Risk register keyboard shortcuts on Mac
RiskOS is a risk register for macOS. Thirteen keys carry the everyday work — creating, undoing, reviewing, exporting and backing up.
Thirteen keystrokes cover nearly everything you do in a register from one week to the next: making a new row, taking a change back, walking a review pass, getting a report out, and putting a copy somewhere safe. None of them are clever. Each one is pointed at a part of the register you touch most, and the reward for learning them is that a review stops being a sequence of clicks.
⌘N makes the right kind of item for whichever section you are looking at. In Risks it creates a risk, in Controls a control, in Actions an action. One key, no menu.
Where the shortcuts live
RiskOS is one window. A sidebar down the left chooses the section, the list sits in the middle, and a panel on the right shows whatever is selected. Most shortcuts read that sidebar selection before they do anything, which is why there is one key for new item rather than seven.
Three of them work wherever you are, rather than belonging to one section. File ▸ Back Up RiskOS… carries ⇧⌘B, Settings opens with ⌘, wherever you are, and the profile switcher in the sidebar footer cycles with ⌃⌘P. The export keys act on Reports, and the four review keys belong to Review, where risks arrive one at a time and your hands need never leave the keyboard.
Work a session with the keyboard
The quickest way to learn the set is to run one ordinary session on keys alone: add something, correct a mistake, review what is due, then report and back up. The steps below do that, in the order the work usually happens.
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Create a row without leaving the section
Choose the section you want in the sidebar and press ⌘N. A new item of the right kind appears with the panel on the right ready for you to type the title. In Risks it pins to the top of the register rather than sinking into a sort order, and it takes the next reference in sequence, RSK-0013 after RSK-0012, which is never reissued. In Actions, a new row lands under Just Added for the same reason.
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Take a change back
Press ⌘Z to undo and ⇧⌘Z to redo. Changes in RiskOS save as you type, so there is no save command to reach for and no unsaved state to lose. Undo is the correction, and it is worth building the reflex early rather than retyping a field you overwrote.
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Open Settings to set the rules
Press ⌘,. Settings holds the methodology: the scoring scales, the band thresholds, and whether controls reduce likelihood, impact or both. Settle these before you rate many risks, because changing that last choice re-scores the whole register at once.
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Start a review and save your way through it
Choose Review in the sidebar, pick a scope, and work the queue with ↩. That saves the risk in front of you and brings up the next one, worst first, with a progress bar showing how much of the pass is left. Use it whenever you have changed a rating and want the new assessment written down.
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Confirm a risk that has not moved
Press ⇧⌘↩ when a risk is still rated correctly. Confirming stamps today as the review date and schedules the next one from the risk's own cadence, which is what clears it from the overdue list. A re-score that ends up changing nothing is recorded as a confirmation too, so either key leaves an honest record.
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Move past a risk you cannot settle
Press ⌘→ to skip and ⌘← to step back. Skipping leaves the risk completely untouched — no review date, no assessment, nothing — so it stays in the queue and turns up in the next pass. That is the key for anything you must ask an owner about before you can rate it.
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Switch to the organisation you are reporting for
Press ⌃⌘P to cycle client profiles. Each profile dresses the whole app for one organisation, with its own methodology, appetite, report defaults, client name and client logo, so the switch changes what an export will say about itself. Do it before you produce anything rather than after.
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Export the report you need
From Reports, press ⇧⌘P for a paginated PDF, ⇧⌘E for a self-contained HTML file, or ⌘P to send the same pages to a printer. All of them are built from one snapshot of the register, so the numbers in them always agree, and each export confirms with the filename it wrote.
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Finish with a backup
Press ⇧⌘B and choose where the file goes. One backup carries everything: risks, their history and audit trail, controls, actions, assets, vendors, frameworks, indicators, events and settings. The default name carries the date, so a folder such as Documents ▸ RiskOS reads as a timeline.
Every shortcut, by the job it does
Grouping them by task is the arrangement that sticks. Four are the keys you press without thinking, four belong to a review pass, and five produce something you hand to somebody else or keep for safety.
