The desk is built to be driven without the mouse. One chord opens a launcher that reaches every page, airport, record and action; one key opens a sheet that lists every other chord; and the surfaces that earn it - the logbook grid, the Ops Map, the Watch timeline - carry bare keys of their own. Nothing here changes what the app shows or claims: a shortcut only gets you to the same panel faster, with the same "Reference only - verify officially." at the foot.
Find your way around
The top bar is the keyboard's home: the search field in the middle reads "Search airports, pages and actions" with a Cmd+K keycap, and the utility cluster on the right holds the tour key, the bell, the theme button, the Keyboard shortcuts button (the question-mark icon) and the UTC clock. On the Logbook, a row-density button joins them.
| Surface | Keys |
|---|---|
| Everywhere | Cmd+K command deck, Cmd+1 to Cmd+9 sidebar pages, Cmd+, Settings, Cmd+N new logbook entry, ? shortcuts sheet, Esc closes |
| Command deck | Arrow keys move, Enter opens, Shift+Enter weather, Cmd+Enter Ops Map, Tab cycles the scope, prefixes @ / > # ! |
| Logbook grid (Bulk edit) | Arrow keys, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, F8 next error, Enter edits, Space ticks, Shift+Click ranges, Cmd+A, Cmd+C, Cmd+V, Cmd+D fill down, Cmd+Z undo |
| Ops Map | A letter per layer, , and . scrub time, Space plays, 0 resets, + and - zoom, O corridor, M measure, L copy link, B panel, ? overlay |
| Watch timeline | J / K or arrows move, Enter expands, A acknowledges |
| Tools page | / focuses the tool search, Esc clears it |
How to use the command deck
- Press Cmd+K (Ctrl+K on Windows), or click the search field in the top bar. The deck opens over the page with the input focused; the placeholder reads "Type an ICAO, a page, a record or an action".
- With nothing typed, your own stations lead the list - home, favourites and recent lookups - under Your stations, with the pages beneath.
- Type. Airports match on ICAO, IATA, name or city; records (NOTAMs by number or text, log entries, flights, duties, settings) need at least two characters. Matched characters are lit in every label.
- Move with the arrow keys. The right pane previews the highlighted row: for an airport, the Station card with local time, elevation and position, then Open airport, Weather, NOTAMs and Show on Ops Map; for a page or action, what pressing Enter will do.
- Press Enter to open. On an airport row, Shift+Enter opens its weather page and Cmd+Enter frames it on the Ops Map. Opening an airport records it as recently used, so the deck fills itself with what you actually look up.
- Press Esc to close. Focus returns to wherever it was.
The footer keeps you honest: it counts the results and reads "on-device search", or "on-device search + live NOTAM lookup" when the deck has also asked the server.
How to narrow the deck to one scope
- Type a prefix as the first character, or press Tab (Shift+Tab goes back) to cycle the chips under the input:
| Prefix | Chip | What it searches |
|---|---|---|
| @ | Airports | ICAO, IATA, airport name or city |
| / | Pages | The sidebar destinations and routed pages |
| > | Actions | Things the deck can run or open (below) |
| # | Records | Your NOTAMs, Logbook, Flights, Duties and Settings |
| ! | Watch | Watch Desk stations, rules, mutes and recorded events |
- Read the section headers as the results group themselves: Your stations, Pages, Airports, NOTAMs, Logbook, Flights, Duties, Settings, Actions and Watch Desk.
- A query that matches nothing says so - "No matches for "xyz" in airports"
- and lists the prefixes as the way out.
The Actions section carries shortcuts to things that otherwise take a few clicks: New logbook entry, New duty, Today timeline, What-if comparison, Duty year heatmap, Roster board (bulk edit), Manage stations, Compare airports, Ops display, Notifications, plus three that run in place - Toggle row density, Cycle theme and Keyboard shortcuts.
The ! scope is the Watch Desk from anywhere: Watch EGLL or Stop watching EGLL, Mute EGLL for 3 h or Unmute EGLL, Turn on rule ... or Turn off rule ... by name, and your recorded events by station or title, each opening on the event. Watch Desk covers what those do.
How to read the shortcuts sheet
- Press ? on any page, or click the Keyboard shortcuts button in the top bar. The sheet lists two sections:
| Section | Chords |
|---|---|
| Navigate | Cmd+1 Overview, Cmd+2 Duty & FTL, Cmd+3 Logbook, Cmd+4 Watch, Cmd+5 Flight Brief, Cmd+6 Weather, Cmd+7 NOTAMs, Cmd+8 Airports, Cmd+9 Ops Map, Cmd+, Settings |
| Actions | Cmd+K "Open the command palette", Cmd+N "New logbook entry (new flight on the Flights tab)", ? "Show this shortcuts sheet", Esc "Close the sheet or palette" |
- Press ? again, Esc, or click the close keycap to dismiss it.
The number keys follow the sidebar order, so the sheet is also a map of the rail. Cmd+N starts a new logbook entry from most pages; on the Duty & FTL page it starts a new duty instead.
