Use keyboard shortcuts to initiate actions without using a mouse.
Keyboard shortcuts, also known as hotkeys, provide the fastest and most efficient way of working, and as a result are widely used by 3ds Max artists. For example, to open the Select From Scene dialog without using the menu, you can simply press the H key. To change the active viewport to a view from the top, you can press T.
Keyboard shortcuts have already been defined for most common actions, however you can change these assignments as well as apply hotkeys to undefined actions. To modify or add new shortcuts, use the Hotkey editor. Customized hotkey sets are saved in your User Settings folder and can be copied between systems using 3ds Max 2020.1 and up.
In most cases you can close a dialog using the same command to open it. This applies to any combination of input methods including menu, toolbar button, and keyboard shortcuts. For more information, see Toggling Dialogs.
The same shortcuts can be assigned to multiple commands, so long as they occur in different contexts. For example, in Video Post, the shortcut Ctrl+S is assigned to Add Scene Event; however, in the Main UI, it is assigned to Save File. When you use a keyboard shortcut, 3ds Max looks for a context-specific shortcut first. If none is found, it then looks for the appropriate command in the Main UI shortcuts.
For the context-specific shortcuts to work properly, the Keyboard Shortcut Override toggle must be on (which is the default setting). If it is off, only the Main UI keyboard shortcuts are available.