Object Inspector Shortcuts

Problem/Question/Abstract:

Object Inspector Shortcuts

Answer:

To display the Object Inspector's component pop-up menu, press [Ctrl][DownArrow]. This is a convenient way to select a component that's behind another component. To quickly select a specific component from the menu, press the key that corresponds to the first letter of the component's name.

If the names of several components start with the same letter, pressing the letter key again will move the focus to the next component in the menu that starts with that letter. (In other words, typing the full name doesn't help.)

To expand or collapse a nested property (such as Font, which defines subproperties such as Color or Height), select the property and press [Alt][F10], and then choose Expand or Collapse from the Object Inspector speed menu.

When the Object Inspector is active, you can toggle between the Properties and Events pages by pressing [Ctrl][Tab]. If you set your editor to IDE classic, as I prefer, you may use F6 for this as well.

To select a specific property or event, obviously you can use the arrow keys or the [PageUp] and [PageDown] keys. However, you can also select a property or event by name by pressing [Tab] to move the focus to the names and values, and then typing the first letter of the property or event name.

If you mistype a name and need to start again, press [Esc] once to return the focus to the beginning of the names. When you've selected the correct property or event, press [Tab] to move the focus from the name to the value.