Maximo has shortcuts for a few basic operations such as Add New or Save Record. However, they are quite limited and many do not work properly. I wrote a small Chrome extension to provide additional shortcuts to address this issue.
Problem
As someone who interacts with Maximo all day long, using keyboard shortcuts would greatly increase the navigation speed and improve user experience. Maximo 7.6 does provide some basic shortcuts, however many of them don’t work properly. For example, the shortcut to toggle the “Filter” button doesn’t work if the control is not in focus. The new user interface in MAS is more clunky, many basic activities now require additional mouse clicks. For example, to use Quick Search to open a record, you’ll now have to click on the Magnify button, to unhide the Search input field, then click on it to type a value.
Demo
I created this extension mainly to use it myself, but I think it can be useful for some of you out there. I think anyone who is using Maximo extensively should learn to use some keyboard shortcuts as it will improve their work productivity. Below is a short demo of how shortcuts are used to navigate the application. Note that in this whole demo, there is not a single mouse click.
Setup
This extension is available in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Chrome extension limits the number of pre-assigned shortcuts to a maximum of 4 keys. As such, after installing the extension, you’ll need to assign the shortcut keys to each action by opening the following URL in the browser:
- Chome: chrome://extensions/shortcuts
- Edge: edge://extensions/shortcuts
Then click on the edit button next to each action to assign a key. You can use my suggested key combinations or define your own preferred combination. Also, you don’t need to define combinations for every action, only assign the key to those actions you want to use.
Future enhancement
I have been using this for a while. It works ok with the standard UI of Maximo 7.6 and MAS 9. But if you are using a different skin or Maximo version, some actions might not behave correctly. I’ll fine-tune the extension to maximise compatibility and add more shortcuts. Ensure you are on the latest version to get the most out of it. If you have any suggestions or questions, please feel free to leave me a comment here or send me a private message on LinkedIn.
