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Re: Shortcut key to move out active cell and go down a row?

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Adam_Romary
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Is there a shortcut key for moving down a row when you are editing a cell? I get that you can press esc, and then down, but this is a pretty clunky keyboard combination. What about letting command+enter do this. It would be much more efficient.

11 Replies 11

What do you need that a simple Enter doesn’t provide?

When editing a cell, pressing enter only adds space within the active cell. I want to be able to go from editing one cell to editing the cell below it. If the cursor is not flashing in the cell, yes, pressing enter works, but once the cell is active you have to press escape.

Thank you,

Adam

Ah — you’re talking about long text fields, I take it.

I also experience the issue with single select and multiple select fields.

Adam

Maxence_le_Corr
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

I have the same question. I’ve been using Airtable for only 10 seconds and I’m already feeling something is missing. Escaping a cell with keyboard key is a basic need!

Welcome to the community, @Maxence_le_Corre! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: The Tab key works to get out of any field and move to the right one field. The Enter key in most fields will exit the current field and go down one lower. For some field types, though, like long text, you want Enter to add line breaks. I agree that an option to allow for exiting a long text field and moving to the same field in the record below it would be helpful. Perhaps add this as a suggestion in the Product Suggestions category?

Zoltan_Szucs
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

I’m an Airtable newbie and just spent some considerable time trying every possible key press combinations to escape a long text field. I just couldn’t believe there was no shortcut for that. In my case the Tab didn’t work either, maybe because the cell was in the last column.

I guess it’s a no-brainer. Must be easy to implement and Ctrl/Cmd + Enter would not interfere with any other functionality.

@Zoltan_Szucs @Maxence_le_Corre
While you have a Long Text or Rich Text Field engaged, you can press Esc to disengage the field, and then Tab to move to the next field to the right, or use the arrows to move a direction.

If you press Enter while on a Long Text or Rich Text Field, it will engage the field again.

So your key combo is Esc and then Tab or Arrow

Zoltan_Szucs
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

@Jeremy_Oglesby
Actually, this is not how it works on my PC. When I’m editing a long text field pressing Esc has no effect whatsoever. The cursor keeps flashing and nothing happens. Pressing the arrows then just moves the cursor within the cell. The same thing happans in other types of cells like short text, link etc. Good news is that Tab works and I can move to the right even if I was editing the cell. Obviously, I cannot escape the cell with Tab when I’m in the last column.

Just to confirm, my Esc key works fine otherwise. E.g. I can escape the page search input field on the same page.