Shift Scheduler Blog
Shortcuts in Shift Scheduler: Drag, Duplicate, and Step Back Faster
Most of the roster editing in Shift Scheduler happens with the mouse, not with forms. Once you know the shortcuts, building and adjusting a schedule gets a lot faster.
The short version:
- Drag a shift or an open slot to move it to another day, person, or location.
- Hold Alt (Option on a Mac) while dragging to duplicate instead of move.
- A recurring open slot moves or duplicates as a whole weekly pattern; a single shift never does.
- Press Cmd/Ctrl+Z at any time to step back your most recent change.
- Press Cmd/Ctrl+B to show or hide the sidebar.
Drag To Move
On both the People view (/people) and the Locations view (/locations), click and hold any shift or open slot and drag it to a new day. Drop it on a different person or location row and it moves there too.
A short click without dragging opens the edit form instead, so you never need to choose between clicking and dragging — Shift Scheduler figures out which one you meant from whether the pointer actually moved.
Alt+Drag To Duplicate
Hold Alt (Option on a Mac keyboard) while you start dragging, and Shift Scheduler duplicates what you're dragging instead of moving it. The original stays exactly where it was, and a copy is created wherever you drop it.
This works the same way for a single assigned shift and for an open slot — but what "duplicate" means for an open slot depends on whether that slot repeats every week or only exists on one date. See the table below.
How Drag And Alt+Drag Work For Slots vs. Shifts
Shift Scheduler has two related but different building blocks on the Locations view:
- An open slot is an unfilled position. It can be recurring (it comes from the
location's weekly template and repeats on the same weekday every week) or a one-off (it only exists on one specific date).
- A shift is a concrete assignment for one person on one day. A shift can never be
recurring — only slots can repeat.
When a shift is assigned to fill an open slot, the shift is drawn as a layer sitting on top of that slot. Dragging always acts on whichever layer you actually grabbed:
| Drag | Alt+drag (Option+drag on Mac) | |
|---|---|---|
| Open (empty) slot | Moves the slot. If it's a recurring weekly slot, the whole weekly pattern moves — for example, dragging a slot from every Monday to Tuesday moves it to every Tuesday going forward. | Duplicates the slot. Duplicating a recurring slot from Monday to Tuesday creates a second, independent recurring slot on Tuesdays — the original Monday slot stays untouched. |
| Shift with no slot underneath | Moves that one shift. | Duplicates that one shift. |
| Shift sitting on a slot | Moves the shift only — never the slot underneath. A shift is always a single occurrence; only slots can be recurring. | Duplicates the shift only — never the slot. Shift Scheduler always treats an assigned shift as a layer on top of its slot, so duplicating it never touches, and never duplicates, the recurring pattern below it. |
That last row is the one worth remembering: duplicating a filled shift never creates a new recurring slot by accident, even though the shift is visually sitting right on top of one. Recurring patterns only ever change when you drag the slot itself, on a day where it isn't covered by an assigned shift.
Open-slot dragging also works across locations: drop a slot on a different location's row and it moves — or, with Alt held, duplicates — into that location's schedule instead.
Cmd/Ctrl+Z: Step Back Your Last Change
If a drag, an edit, or a delete didn't turn out the way you wanted, press Cmd+Z on a Mac or Ctrl+Z on Windows/Linux to step it back. This works from anywhere in the app once you're signed in — you don't need to be on any particular page.
A few things worth knowing about how it behaves:
- It steps back your most recent change. If you've made several changes since the
one you actually want to undo, stepping back also reverts every change made after it, not just that one — so it's a true "go back to how things were," not a way to cherry-pick a single old edit out of order.
- Changes can be stepped back for up to 24 hours after they happen.
- Full change history is kept for 60 days, and you can review and revert older,
individual entries from Settings → History if 24 hours has already passed for the most recent one.
- Only admins and managers can step back changes.
If you're typing in a text field when you press Cmd/Ctrl+Z, Shift Scheduler leaves that to your browser's normal text-undo instead — the shortcut only steps back schedule changes when you're not actively editing text.
Bonus: Cmd/Ctrl+B Toggles The Sidebar
Press Cmd+B (Mac) or Ctrl+B (Windows/Linux) to collapse or expand the sidebar. Handy when you want a little more room for a wide schedule.
FAQ
How do I duplicate a shift instead of moving it?
Hold Alt (Option on a Mac) while you drag the shift, then drop it where you want the copy. The original shift stays where it was.
If I Alt+drag a shift that's sitting on a slot, does it duplicate the slot too?
No. Shift Scheduler always treats an assigned shift as sitting on top of its slot. Duplicating the shift only ever creates a second shift — it never creates or changes a recurring slot underneath it.
What happens if I drag a recurring open slot to a different day?
The whole weekly pattern moves with it. If the slot repeated every Monday, it will now repeat every day of the week you dropped it on, and it will no longer appear on Monday.
How do I duplicate a recurring slot without removing it from its original day?
Hold Alt while dragging it. The original slot keeps repeating on its original weekday, and a new, independent recurring slot is created on the day you drop it on.
Does Cmd/Ctrl+Z undo just my last click, or everything since a point in time?
Stepping back always reverts your most recent change first, and any change made after it. It's designed to take the schedule back to how it looked before that whole run of changes, not to remove one change from the middle while keeping everything after it.
Can anyone step back changes, or only certain roles?
Only admins and managers can use Cmd/Ctrl+Z or the Revert options in Settings → History.
Is there a time limit on stepping back a change?
Yes. Changes can be stepped back for up to 24 hours after they happen. History itself is kept for 60 days, so older changes are still visible in Settings → History even after they can no longer be reverted.