Configurable keyboard shortcuts were introduced in R2009b. By using the Keyboard Shortcut preference panel, it is possible to modify the desktop’s default keyboard shortcuts and save them as a custom set in an XML file format (select “Save As…” in the options menu next to the active settings drop-down).

In R2010b, we introduced integration of custom keyboard shortcut sets with the Current Folder and the File Exchange. To see how this works, let’s try downloading a custom keyboard shortcut set from the MATLAB File Exchange. First, open the Keyboard Shortcuts Preference Panel and choose “Search File Exchange for Downloadable Sets” from the active settings drop-down:

This will open the File Exchange within MATLAB (prompting you to log in first if necessary). Once the File Exchange is open, you will see a list of all keyboard shortcut sets that have been contributed to MATLAB Central and tagged with “keyboard shortcuts configuarable”. Currently the only hits are legacy keyboard shortcut sets that I contributed, but hopefully some keyboard-savvy customers will be uploading their sets before long!

Now let’s download the set which represents the default keyboard shortcuts on Windows before R2009b. After clicking the green download button and confirming the download, a new ZIP file is created in my download directory. Expanding the zip file, I see that it contains three custom keyboard shortcut sets. I can load the legacy Windows default set by first double-clicking on the ZIP file to extract its contents, and then either double-clicking on the file “Pre2009bWindowsDefaults.xml”, or selecting the hyperlink in the preview pane. Either action will load the custom set in the Keyboard Shortcuts preference panel, and then pressing OK makes it the active set.

In summary, it is now easier to download and import custom keyboard shortcut sets. So start uploading your favorite variations to the MATLAB File Exchange!