Helpful Keyboard Shortcuts in PowerChurch Plus

Those of you who are fairly new to working with computers may find using a mouse to be second nature and wouldn't know what to do without it. However, those that have been around a while longer can tell you, navigating data entry programs like PowerChurch Plus is much easier using the keyboard. Much time is wasted, moving your hand back and forth between the keyboard and mouse, every time you need to move to the next field.

In the 40+ years that PowerChurch Plus has been in development, many changes have been made. What remains the same, though, is the keyboard's role in properly navigating the program. Here we will only be covering some of the lesser known shortcuts that PowerChurch Plus uses, but for your own reference, the program also accepts most common keyboard shortcuts, such as CTRL+C (copy) and CTRL+V (paste).

Most date fields in PowerChurch Plus have a lookup button, which is a small downward arrow, located to the right of the date field. You can click this button to choose the date from a calendar. This tool is widely used to help keep date fields standardized. There are keyboard shortcuts that can be used in the date fields to auto-fill dates from one keystroke.

These shortcuts can also be used in combinations. For example:

Press "Y" then "-" then "Y"

This gives you the first day of last year

("Y" takes it to the first day of this year, "-" takes it to December 31 of the previous year, then "Y" takes it to the first day of that year)

Press "M" then "-" then "M"

This gives you the first day of last month

("M" takes it to the first day of this month, "-" takes it to the last day of last month, "M" takes it to the first day of last month)

These are just a couple of examples of combinations you can use for the most commonly entered dates in PowerChurch Plus. Get creative with it! It will save you a few keystrokes, a few extra clicks of the mouse, and will make you feel like a data entry master!