GnuCash provides several time-saving shortcuts for entering your data. When you type the first few characters of a description that you have used before, the QuickFill feature automatically fills in the rest of the transaction as you last entered it. When you type in the first characters of an account name in either the Transfer field of the transaction line or the Account field of the split line, QuickFill will automatically complete the name from your account list. It also helps you with entering sub-accounts in these fields: simply type the first characters of the parent account name followed by a colon and the first characters of the sub-account name. For example, to enter Assets:Checking, you might type A:C and let GnuCash fill in the rest.
Register keyboard shortcuts also save you time, and GnuCash provides several of them. In the date field, you can type:
+ or = to increment the date and - or _ to decrement the date
] or } to increment the month and [ or { to decrement the month
M or m to enter the first date of the month
H or h to enter the last date of the month
Y or y to enter the first date of the year
R or r to enter the last date of the year
T or t to enter today's date
In the Num field of the transaction line, you can type + to increment the transaction number from the last one you typed in. Typing - will decrement the number. This will also work in the Action field of the split line, if you choose to enter split numbers there. The Action field also supports QuickFill - if you type the first characters of a common action (such as Deposit), GnuCash will fill in the rest.
The Transfer field supports QuickFill of account names. You can start typing an account name and GnuCash will fill in the remaining part of the name. Typing the separator character at any time will complete the current level of the account name, leaving the cursor positioned to start the next level of account name. For example, typing "A:C" with the standard set of account names will complete to the "Assets:Checking" account. You can also type the Menu or Ctrl-Down keys in this field to pop up a list of all account names.
In any of the amount fields, you can use a built-in calculator. Simply type in the first value, followed by +, -, *, or /, then type in the second value. GnuCash will perform the calculation and return the resulting value to the amount field when you press the Tab key.
All of the menu items have access keys defined, and these are marked by underlined characters in the menu names. Press Alt + [underlined character] to bring up the menu, then select an item by typing its underlined character. For example, typing Alt+T brings up the Transaction menu, then typing S will split the transaction. A few of the menu items also have shortcut keys that immediately invoke the command (typically using the Ctrl key). These shortcuts are listed next to the item.
To move around the register, use these keys to save time:
Tab to move to the next field, Shift+Tab to move to the previous field
Home to move to the beginning of the field, End to move to the end of the field
Enter or ↓ to move to the next transaction, ↑ to move to the previous transaction
Page Up to move up one screen, Page Down to move down one screen
Shift+Page Up to go to the first transaction, Shift+Page Down to go to the last transaction
In the Reconcile window you can use these keyboard shortcuts:
Tab moves to the next box and Shift-Tab moves to the previous box
Space bar toggles the status between reconciled and not reconciled
↑ and ↓ navigate through the entries within the current box