Hot keys
Hi folks!
MetaTrader have a very user friendly interface and I think this is one of the most important reasons of its success.
Moreover, to make the world easier for the user, MetaTrader gives you the ability to access its most used function by using hot keys!
What are the hot keys?
A hot key is a combination of keyboard keys which you press them together to carry a specific task. You are using them everyday and every minute just remember that CTRL+C is a hot key of copying the selected text in the most of the programs that operate under MS Windows!
In MetaTrader you press a hot key to access a task that you can access it from the MetaTrader's menu or toolbar (i.e. F9 is the hot key to open new order window).
We are going to list all the available hot key of MetaTrader. But we have to discuss a very important feature of MetaTrader; Assigning hot key!
Assigning hot key!
MetaTrader gives you the ability to assign a hot key to any of your programs (Indicators, Expert advisors and Scripts) for easy access.
Let us step by step assigning a hot key to one of the indictors:
1- The first step is going to the Navigator window (Figure 1) and choosing the indicator you to assign a hot key to it. Let's say we want to assign the hot key CTRL + G to the Alligator indicator.
Note: The CTRL + G hot key is already assigned by MetaTrader to hide/show grids and when we assign it to one of program it will be overwrote and when we press the CTRL + G the assigned program will work not the show/hide grids.
2- Right-Click on the Alligator indicator to bring the context menu (Figure 2) and choose Set hotkey command.
3- This will open the Navigator Hot Keys window (Figure 3), Select the Alligator indicator if not already selected.
4- Click Set button and you will find two fields to fill; one for the control key (ctrl or alt) and the other filed for the keyboard letter (Figure 4). set the fields to CTRL and G. and click Close button!
Note: There are another two buttons in he Navigator Hot Keys window: Reset button will reset your last entry and the Reset All button will reset all of your assigned hot keys.
Now you can click CTRL + G to add the Alligator indicator to your chart (Figure 5).
Hot keys list:
Here's the list of the hot keys available in MetaTrader:
| Hot key | Function |
| ← | chart scrolling to the left |
| → | chart scrolling to the right |
| ↑ | fast chart scrolling to the left or, if the scale is defined, chart scrolling up |
| ↓ | fast chart scrolling to the right or, if the scale is defined, chart scrolling down |
| Numpad 5 | restoring of automatic chart vertical scale after its being changed. If the scale was defined, this hot key will return the chart into the visible range |
| Page Up | fast chart scrolling to the left |
| Page Down | fast chart scrolling to the right |
| Home | move the chart to the start point |
| End | move the chart to the end point |
| - | chart zoom out |
| + | chart zoom in |
| Delete | delete all selected graphical objects |
| Backspace | delete the latest objects imposed into the chart window |
| Enter | open/close fast navigation window |
| Esc | close the dialog window |
| F1 | open this MetaTrader user guide |
| F2 | open the "History Center" window |
| F3 | open the "Global Variables" window |
| F4 | download MetaEditor |
| F5 | switch to the next profile |
| F6 | call the "Tester" window for testing the expert attached to the chart window |
| F7 | call the properties window of the expert attached to their chart window in order to change settings |
| F8 | call the chart setup window |
| F9 | call the "New Order" window |
| F10 | open the "Popup prices" window |
| F11 | enable/disable the full screen mode |
| F12 | move the chart by one bar to the left |
| Shift+F12 | move the chart by one bar to the right |
| Shift+F5 | switch to the previous profile |
| Alt+1 | display the chart as a sequence of bars (transform into bar chart) |
| Alt+2 | display the chart as a sequence of candlesticks (transform into candlesticks) |
| Alt+3 | display the chart as a broken line (transform into line chart) |
| Alt+A | copy all test/optimization results into the clipboard |
| Alt+W | call the chart managing window |
| Alt+F4 | close the client terminal |
| Alt+Backspace or Ctrl+Z | undo object deletion |
| Ctrl+A | arrange all indicator windows heights by default |
| Ctrl+B | call the "Objects List" window |
| Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert | copy to the clipboard |
| Ctrl+E | enable/disable expert advisor |
| Ctrl+F | enable "Crosshair" |
| Ctrl+G | show/hide grid |
| Ctrl+H | show/hide OHLC line |
| Ctrl+I | call the "Indicators List" window |
| Ctrl+L | show/hide volumes |
| Ctrl+P | print the chart |
| Ctrl+S | save the chart in a file having extensions: "CSV", "PRN", "HTM" |
| Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4 | close the chart window |
| Ctrl+Y | show/hide period separators |
| Ctrl+Z or Alt+Backspace | undo the object deletion |
| Ctrl+D | open/close the "Data Window" |
| Ctrl+M | open/close the "Market Watch" window |
| Ctrl+N | open/close the "Navigator" window |
| Ctrl+O | open the "Setup" window |
| Ctrl+R | open/close the "Tester" window |
| Ctrl+T | open/close the "Terminal" window |
| Ctrl+F6 | activate the next chart window |
| Ctrl+F9 | open the "Terminal — Trade" window and switch the focus into it. After this, the trading activities can be managed with keyboard |