What are the Keyboard Shortcuts for launching DesignPLUS?

Some institutions hide the launch button or enable switching between the legacy and new versions of the DesignPLUS sidebar. Keyboard shortcuts can be used to launch the sidebar and switch between versions.

To Unhide the Sidebar

Some institutions choose to hide the launch button thereby requiring their users to use keyboard shortcuts to launch the tools. If this is the case at your institution, please teach your users how to use these keyboard shortcuts.

To unhide the DesignPLUS launch button using keyboard shortcuts, first make sure that you are editing any page in Canvas. Then, you may use either:

  1. Alt-Shift-D (PC)
  2. Option-Shift-D (Mac)
  3. Ctrl-1

The first two options are the original keyboard shortcuts. However, due to a Firefox update, we added the third option to work as well.

To Switch Between the Legacy and New Sidebars

Depending on your institution's configuration, you may be able to switch to the New Sidebar without keyboard shortcuts, by going to the Settings area (the gears icon) in your Legacy Sidebar, and selecting the "Try New Version" button.

select the gears / settings icon and then select the Try New Version button

Some institutions choose to enable version switching thereby allowing their users to use keyboard shortcuts to switch between the legacy and new DesignPLUS sidebar. If this is the case at your institution, please teach your users how to use these keyboard shortcuts.

To switch between the legacy and new versions of the sidebar, first make sure that you are editing any page in Canvas. Then, you may use either:

  1. Alt-Shift-V (PC)
  2. Option-Shift-V (Mac)

Please note: if you needed to use a keyboard shortcut to unhide the sidebar, and then used the version-switching keyboard shortcut, you may need to use the unhide-the-sidebar shortcut one more time to reveal the New Sidebar.

If neither of these options works for you, your access to the sidebar may have been limited by your institution. There may also be a problem with the DesignPLUS configuration in your institution's JavaScript file. Please contact support@cidilabs.com for help.