Surfer 12 Highlight: Custom Keyboard Map

Creating Keyboard Shortcuts

There are often times where you may use a command often enough to merit creating a custom keyboard shortcut. This can easily be accomplished in Surfer 12 by customizing the keyboard map.

The Help | Keyboard Map command displays a list of the current keyboard commands. The Category list contains the menu commands for the selected accelerator. The Show Accelerator for list allows you to view the keyboard commands for the Plot Document, Grid Document, or Worksheet.

In this example, we will create a custom keyboard shortcut for the commonly used Grid | Data command.

To create a custom keyboard command:

1. First, let's verify that the Grid | Data command does not have a keyboard shortcut assigned to it. Click Help | Keyboard Map. You can also find a full list of the default keyboard commands in the Help, click Help | Contents. From the Contents tab, navigate to Surfer 12 | Introduction | Keyboard Commands to view the Default Keyboard Commands that a predefined in Surfer 12. 
2.  In the Help Keyboard dialog, change the Category to Grid.
   
   
   
3. Visually scroll down the list of Grid menu commands. Notice that there are no Keys assigned to GridData. Close the dialog by clicking the X in the upper right corner of the dialog.
   
   
   
4. Click the Tools | Customize command to open the Customize dialog.
5. Click on the Keyboard tab.
   
   
   
6. Select Grid from the Category list.
7. Select Plot Document from the Set Accelerator for list.
8. Select Data from the Commands list.
9. Click in the box next below Press New Shortcut Key.
10. Press the CTRL + SHIFT + D keys on the keyboard. The shortcut will appear automatically in the Press New Shortcut Key box.
    1. If no other command has this keyboard shortcut, [Unassigned] will be displayed below Assigned to. If the shortcut is not assigned to another command, click the Assign button. The shortcut is added to the Current Keys list.
       
       
       
    2. If another command has the keyboard shortcut, the command is listed below Current Keys. If this is the case, the Assign button is grayed out. Select a different shortcut key for the command. Each shortcut key can be assigned to only one command.
       
       
11. Once you have assigned CTRL + SHIFT + D to the Plot Document, Grid | Data command, click the Close button.
    
    

Once you have created a keyboard shortcut for your frequently used commands, they are very easy and convienant to use. Below I have outlined using the CTRL + SHIFT + D keyboard shortcut to execute the Grid | Data command.

Just like using the command toolbar, the Grid | Data command will initiate the Open Data dialog to select the data file that you would like to grid.

In the Open Data dialog, select the data file that contains the XYZ data that you would like to grid. Click Open to proceed to the Grid Data dialog. From the Grid Data dialog, you can specify the data columns you would like to set as your X, Y, and Z variables, as well as customized other aspects of the grid. 

The steps above outline the method that you can use to streamline your workflow by creating keyboard shortcuts for your commonly used commands, such as Grid | Data. 

For commands that you use frequently, this can save you time by easily creating a series of keyboard shortcuts that you can use to improve your efficiency and use of Surfer!

Further information about customizing settings in Surfer can also be found in the Surfer Help. In the Contents tab, navigate to Surfer 12 | Options, Defaults, and Customizations. Here you can find additional information about customizing Surfer so that it works better for you!

In addition to these customization features within Surfer, Golden Software offers many resources to assist you in learning the program:

Tutorials: to access, click Help | Tutorials.

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