Keyboard Shortcuts for Navigating the Drawing Window

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Let's take a look at the various keyboard shortcuts you can use to perform functions within Visio.

Quick reference

Keyboard Shortcuts for Navigating the Drawing Window

  • F1 - Open the Help window
  • F3 - Open the Format Shape task pane
  • F5 - Enter the full-screen view
  • Ctrl+1 - Select the Pointer Tool
  • Ctrl+2 - Select the text tool
  • Ctrl+3 - Select the Connector tool
  • Ctrl+4 - Select the Pencil Tool
  • Ctrl+5 - Select the Freeform Tool
  • Ctrl+6 - Select the Line Tool
  • Ctrl+7 - Select the Arc Tool
  • Ctrl+8 - Select the Rectangle Tool
  • Ctrl+9 - Select the Ellipse Tool
  • Alt+F6 - Zoom in
  • Alt+Shift+F6 - Zoom out

Move your mouse to different icons on the Quick Access Toolbar and the Ribbon, and if the icon has a keyboard shortcut, it will show in the description of the icon.

Press the ALT key on the bottom row of your keyboard to activate the access keys, which basically gives you a keyboard shortcut for every possible menu item.

For a complete list, visit Keyboard Shortcuts for Visio.

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  • 00:04 So there's many keyboard shortcuts in Visio.
  • 00:07 Some people really prefer the keyboard rather than the mouse.
  • 00:10 So let's go ahead and open up a file.
  • 00:12 Now, this file should come with that module.
  • 00:14 So I'm going to pick on File and then Open.
  • 00:19 Now, mine happens to be in the Documents folder.
  • 00:21 So I'll pick on Browse, and I'm going to scroll down.
  • 00:25 And you should have one that's called 1.2 Sample File, and I'll pick on Open.
  • 00:31 Good, so now we can see these are shapes.
  • 00:34 Each one of the individual items is called a shape.
  • 00:37 And a bunch of shapes together is called a stencil.
  • 00:40 Here's the drawing, we're going to make something like this in a future lesson.
  • 00:45 Now, if you move your mouse around, you'll start to see some keyboard shortcuts,
  • 00:49 if an icon has a keyboard shortcut.
  • 00:52 So if you move your mouse to the Save icon, save is always going to be Ctrl+S.
  • 00:57 Then, paste of course is Ctrl+V,
  • 01:02 cut is Ctrl+X, copy is Ctrl+C,
  • 01:07 bold is Ctrl+B, italics is Ctrl+I,
  • 01:13 underline is Ctrl+U.
  • 01:17 So now not every icon is going to have a keyboard shortcut.
  • 01:21 But if it does, it'll let you know.
  • 01:23 Like some of these icons over here do not have a keyboard shortcut.
  • 01:26 So that was pretty good.
  • 01:27 If you just move your mouse around like this one is
  • 01:32 Ctrl+Shift+period will move to the next font size up.
  • 01:37 Shift+Ctrl+comma will take you to the next font size down.
  • 01:42 So if you just move your mouse around, especially on the Home menu,
  • 01:45 there's quite a few that have keyboard shortcuts, as you can see.
  • 01:50 And some of the ones on the Quick Access Toolbar will have
  • 01:54 the keyboard shortcut as well.
  • 01:56 Like I said, if an icon does not have a keyboard shortcut,
  • 01:59 then nothing will show up there.
  • 02:01 Now, another one that you should know about is undo
  • 02:06 is going to be Ctrl+Z, and redo will be Ctrl+Y.
  • 02:11 So those pop up a lot as well, okay?
  • 02:14 So now let's go to the Home menu, and
  • 02:17 there's going to be a couple really good ones over here.
  • 02:20 Whenever you do something, typically we want to go back to the pointer tool.
  • 02:24 So Ctrl+1 is going to bring us back to the pointer tool.
  • 02:29 Each one of these is going to have a keyboard shortcut.
  • 02:32 And then the text is going to be Ctrl+2.
  • 02:35 So let's try something like that.
  • 02:37 I'm going to click on this shape on the drawing.
  • 02:41 And then if I want to edit the text I'll do this keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+2.
  • 02:49 And you can see how now it's in the text.
  • 02:52 And then if you want to go back to the pointer tool, you do Ctrl+1, okay?
  • 02:57 So if I click on this shape, I'll do Ctrl+2,
  • 03:03 and now I'm in the text, and Ctrl+1 will bring me back to the pointer tool.
  • 03:09 Usually when you do something,
  • 03:10 you go back to the pointer tool, almost like a reset.
  • 03:14 The connector will connect two shapes.
  • 03:17 So just for an example, I'm going to click on this shape.
  • 03:21 And then notice how the keyboard shortcut for the connector is Ctrl+3.
  • 03:26 So I'll do Ctrl+3, and then the connector tool is there.
  • 03:30 Now I'm just going to go to this shape and drag it to this shape and
  • 03:35 see how those are now connected.
  • 03:38 So we'll talk more about that in a future lesson.
  • 03:41 But I just wanted to show the keyboard shortcut,
  • 03:43 see how the connector tool is still on, so I can connect other shapes.
  • 03:48 In this case, if I'm going to go back to the pointer tool, I'll do Ctrl+1.
  • 03:52 All right, so now you can see how the mouse changed.
  • 03:56 So each one of these is going to have a keyboard shortcut.
  • 04:00 The rectangle is going to be Ctrl+8.
  • 04:03 If you want to do a quick rectangle in your diagram.
  • 04:06 And then each one of these will have a keyboard shortcut.
  • 04:09 The ellipse is going to be Ctrl+9.
  • 04:13 A line shape is Ctrl+6.
  • 04:17 The free form is going to be Ctrl+5.
  • 04:21 The arc is going to be Ctrl+7.
  • 04:24 And the pencil is going to be Ctrl+4.
  • 04:27 So those get used a lot.
  • 04:29 So it was really smart for
  • 04:31 them to add a keyboard shortcut for all of these different icons.
  • 04:36 And then you could see how some of them might have Shift+Ctrl+1,
  • 04:42 or this one is Shift+Ctrl+4, and so on.

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