ENVI has a default set of keyboard shortcuts to let you quickly access common functions. You can also define and save your own shortcuts for any of the following actions:

  • Menu bar options
  • Toolbar functions
  • Toolbox items
  • Opening recent files

To view the initial default shortcuts installed with ENVI, select Help > Shortcut List from the menu bar. As you add new shortcuts, this list will update with the current shortcut definitions.

Create Shortcuts

Follow these steps to create new shortcuts:

  1. From the menu bar, select File > Shortcut Manager. The Actions column lists all of the available actions that you can assign a shortcut to. This includes menu bar options, toolbar functions, and Toolbox items. The Assignments column lists the current shortcut definitions.
  2. Search for an action in the search field, or scroll through the list of actions.
  3. Select an action. The original location of the selected action is displayed below the list. Then, assign a keyboard shortcut using the Shortcut drop-down lists.
  4. Click Set Shortcut. The new shortcut appears in the Assignments column.
  5. You must restart ENVI before you can use new shortcuts.
  6. After you open a data file in ENVI (and the filename appears under the File > Open Recent menu selection), you can create a keyboard shortcut to quickly open that file in subsequent sessions. Search for the filename in the search field; it will appear as Open: <filename> in the Actions column. Then assign a shortcut using the steps above.

Here are some more tips for working with shortcuts:

  • To remove a shortcut, select it in the Assignments column and click the Remove selected shortcut(s) button. You can select multiple shortcuts using Shift-click or Ctrl-click. Or, click the Remove all shortcuts button.
  • You can save the current list of shortcuts to XML format to share with other colleagues using ENVI.
  • If you restore a set of shortcuts (using the Restore shortcuts button), ENVI will override any existing assignments that you might have for the shortcuts you are going to import. For example, suppose that the F4 key is assigned to the Data Manager and the shortcut file that you restore associates F4 with a different action. ENVI will re-assign F4 to the new action.
  • For Linux and Mac users, the main application must be the actively selected window before shortcuts will work. This is not an issue for users of the Windows operating system.
  • In the Windows operating system, you can press the Alt key to display underlines for menu options that use keyboard shortcuts.