How to work the logbook grid from the keyboard
Open the Logbook, click Bulk edit, and the grid takes its own keys. The Shortcuts button in the edit-mode header opens the sheet with the grid's three sections:
| Section | Keys |
|---|---|
| Navigation | Arrow keys move between cells; Home and End first and last column; PgUp and PgDn jump 10 rows; F8 next error, Shift+F8 previous; Enter edits the focused cell (while editing, commits and moves down); Tab commits and moves right; typing starts an overwriting edit; Esc cancels |
| Selection | Space ticks or unticks the focused cell's row; Shift+Click selects a range; Cmd+A selects all filtered rows |
| Clipboard & undo | Cmd+C copies the focused cell, or the ticked rows as a block; Cmd+V pastes at the focused cell; Cmd+D fills the focused cell's value down the ticked rows (previewed); Cmd+Z undoes the last batch |
Fill-down and paste are previewed before they commit, and F8 walks the current batch's failures, so nothing lands in your record unread. Undo keeps 20 levels for the session; the stack is not persisted across a reload. Logbook covers the grid itself.
How to drive the Ops Map from the keyboard
On the Ops Map, press ? for its own overlay instead of the global sheet:
| Section | Keys |
|---|---|
| Layers | One letter per layer - N NOTAMs, S Station plots, W Winds aloft, T Traffic, R Route line, H SIGMET / CWA / G-AIRMET, V Satellite, E Radar, and the rest as the overlay lists them; a layer with no key reads "no key" |
| Find a layer | / focuses the layer search (Layers tab open); Enter toggles the first match; Esc clears |
| Time | , and . scrub 10 min; Shift+, and Shift+. scrub 1 h; Space plays or pauses the time-lapse; 0 resets to now; the wheel over the timeline steps 10 min |
| Map | + and - zoom; O corridor filter; M measure; L copies a link to this view; B shows or hides the route and layers panel |
The chart stays badged "Not for navigation" whatever you toggle. Ops Map explains the layers and the time bar.
How to work the Watch timeline
On the Watch Desk, the Event timeline answers to J or the down arrow (next event), K or the up arrow (previous), Enter (expand or collapse the selected event) and A (acknowledge the selected event). The Watch guide inside the app lists the same keys.
How to pop a display out to a second monitor
- On the Weather workbench, open the ops display from the board masthead (the screen icon, "Open the ops display"), or run Ops display from the command deck's Actions.
- Click the pop-out button ("Pop out this display to a second window"). A new window opens with the same board; drag it to the other monitor. While it is open, the button reads "Pop-out window open - bring it to the front".
- To pop out a single station instead, use Pop out on a station panel of the briefing board or the Overview station board; the panel then reads "Popped out · connected".
- In the pop-out, read the status chip: Live with "Connected to the app tab · heard 4s ago", Source quiet when the app tab may be hidden or throttled, Source lost when nothing has been heard - "treat the source as gone. Station ages below stay accurate." Reconnect asks the app tab again; Close window ends it.
The pop-out is a display surface only: the app tab feeds it, and if that tab closes the window says "The app tab closed - this window no longer updates." rather than pretending. Opening the pop-out URL on its own shows "No source", because nothing can feed it.
How to change density, theme and replay the tour
- Row density. On the Logbook, the top bar shows a density button - "Switch to dense rows" or "Switch to comfortable rows". It renders only where a table is in view; Toggle row density in the command deck does the same.
- Theme. The theme button cycles System, Light, Dark and Cockpit red-light; its label reads, for example, "Theme: Dark. Switch to Cockpit red-light". The desk defaults to Dark. The choice you make here is the web edition's own and never re-themes your iPhone; Settings > Appearance holds the same four options.
- The desk tour. The tour key in the top bar offers "New here? Tour the desk" and later "Tour the desk again", with Tour the Watch desk beside it. If you hid the key, open Settings > Help & onboarding and click Tour the desk ("Esc skips, Enter advances") or Show it again. The tour needs a window at least 860 px wide so the sidebar and top bar are on screen to point at.
On iPhone and iPad
None of this has a phone twin: the iOS app has no command deck, no shortcut sheet and no pop-out windows, and the theme you pick on the desk stays on the desk. The phone's own theme switch, including red-light mode, lives in Settings, Backup & Sync on iPhone.
Troubleshooting
A bare key does nothing. A text field has focus. Press Esc or click the page background, then try again. Chords with Cmd work regardless.
Cmd+N did not start a logbook entry. You were on the Flights section, where the global chord stands aside for the page's own new-flight handling; run New logbook entry from the command deck instead.
The deck found no NOTAM for a number I know exists. The local section covers what this browser fetched in the last 30 days; the live lookup needs a connection and an exact ICAO-series number such as A2905/26. Open the station's NOTAM page to fetch afresh.
"Pop-up blocked - allow pop-ups for this site and try again". The browser stopped the second window. Allow pop-ups for app.pilotefb.com and click the pop-out button again.
The pop-out says Source quiet. The app tab is hidden or the browser has throttled it; data in the window may be older than usual. Bring the app tab to the front, or click Reconnect.
Where next
- Overview - the desk the deck opens over, and the station board with its Pop out buttons.
- Logbook - the entries table and the bulk-edit grid the keys drive.
- Ops Map - every layer and preset behind the letters.
- Watch Desk - the timeline, the rules and the "!" scope.