# Type a quote without touching the mouse

Source: https://help.mucka.ai/quotes/type-a-quote-with-the-keyboard
Category: Quotes
Last updated: 2026-08-28

> Tab moves you through the line items and Cmd+S saves. Enter, Esc and clicking away all ask before closing a quote you're halfway through. For anyone who'd rather not keep reaching for the mouse.

If you're quoting a ten-line job, reaching for the mouse after every line gets old fast. You don't have to. A quote or an invoice can be typed start to finish on the keyboard.

## Tab moves you along

Whichever field you're on goes a shade darker, so you can always see where you are.

**Tab** goes to the next field. **Shift+Tab** goes back one.

Within a line item that runs:

1. **Description**
2. **Add detail** — press **Enter** here to open the detail box, or **Tab** straight past it if this line doesn't need one
3. **Qty**
4. **Unit £**
5. The **✕** that removes the line
6. Then on into the next line's description

So a plain line is Description, Tab, Tab, Qty, Tab, price, Tab, Tab — and you're typing the next one.

## Adding the next line

Tab on past the last line and you land on the **Add line** button. Press **Enter** and Mucka adds the line *and puts your cursor in its description*, ready to type. No reaching for the mouse, no tabbing backwards to find the box.

## Picking from your price list

As you type a description, matches from your [**price list**](/settings/money/price-list) appear underneath. You can:

- **Arrow down** to the one you want and press **Enter**
- Or just press **Enter** to take the top match
- Press **Esc** if you'd rather ignore the list and type your own wording

Picking an item fills in the price too, so that's one keystroke instead of typing the figure.

## Saving

**Cmd+S** (or **Ctrl+S** on Windows) saves from wherever you are in the form. You can also Tab to the **Save** button and press Enter, or just click it.

**Enter asks first.** Saving a quote also closes it, and Enter is the key everyone hits out of habit at the end of a line — so it used to shut the quote on you halfway through typing it. Now it brings up a small check: *Save and close?*, with the save button worded exactly as it is on the form you're in. **Keep editing** is highlighted, so if you hit Enter again out of habit you go straight back to the quote and nothing is saved.

## Nothing closes on you with work in it

Once you've typed anything into a quote, the ways out all stop and ask: *Save before closing?* You get three answers — save it, keep editing, or close without saving. That covers pressing **Esc**, clicking the **✕**, and clicking on the greyed-out area around the quote.

**Highlighting text can't close it either.** If you drag across a description to select it and let go of the mouse button outside the quote, the quote stays exactly where it is. That used to shut it.

**On a phone, swiping it away asks too.** Flick a half-filled quote down off the screen and it springs back with the same question, rather than going. Once you've answered it, the next swipe goes through as normal.

None of this nags you for opening a quote and closing it again — only once you've actually changed something.

## Worth knowing

- **Enter in a detail box makes a new line.** Detail is meant to be several lines, so Enter behaves the way it does in any notes box.
- **Enter on a button still presses it.** So Tab to **Add detail** or **Add line** and Enter works as you'd expect. Same for **Save**.
- **Esc closes the quote, but asks first if you've typed anything.** If the price-list list is showing, the first Esc just closes that.
- **Cancel is the one that doesn't ask.** It means throw this away, so it does exactly that, straight off.
- **This works the same everywhere.** Invoices, jobs, clients — no form in Mucka saves on Enter without asking, and none of them close on you with unsaved work in them.
- **On a phone or tablet, ignore the keyboard bits.** Tapping is the faster way round on a touchscreen. The one part that does apply is the section above: a quote with work in it won't let a swipe throw it away without asking.