Keyboard Operation
Almost all the functionality of the Visual RPN Calculator can be accessed from the keyboard without having to use the various buttons and menus visible from the Graphical User Interface (GUI). Conversely, every command that can be entered on the keyboard also has a corresponding button somewhere in the app. This makes Visual RPN Calculator equally usable via keyboard on a desktop PC or the GUI on a touchscreen tablet.
Entering Commands via the Keyboard
Aside from being used to enter numbers and names, the register may also be used to enter commands. Generally, whatever is typed on the keyboard will show up in the register. As letters are entered, a pull-down menu will appear to show what commands are available that contain the string the user is typing. By using the mouse (or the up and down arrows), the user can choose to execute the command without having to type the whole command word. If the pull-down menu is not used, the command is executed as soon as the user hits enter. If the entered string is not one of the available commands, the string will be treated as a name.
The available commands include all the calculator buttons and the values stored by the user as user defined buttons. The available commands can generally be deduced by looking at the labels of the various buttons that may be found on the calculator. When the button label is not suitable as a typed command (for instance, the π button), the proper command word for the button may be found by mousing over the button and will generally be contained in square braces (e.g. [PI]).
Instant Keys
Some keys on the keyboard will result in the instant execution of a command. These include *, +, /, -, ? and the ^ key which may be used to enter an exponent (note that an exponent of .5 is identical to a square root). All of these command keys work in typical RPN fashion, where the numbers to be operated on must be on the stack (or entered in the register) before entering the command key.
The list delimiters [ "{" "}" "(" ")" ] are also instantly placed on the stack when the corresponding keys are pressed. Note that parentheses are only used to indicate lists, they are never needed to enter calculations since order of operations is implicit in RPN entry.
Additional Keyboard Shortcuts
A lot of stack manipulation may be performed using the keyboard rather than the mouse or touchscreen, and a few other operations are available as well.
| F1 | Brings up the help pages |
| Esc | Deselects any selected item on the stack |
| Arrow Key (left, right) | Changes which stack entry is selected |
| Shift Arrow Key | Moves selected stack entry |
| Control Arrow Key | Swaps selected stack entry with entry to left or right |
| Arrow Key (up, down) | Changes which stack is selected |
| Del | Deletes currently selected stack entry (or top of stack) |
| Shift Del | Deletes all stack entries |
| ctrl-"-" | Changes sign of register entry (or stack entry if register is empty) |
| ctrl-0,1,2 | Changes to one of three different stacks |
| ctrl-d | Duplicates current stack entry |
| ctrl-t | Splits current stack entry |
| ctrl-x | Removes current stack entry and places it in the clipboard |
| ctrl-c | Copies current stack entry to the clipboard |
| ctrl-v | Inserts contents of clipboard into stack |
| ctrl-z | Undo previous action |
| ctrl-y | Redo previously undone action |