Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published October 2016

Change F1 to ESC

Kinda frustrating to miss ESC, hit F1, and get Help right? This technique will serve you well when investigating additional keyboard customization.

How to Assign ESC to F1

1. Open the CUI. Expand Partial Customization Files, expand CUSTOM, then expand Keyboard Shortcuts.

2. Under the Command List, drag the Cancel command (the one with ^C^C in the Macro) up into the Customizations pane and release it next to Shortcut Keys to add it to the listing.

   In the upper right quadrant, under Shortcuts, you should see Cancel alphabetically listed with a bar to the left of it, as shown here.

   

   Important: If the recently added command does not initially appear in the Shortcuts pane, click OK to save your changes and close the CUI, then re-open it.

3. In the Shortcuts pane next to the Cancel command, click in the Keys column to display the edit box.

4. Make sure Caps Lock is Off, then hit F1 and press [Enter]. You should now see a green checkmark in the column preceding the Cancel command name.

5. Click OK to save your edits and close the CUI, then begin any command, then hit F1 to Cancel… rather than opening the Help window!

Top of page

Local Navigation