Goto Definition
Ctrl Shift F2 Goto Last Position
Ctrl  Goto top of current procedure
Ctrl  Goto top of next procedure
F3 Find Next
Shift F3 Find Previous
Tab➔ indent (works on multiple selected lines)
Shift Tab➔ decrease indent (works on multiple selected lines)
F9 Toggle breakpoint
Ctrl Shift F9 Clear all breakpoints
Ctrl Y Delete current line
Ctrl G Goto the Immediate Window (anywhere in Access)

Debugging
Pause break code. If your keyboard doesn’t have a break key, you can try Ctrl-Fn-B, Ctl-
Ctrl Break NumLock, Ctl-ScrLock, Ctrl-Pause, Ctrl-Fn-End, or something else.
F8 Single-step
Shift F8 Single-step over. Called code is one step, not single steps.
Ctrl Shift F8 finish executing current procedure and step out
F5 continue execution (if not debugging, Run current procedure)
Ctrl F9 Set Next Statement
Ctrl F8 Run to cursor (set temporary breakpoint)
Ctrl L display CaLL Stack
 Favorite Shortcut Keys for Microsoft Access – crystal (strive4peace) – www.MsAccessGurus.com - 6/7
Navigation Pane
F11 Show/Hide the Navigation Pane
Ctrl F show and activate the Search bar / Find box
Enter Open selected object
Ctrl Enter Open selected object in Design View

Steps

Copy Name of object to Windows Clipboard

1. press F2 on selected object to pretend to rename
2. the whole value will be selected, press Ctrl C to copy the value
3. press Esc to not change anything and get out of the edit mode

Change a Name or Value

… such as a Name in the Navigation Pane … and anywhere you can edit
1. press F2 to Rename selected object in Navigation Pane, or to toggle Edit Mode from Navigation
Mode for value
2. press Home to go to the beginning of the value to type a prefix
OR
use  and ➔ keys to move within value – or where you want to add or cut
OR
if you want to add something to the end, start typing since that is where the cursor will be … or press
End first if it’s somewhere else.
If the value is multiple lines, Home and End act on each line. To go to the very beginning, use
Ctrl Home ,or Ctrl End for the very end of the value.
3. press Enter to finish changing
… OR! if you really don’t want to change anything …
… perhaps first press Ctrl C on the entire value to copy to the Windows Clipboard (for pasting
somewhere else)
– and then, or just then, press Esc to not really change anything.

Ribbon
Ctrl F1 Expand or collapse ribbon
Alt Activate Ribbon
 Favorite Shortcut Keys for Microsoft Access – crystal (strive4peace) – www.MsAccessGurus.com - 7/7
About
I love creating applications with Access and teaching others. Shortcut keys help me be more efficient. I hope
you like them as much as I do! Download this Shortcut Key handout from msAccessGurus.com
https://msaccessgurus.com/tool/ShortcutKeys.htm

On my website, you’ll find lots of free code, tools, videos, and articles. One of my favorite things to do is
connect to others who are building databases and team-develop. Together we build successful applications. If
you want to connect to me and work on your project together, I’d love to hear from you. I help you only when
you need me. Email [email protected]

have fun on the Access learning curve ~ crystal