Welcome to Kofax RPA > Reference > Basic Engine Robots > General Editing

General Editing

This topic gives a few general hints related to editing Basic Engine Robots in Design Studio. These hints apply to when you make changes to a robot in the Robot view, to a type in the Type Editor or to a text in the Text Editor.

Copy, Paste, or Cut

Use keyboard shortcuts to cut, copy, and paste items In Design Studio.

  • Ctrl-C Copy

  • Ctrl-V Paste

  • Ctrl-X Cut

In addition, in most lists, such as the list of finders for a step, you can use Ctrl-Shift-C to copy all items in the list.

Group and ungroup steps

To group steps, select multiple steps and click Group Group Selected Elements on the toolbar. You can also right-click a step and select from the list.

Some selections cannot be grouped. A group step must have exactly one ingoing connection and exactly one outgoing connection, and this must also hold for the selection of steps that you want to group. The only exception is when a selection of steps does not have any outgoing connection. In this case, you can group the selection, but the topmost End step must be connected to the end of the group. Take a look at the following example.


Grouping Steps with no outgoing connection

In this robot, the following are examples of steps you can group:

  • All the steps.
  • Any single action step alone, such as Step A, Step B, and so on.
  • The branch point, step B, step C and the end step after step C.

The following are some examples of steps you cannot group:

  • the branch point and Step B (more than one ingoing connection)
  • steps B, C, D and the two End steps (more than one outgoing connection)

You can add a step to the created group step by either dragging it into the created group step or by using the copy (cut) and paste option.

To ungroup a step or collection of steps, perform one of the following actions: either drag it out of the group step or collapse the group step, click on the collapsed group step and then click the Ungroup button on the toolbar (or select "Ungroup" in the context menu).

  • Drag a step out of the group step.

  • Collapse the group step, select it, and click the Ungroup Ungroup button on the toolbar.

  • Collapse the group step, right-click it, and select Ungroup Ungroup in the context menu.

Note The Group and Ungroup actions are inverse. If you group a selection of steps and immediately ungroup them again, the structure of the robot is unchanged.

Use expand and collapse from the toolbar to perform the action on all groups.

Use expand and collapse from the context menu to perform the action on the selected group or groups.

The Expand and Collapse options on the context menu on steps do the same, but they are restricted to the Group steps in the selection.

Drag and drop

In addition to actions, you can edit robot elements directly using drag and drop. As soon as you drag a step, special indicators appear showing valid drop locations. You can also select and move multiple steps at one time.

  • To move a connection endpoint, select the connection and move the mouse to one of the handles at the end. Next, click the handle and move it to a new location. As soon as you click a handle, special indicators appear, showing where you may connect it.

  • To abort a drag and drop action, move the mouse outside the robot and let go of the mouse button as shown in the following figure.



Add a new connection

You can also create new connections using the mouse. Place the cursor near the end of a step so that an indicator appears (an orange circle with a green halo). Click the indicator and a new arrow appears. Keep the left mouse button pressed; move the mouse and a new connection will follow your mouse when you move it. New indicators appear and you can move the mouse to drop the new connection end point by releasing the left mouse button.

Undo and redo changes

While editing a robot, you can undo and redo every action. Click Undo or select Ctrl-Z to undo an action. Similarly, click Redo or select Ctrl-Y to redo an action.

Step validation

As you edit your robot, the Robot View validates each step. Invalid steps are underlined in red. You can move the mouse to an invalid step to view an explanation of error.

Add favorite steps to the Insert Step menu
While editing a robot, you might use some steps more than others. To minimize the time needed to insert your favorite steps, you can add them directly to the Insert Step menu. To add steps to the Insert Step menu, open the Robot Editor tab in the Design Studio Settings dialog box. To add steps to the list, click under Favorite Steps and select steps. To remove steps from the list, select one or more steps and click . To reorder steps, select a step and move it up and down the list using arrows.

Names of steps that work only with a particular browser engine are followed by a robot icon. Steps that work only with the WebKit-based browser have an orange icon, and steps that work only with the classic engine browser have a blue icon. Steps without icons can work with both browsers.

Keyboard help

You may use keyboard shortcuts that make it easier and more efficient to navigate to different areas of the product. Typically, a shortcut is shown on the tooltip when you move the pointer to the options.

Single-Line Text Fields

Description

Keyboard Shortcut

Move to prev/next word

Ctrl+Left, Ctrl+Right

Move to start/end of field

Home/End

Select all

Ctrl+A

Deselect all

arrow keys

Extend selection left/right

Shift+Left, Shift+Right

Extend selection to start/end

Shift+Home, Shift+End

Extend selection to prev/next word

Ctrl+Shift+Left, Ctrl+Shift+Right

Copy selection

Ctrl+C

Cut selection

Ctrl+X

Paste from clipboard

Ctrl+V

Delete next character

Delete

Delete previous character

Backspace

Multi-Line Text Fields

Description

Keyboard Shortcut

Move to start/end of line

Home, End

Move to prev/next word

Ctrl+Left/Right

Move to start/end of text

Ctrl+Home/End

Block move up/down

PgUp, PgDn

Block move left

Ctrl+PgUp

Block move right

Ctrl+PgDn

Select all

Ctrl+A

Copy selection

Ctrl+C

Cut selection

Ctrl+X

Paste Selected Text

Ctrl+V

Delete next character

Delete

Delete previous character

Backspace

Insert line break

Enter

Buttons

Description

Keyboard Shortcut

Activate Spacebar
Drop-Down Menus

Description

Keyboard Shortcut

Toggle menu up or down Alt+Up/Down
Multi-Line Text Fields

Description

Keyboard Shortcut

Expand entry

Right

Collapse entry

Left

Toggle expand/collapse for entry

Enter

Move up/down one entry

Up, Down

Move to first entry

Home

Move to last visible entry

End

Block move vertical

PgUp, PgDn

Block move left

Ctrl+PgUp

Block move right

Ctrl+PgDn

Block extend vertical

Shift+PgUp, Shift+PgDn

Select all

Ctrl+A

Single select

Ctrl+Spacebar

Lists

Description

Keyboard Shortcut

Move within list

Up, Down

Move to beginning of list

Home

Move to end of list

End

Select all entries

Ctrl+A

Cut

Ctrl+X

Copy

Ctrl+C

Copy all entries

Ctrl+Shift+C

Paste

Ctrl+V

Tables

Description

Keyboard Shortcut

Move to next cell

Right Arrow

Move to previous cell

Left Arrow

Move to first cell in row

Home

Move to last cell in row

End

Move to first cell in table

Ctrl+Home

Move to last cell in table

Ctrl+End

Select all cells

Ctrl+A