Keyboard Navigation

Keyboard shortcuts allow you to use sequences of keystrokes as an alternative to the mouse for executing commands and navigating through the application. Typically these key sequences are combinations of CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT, along with the standard keys on your keyboard.

Many of the default keyboard shortcuts provided by your browser are also available for use in your application. For example, you can navigate sequentially through fields within the application views using TAB.

A full set of keyboard shortcuts is included in Siebel applications, but administrators can change these keyboard shortcuts in Siebel Tools. For information about the keyboard shortcuts available to you, contact your Siebel administrator.

The following keys facilitate keyboard navigation in applications:

• Arrow keys. Press the arrow keys to navigate within a widget (such as within a list applet, within a form applet, within a drop-down list, and so on).

• ENTER. Press ENTER to navigate to the screen if the focus is on the screen or to navigate to the view if the focus is on the view.

• ENTER key behavior in applets and dialog boxes. Pressing ENTER while focusing on a control button results in the same behavior as clicking the control button.

• ESC. Press ESC to close an interface element, such as a calendar control, a calculator control, and so on, without saving changes in the interface element. Also, press ESC to cancel an operation, such as an operation to create a query or to create a record.

• ESC key behavior in applets and dialog boxes. A confirmation message appears (showing the OK and Cancel buttons) when a user closes a dialog box by clicking Close (the X icon) in the upper corner of the dialog box.

  • Press ENTER to close the confirmation message and the dialog box.

  • Press ESC to close the confirmation message and return to the original dialog box.

• ESC key and Undo. Pressing ESC once performs a single undo operation. Pressing the Undo key multiple times might generate multiple results depending on the user's previous activity, including which user interface elements the user has interacted with.

• TAB and TAB+SHIFT. Press TAB to navigate forward and TAB+SHIFT to navigate backward between widgets (interface elements, such as the application-level menu and application toolbar).

  TAB and TAB+SHIFT moves the focus among widgets and standard HTML controls. For example, pressing the TAB key in a typical List Form view moves the focus in the following sequence:

  • Application-level menu

  • Saved Queries/PDQ

  • Application toolbar

  • Visibility Filter

  • List applet menu

  • List applet buttons (one by one)

  • List column headers (one by one)

  • List applet grid first row first list column control

  • Form applet menu

  • Form applet buttons

  • Form applet controls (one by one)

  High-level widgets, such as, the application-level menu, applet menu, tabs at any of the four possible levels, list applet grid, and so on have complex navigation requirements between their constituent elements.

  When you are within a widget, use the following keys to handle tasks:

  • The arrow keys to navigate up, down, back (previous), and forward (next).

  • The ENTER key to drill down on the object in focus.

  • The ESC key to cancel or back out of an operation.

The keyboard navigation keys described here are simple to use and easy to remember. The remainder of this chapter describes the application-specific keyboard shortcuts (supported for navigating in the user interface) and they are useful for performing frequent and repetitive tasks. Browser vendors support an additional set of useful shortcut combinations.