One of the most requested usability improvements for Inference for R was the addition of keyboard shortcuts. In essence, users want to be able to build and edit documents more quickly using just the keyboard. Towards that end, we added a number of new keyboard shortcuts into the recent commercial release of Inference for R:

Word/Excel Shortcuts

While in Word and Excel, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts combinations:

• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F1: Launch Inference Online
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F2: Add Parts Container to the current document
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F3: Toggle Taskpane Visibility
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F4: Insert a new Code Block
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F5: Insert and Edit a new Code Block
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F6: Insert a new Expression
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F7: Insert and Edit a new Expression
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F8: Edit the selected code item (Code Block or Expression)
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F9: Edit the Parts Container in Inference Studio
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F10: Export to Word/Excel View
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F11: Export to Webpage View
• CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + F12: Export to PDF View (Note: This only works with Office 2007, and if you have installed the Export to PDF or XPS add-in for Office 2007)

  Code Editor Shortcuts

While in the Code Editor, you can use the following keyboard shortcut combinations:

• CTRL-ALT + ENTER: Close the Code Editor window; this is the same as clicking the OK button
• CTRL + TAB: This moves the tabstop to the next control; this is useful for tabbing out of the code editor, and then allows you to tab around the form
• CTRL + A: This selects all the text inside of the Code Editor.

What's up with the triple CTRL-ALT-SHIFT key combinations you ask? One of the interesting challenges in implementing the keyboard shortcuts was finding open key combinations that were not in use by Word and Excel already. This is what eventually led to the use of the CTRL-ALT-SHIFT + Function-Key implementation.