# Quick Action Menu

Source: https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/navigating-astalty/quick-action-menu

> Use CMD + K or CTRL + K to find pages, reports, exports and recently viewed Participants in Astalty.

Use the Quick Action Menu to find pages, run common actions and return to recently viewed Participants.

## Overview

Press **CMD + K** on Mac or **CTRL + K** on Windows, type a page name and press **Enter** to open the highlighted result.

The keyboard shortcut opens the menu without leaving your current page.

As well as taking you to a page, the Quick Action Menu can:

1. Run a quick action, such as creating a task
2. Take you back to a Participant you looked at earlier
3. Show you the pages that belong to the record you are already on

## Opening the Quick Action Menu

- **Mac:** press **CMD ⌘ + K**
- **Windows:** press **CTRL + K**

If your account has grouped navigation enabled, you can also select **Search** in the Side Menu. Grouped navigation is enabled per account by Astalty support; the keyboard shortcut works without it.

The shortcut works from every page in Astalty. It also works while your cursor is in a text field, so you do not have to click out of a form first.

To close the menu again, press the same shortcut a second time, press **Esc**, or select the **×** at the right of the search box.

![The Quick Action Menu open with an empty Type a command... search box, Create Quick Task under Quick Actions, and a Quick Navigation list starting with My Profile, Dashboard, Users, Participants and Referrals. Keyboard hints run along the bottom.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/action-menu-1.png)

## Keyboard Shortcuts

| Key                        | What it does                                                                    |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **CMD + K** / **CTRL + K** | Opens the Quick Action Menu, and closes it again                                |
| Start typing               | Narrows the list as you type                                                    |
| **↑** / **↓**              | Moves between results                                                           |
| **Enter**                  | Opens the highlighted result, or runs it                                        |
| **Esc**                    | Closes the menu                                                                 |
| **CMD + B** / **CTRL + B** | Not part of the menu, but worth knowing. It expands or collapses the Side Menu. |

## Searching by Name or by Path

Search matches page names and their menu paths. Add a category such as **reports** or **exports** to narrow the results.

Typing **shift exp** returns the shift-related entries under **Exports**, and further down the list, **Recurring Shifts Expiring Soon** from **Reports › Scheduling**.

![The Quick Action Menu with shift exp typed, listing Shifts, Active Overnights, Completed Shifts, Shift Approvals Variance and Support Notes under Exports, with the matching letters highlighted](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/action-menu-path-search-guide.png)

Search works with partial words, in any order:

- **Every word you type has to match somewhere in the entry.** Each extra word narrows the list rather than widening it.
- **The order of your words does not matter.** Typing **shift exp** and **exp shift** gives you the same results.
- **Part of a word is enough.** In the example above, **exp** matches both **Exports** and **Expiring**.

Whatever matched is highlighted in each result, so you can always see why something came up.

> **Type the category when you can't remember the name**
>
> Every report and export you have access to is in the menu, with its category shown underneath. When you can remember roughly where something lives but not exactly what it is called, type the category and skim the list, such as **reports finance** or **exports shift**.

## Searching by What You Call It

Some pages answer to more than their own name, so you can search for them using the words you would normally use.

The **Security** page under **Settings**, where account-wide two-factor authentication is managed, also comes up when you type **2fa**, **mfa**, **two factor** or **authenticator**, even though those words do not appear in the result.

![The Quick Action Menu with "2fa" typed, returning the Security page under Settings](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/action-menu-aliases.png)

## Settings Sub-Pages

You can search for individual settings pages without opening Settings first.

For example, typing **cost codes** returns **Cost Codes** under **Settings › Scheduling › Cost Codes**, and the same works for **Pay Groups**, **Cancellation Reasons**, **Leave Types**, **Public Holidays** and **Schedule Colours**. See the [scheduling settings submenu](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/scheduling/setup/scheduling-settings#scheduling-settings-submenu) for what each page holds.

![The Quick Action Menu with cost codes typed, returning Cost Code Assignments under Reports, Scheduling and Cost Codes under Settings, Scheduling in Quick Navigation, each with its path shown beneath it](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/scheduling-settings-command-menu-cost-codes.png)

## Sections Within a Page

Some results name a section within a settings page rather than a page of its own.

**Note Templates**, for example, has its own entry in the menu. Selecting it opens **Settings > Tasks and Notes**, where you can find the **Note Templates** section.

![The Quick Action Menu with "note tem" typed, returning Note Templates under Settings and Tasks and Notes](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/action-menu-page-sections.png)

## How Results Are Grouped

Results are grouped so you can tell at a glance what a result will do.

| Group                | What it contains                                                                                   |
| -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| No heading           | The pages belonging to the record you are currently on. See [Contextual Pages](#contextual-pages). |
| **Quick Actions**    | Things the menu does rather than pages it opens. Each one is marked with an **Action** badge       |
| **Quick Navigation** | Every page you can reach in Astalty, along with your own profile                                   |
| **History**          | Participants you have opened recently                                                              |

Within **Quick Navigation**, top-level pages are listed first and pages that sit deeper in the menu follow, so **Dashboard** and **Participants** appear before an individual report.

## Creating a Task

You can create a task straight from the Quick Action Menu without leaving the page you are on. Open the menu and start typing **task**, then select **Create Quick Task**.

![The Quick Action Menu with task typed in the search box. Create Quick Task, marked Action, is the first result under Quick Actions, above matching Quick Navigation results such as Tasks and Task Board.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/action-task-1.png)

## History

The Quick Action Menu keeps track of the Participants you have opened, so you can get back to one without searching for them again. Type **history** to see the list, or start typing a Participant's name and they will appear under **History** in the results.

The list covers your current session in Astalty, so it starts empty again after you refresh the page or sign back in.

![The Quick Action Menu with history typed in the search box, showing Login History and Support History under Quick Navigation and a History list of two recently opened Participants, each with a Participants breadcrumb.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/action-history.png)

## Contextual Pages

When you are on a record with pages of its own, such as a Participant's profile, those pages are listed first in the menu, above everything else, with the record's name in the path.

From a Participant's profile, you can reach its Supports, Records, Documents and other pages without going back to the Side Menu first.

![The Quick Action Menu open on a Participant's profile, listing Profile, Supports, Directory, Records, Documents and Goals, each under the Participant's name](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/action-menu-context.png)

## Watch the Walkthrough

There is a short video covering the same ground: [Quick Action Menu](https://docs.astalty.com.au/videos/quick-action-menu).

## Things to Keep in Mind

- **You will only ever see what you already have access to.** Results are filtered by your user role, your permissions and the features enabled on your account, in the same way the Side Menu is. A page a colleague can find in the menu may not appear for you.
- **Touch access depends on your navigation.** Accounts with grouped navigation can open the menu from **Search** in the Side Menu. Otherwise, use the keyboard shortcut.
- **It is a search box, not a filter.** The menu searches page names and actions. To find a specific Participant, shift or invoice, use the search on the relevant page, or open the Participant from **History** if you have looked at them recently.