Every software product has shortcut keys for the most common actions. If you’re like me, then these shortcuts will be the LAST thing you learn rather than the first. We all know that Ctrl+S will perform a save action in anything from MS Word to Firefox, and that Ctrl+P will print something or other. PageFour follows these conventions where possible - or more to the point, where I had previous knowledge of what they were.

I use a very popular text editor called Textpad for viewing large, text based, data files. It’s a great program, and its popularity amongst techies is well earned. But every time I use it I fall foul of their unconventional shortcuts. For reasons known only to them, Ctrl+F will NOT open the find dialog - you have to press the F5 key. I use this program every day, and every day I stumble. It’s frustrating and it’s annoying. It’s so annoying I’ve just mentioned it in a blog post that was supposed to be about PageFour.

Rather than discuss all of PageFour’s shortcuts in detail, I’m going to highlight just four of the most powerful. Knowing these few simple key combinations will make navigating between Pages, Folders, and Notebooks a quick and easy process.

The Jump Command (Ctrl+J): The main PageFour window consists of 3 panes - the list of Notebooks, the Folders and Pages of the currently open Notebook, and the word processor. The Jump command can be found on the right click menus of each of these 3 panes, and each time it has the same function and the same shortcut (Ctrl+J). As the name suggests, it ‘Jumps‘ the focus from the current pane to the next.

Jumping from the word processor will immediately shift focus to the current Page’s location in the open Notebook, allowing you easy access to its sister Pages and Folders. Jumping from the current Notebook will move focus to the Notebooks list, giving you the opportunity to open another Notebook. And jumping from the Notebooks list will shift focus back to the word processor.

The Jump mechanism means you can access almost every function and every location in PageFour without ever needing to use the mouse. It’s a quick method of adding a new Page next to the current one: Ctrl+J followed by Ctrl+N (New Page), as well as a simple way of seeing where the current Page fits in relation to the Pages and Folders around it.

Tab Navigation: It’s very common to have a number of Pages open in different tabs at the same time, many of them related to each other. You might have a number of different chapters open, or Pages of character and plot notes.

Moving up and down the list of open tabs is simply a case of using the Ctrl+Shift+Left Ctrl+Alt+Left or Right arrow keys. Once you remember this shortcut, moving between Pages is a much faster process.

Left and right arrows - how hard could it be?.

The next release of PageFour will contain a new ‘Open in Tabs‘ feature, which will allow you to open all the Pages in a folder simultaneously into different tabs, making this shortcut even more powerful. A beta containing this feature will be available shortly.

Screen Size: PageFour does not yet have a full screen capability, but there is a simple method of switching the Notebook section off - the F11 shortcut key - thereby increasing the screen size for the word processor. Switching it back on again is a case of using either F9 for the Notebooks list, or F10 for the Snapshots list.

Closing Pages: As you open more and more Pages, things may start to look a little cluttered. There are 2 simple methods for closing Pages quickly. The Ctrl+W key combination will close the current Page, whereas the far more powerful Ctrl+Q shortcut will close EVERY Page apart from the current one. This is very useful when you finish a large piece of work and wish to move on to something else.

Remembering these few shortcut key combinations will allow you to get a lot more out of PageFour. Full details on all of PageFour’s shortcuts can be found in the Help section.