Lost Your Shopify Shortcuts? How to Navigate Orders & Automate Product Selections Like a Pro

Hey everyone! As a Shopify expert who spends a lot of time digging through community discussions, I often see common pain points that resonate with so many of you. Recently, a thread popped up that really hit home for anyone who relies on quick, efficient workflows in their Shopify admin. Our friend punkwithacamera (who runs a DIY screen printing shop – talk about high-volume production!) voiced a frustration many of us have felt: the disappearance of handy keyboard shortcuts and reliable bulk selection features.

Specifically, punkwithacamera was missing the J & K shortcut for zipping between orders and a "select all" feature for custom product selections. The latter was causing a monthly headache, forcing them to manually re-enter products because the selection kept breaking. This isn't just an inconvenience; it's a serious workflow disruption for businesses like theirs. But as usual, the community stepped up with some fantastic insights and workarounds. Let's dive into what we learned.

Navigating Orders After the J & K Shortcut Disappeared

For those of you who, like punkwithacamera, relied on the J & K keys to quickly move through orders, you're not alone in feeling that slowdown. When a familiar tool vanishes, it can really throw a wrench into your rhythm. While community members can't magically bring back features, MBilal from the Shopify community offered some excellent immediate workarounds.

Your New Navigation Strategy: Arrows and Filters

The key to maintaining your order-processing speed lies in a two-pronged approach:

1. Check for Current Shortcuts: In your Shopify admin, simply press the ? key. This will bring up a list of currently available keyboard shortcuts. It's always a good idea to familiarize yourself with these, as they can sometimes change or new ones appear.
2. Utilize the Previous/Next Arrows: When you're on an individual order details page, look to the top right. You'll find handy previous/next arrows. These aren't just for show; they'll open the next order in your list, respecting any filters and sorting you've applied.

Now, here's the crucial part, as MBilal rightly pointed out: to make those arrows truly efficient for a production workflow like screen printing, you must filter your order list first. If you're only interested in orders that need to go into production, filter them down to, say, "Unfulfilled" or "Awaiting Fulfillment." This way, when you click those arrows, you're only cycling through the orders that matter to your immediate task, saving you a ton of time.

Here's how to make those arrows work for you:

• Go to Orders in your Shopify admin.
• Apply relevant filters (e.g., "Fulfillment status is Unfulfilled", or any custom tags you use for production).
• Open the first order in your filtered list.
• Use the previous/next arrows at the top right to efficiently move through only the orders that meet your criteria.

Automating Product Selections: Say Goodbye to Monthly Resets!

This was perhaps the biggest win from the discussion. punkwithacamera's struggle with manually selecting products (like all "3X3" items) and having that selection break monthly is a classic example of a manual process causing unnecessary stress. This is where Shopify's automated collections truly shine, and both MBilal and JohnQQ were quick to highlight their power.

JohnQQ specifically emphasized that the automated collection approach "will completely eliminate your monthly reset problem. Shopify automatically adds new matching products to the collection, so once you set it up, it becomes genuinely more reliable than manual selection ever was." This is huge! No more rebuilding selections, no more forgotten products, just consistent, automated grouping.

Setting Up an Automated Collection for Your Production Needs

Let's say you need to group all products with "3X3" in their title for your screen printing workflow. Here's how you'd set up an automated collection:

1. Go to Products > Collections in your Shopify admin.
2. Click Create collection.
3. Give your collection a descriptive title, like "3X3 Production Items."
4. Under "Collection type," select Automated.
5. Now, for the conditions:
• Choose Product title from the first dropdown.
• Choose contains from the second dropdown.
• In the text field, type 3X3.
6. Alternatively, if you tag your products, you could use:
• Product tag from the first dropdown.
• is equal to from the second dropdown.
• In the text field, type 3X3 (or whatever your specific tag is).
7. Click Save.

Voila! Shopify will now automatically add any product that matches these conditions to this collection. New products added to your store that fit the criteria? They're in. No manual intervention, no monthly resets. This is a game-changer for maintaining a smooth, high-volume production queue.

Your Feedback is Gold: How to Make Your Voice Heard

Both MBilal and JohnQQ strongly advocated for sending feedback to Shopify, and I couldn't agree more. While workarounds are great, the product team genuinely needs to hear how changes impact real-world workflows. JohnQQ's advice was spot on: "Definitely send that feedback, and include your specific use case (high-volume production workflow for screen printing) since that context helps Shopify understand the real impact of the change."

Here's how to send your feedback:

• Use the Feedback Option in Your Admin: Many sections of the Shopify admin have a small "Send feedback" link or button. This is often the most direct route.
• Contact Shopify Support: Reach out to Shopify Support and clearly explain your requests. Ask them to log both the desire for the J & K shortcut to return and the "select all" feature for custom selections. They are the official channel to get these requests to the product team.

It's clear from this discussion that even small changes in the admin can have a significant ripple effect on daily operations, especially for high-volume merchants. While losing a beloved shortcut can be frustrating, the Shopify community consistently finds clever ways to adapt and optimize. By leveraging existing features like automated collections and making our voices heard through constructive feedback, we can continue to shape Shopify into an even more powerful and user-friendly platform for everyone.