Five Shortcut Keys to Unlock Alvaria Workforce Efficiency
Let me share a little secret with you… there are plenty of keyboard shortcuts in Alvaria Workforce that would make you look like a wizard in front of your co-workers as you blast through your day-to-day tasks in the system with grace. The more shortcuts you use the more efficient you become in completing those tasks, and the more time you save at work. There could even be health benefits in terms of minimizing repetitive strain injury (RSI). Let me promise you, this blog is not just about Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.
Tip 1:
How many times have you wondered where a particular module is hiding exactly in the system (especially if you are a new user)? Is Official Schedule Editor in Scheduling or Tracking? Or is it in Advanced Tracking? One of the most underrated shortcuts in my opinion is Ctrl+O (the letter O, not the number zero) to launch the Open dialog. This shortcut allows you to navigate to any specific module immediately. For example, you need to navigate to Official Schedule Editor to do a quick schedule update for an employee. One of the quickest ways to get there is hold down the Ctrl key then hit the O key -> type in the word “editor” without quotes -> hit the Enter key and you are there. No mouse required!
Tip 1.5:
Here is a bonus tip for the above example – if you would like to open Official Schedule Editor in a new window (yes, it is possible to open multiple modules at the same time within the one Alvaria Workforce session just like Tom Cruise did in Minority Report), after you have typed out the word “editor” you can hit the Tab key twice to jump to the “Open in New Window” check box -> hit the Spacebar to place a check in the check box -> hit the Enter key. Magically, a new Official Schedule Editor window pops up! I will let you play around with the tab key more in your own time, it is quite handy to tab your way through the system. Tab away!
Tip 2:Now that I have your attention about tabbing. The moment you land on a field where you need to launch the lookup dialog to select something, your instincts may be to grab your mouse and find that tiny little look up “…” button to launch it. For example, you are in Official Schedule Editor, and you would like to look up an employee. RSI can be a serious issue and relying on your mouse arm heavily to perform this look up function all the time is not ideal. Hold down the Ctrl key then hit the Enter key is the shortcut to launch the look up dialog, and you are on your way to selecting the employee you are looking for.
Tip 3:
How many times have you right clicked and add… in Alvaria Workforce? For example, add an employee record, add a segment, add an Intra Day Performance, the list goes on! If I would get a dollar every time I did that mouse click combo, I would be a millionaire by now (but I think I would still not retire since I love being in Workforce too much). Drum roll… the shortcut is that you could hold down the Ctrl key then hit the Insert key to open that add dialog window. Happy adding!
Tip 4:
Speaking of adding, this shortcut is not just a mouse click saver but something functional. For example, you need to add in notes for an employee and you also would like to track when exactly you wrote those notes down for record keeping purposes, just like a diary entry. Once you are in the memo field, you can hold the Ctrl key then hit the M key, after which you would see a timestamp appear in the format of <MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm:ss> for the current date and time.
Tip 5:
Last but not least, this shortcut is a great friend to have, especially when you need help. Pun not intended; it is to launch the Alvaria Workforce Help! In most modules you are working in, if you are not sure about a field within the window, you can simply hit the F1 key, and a help window would pop up that is contextually based on the window you were in. For example, if you are in Forecast Group -> General tab and you are not sure what “Allow long service delays:” is, you can hit the F1 key -> click into the General tab hyperlink and read about Allow Long Service Delays.
At Call Design we are more than happy to help you with any questions you have about Alvaria Workforce, but this help menu shortcut is a great initial step to see if it can get the help immediately at the tip of your fingers. Of course, if you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!
I hope you are able to start practicing these shortcuts next time you are in Alvaria Workforce. It is no secret that shortcuts can help you be more efficient in your day job, save you time, and can even save you from developing RSI. I have only shared what I believe to be the lesser-known shortcuts and there are a plenty more shortcuts built-in to the Alvaria Workforce system. I would be more than happy to share some more shortcuts with you another time…
– Ken Tse