Everyday keys
| Shortcut | What it does | Where it works |
|---|---|---|
| ⌘N | Creates a new item of the kind the section holds | Any list section |
| ⌘Z | Undo | Throughout RiskOS |
| ⇧⌘Z | Redo | Throughout RiskOS |
| ⌘, | Opens Settings | Anywhere |
Review keys
| Shortcut | What it does | What it leaves behind |
|---|---|---|
| ⇧⌘↩ | Confirms the risk as it stands | A review date, and the next one scheduled |
| ↩ | Saves and moves to the next risk | An assessment with your reason, and a review date |
| ⌘→ | Skips to the next risk | Nothing at all — the risk stays in the queue |
| ⌘← | Steps back to the previous risk | Nothing. It is a navigation key |
Output and safekeeping keys
| Shortcut | What it does | Where it works |
|---|---|---|
| ⇧⌘P | Exports the report as a PDF | Reports |
| ⇧⌘E | Exports the report as a single HTML file | Reports |
| ⌘P | Prints the report | Reports |
| ⇧⌘B | Backs up everything to one file | Anywhere |
| ⌃⌘P | Cycles to the next client profile | Anywhere |
What ⌘N makes in each section
The one key that changes meaning is worth reading once so it never surprises you. It follows the sidebar, not the panel, so whatever is selected on the right makes no difference to what appears.
| Section | ⌘N creates | Reference it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Risks | A risk, pinned to the top of the register | RSK-0001 onwards |
| Controls | A control, ready to be linked to risks | CTL-0001 onwards |
| Actions | An action, grouped under Just Added | — |
| Indicators | An indicator waiting for its thresholds | Its own reference |
| Events | An event, for something that has happened | Its own reference |
| Assets | An asset you are protecting | — |
| Vendors | A third party and its relationship owner | — |
Pinning matters more than it sounds. A register sorted by residual score would otherwise drop a brand-new risk into the middle before you had rated it. Pinning keeps whatever you created in front of you until you have finished with it.
The four keys that carry a review
Review is where the shortcuts earn the most, because the work repeats and the context is already on screen. You choose a scope first — overdue for review, due within thirty days, above appetite, or all active risks, each with a live count beside it — and risks then arrive one at a time, worst first, with the owner, the actions, the controls and the last review beside the scoring inputs.
Confirm versus save and next
These two keys answer different questions. ⇧⌘↩ says this rating is still right. ↩ says I have changed something, write it down. Both stamp the review date and schedule the next from the risk's cadence, so both clear an overdue row. The difference is what lands in History.
Why skipping is deliberate
RiskOS treats ⌘→ as a decision not to decide. The risk is left exactly as it was: still overdue, still counted in the scope, still waiting in the next pass. That is the honest outcome when you need an owner's answer first, and it is why skipping is safe to use freely.
Leaving a review and coming back
A review session survives you going off to another section to check a control or add an action. Come back to Review and the pass is where you left it. At the end, a summary shows what moved, risk by risk, which is the page worth reading before you write a board note.
Undo, and what it is really for
Because everything saves as you type, undo carries the weight a save command would otherwise carry: it is how you step out of a change rather than how you commit one. Press ⌘Z as soon as you notice, and ⇧⌘Z if you took back one step too many.
You will need it less often than you expect. Risks are closed, never deleted, so nothing disappears from the record when one stops being relevant; it keeps its reference, its history and its assessments, and the show closed filter brings it back into view.
Habits worth building
Shortcuts pay off when they become part of a routine rather than a list you look up. These are the ones worth making automatic.
- Capture first, rate later. When something comes up in a meeting, press ⌘N, type a title that names the event rather than the worry, and move on. A half-written risk in the register beats a complete one in your head.
- Run reviews as a single pass. Open Review, choose a scope, and work it with ↩ and ⇧⌘↩ until the progress bar runs out. Reviewing twelve risks one at a time from the table takes far longer and leaves gaps.
- Skip without guilt. ⌘→ costs you nothing, because the risk comes back untouched. Guessing a rating to clear a row is the more expensive choice.
- Switch profile before you export, not after. ⌃⌘P changes the client name and logo an export carries, so a moment spent on it saves reissuing a report.
- Back up on the same rhythm as your review. ⇧⌘B at the end of every review pass ties the copy to a moment you can name, such as Risk Register 2026-09-21, rather than to a date you have forgotten the meaning of.
- Settle the methodology early. ⌘, takes a second, and changing the scoring rules after fifty risks are rated moves every one of them at once.
Troubleshooting
⌘N made the wrong kind of thing
It followed the sidebar. If you were reading a risk's panel but the sidebar was still on Controls, the key makes a control. Click the section you want in the sidebar first, then press it. This is also why the key never needs a submenu: there is only ever one right answer for the section you are in.
The review keys do nothing
The four review shortcuts belong to Review and need a session under way. Choose Review in the sidebar, pick a scope from the list of counts, and start the pass. Once a risk is in front of you with a progress bar above it, the keys respond.
Pressing ⌘P printed instead of exporting a PDF
Those are two different commands on purpose. ⌘P prints, and ⇧⌘P writes the PDF to a file. The printed pages and the exported PDF are the same document built from the same snapshot, so nothing is lost either way — you only need the shift key when you want a file to send.
I skipped a risk and cannot tell whether I reviewed it
You did not review it, and that is recorded by the absence of anything. A skipped risk keeps its old review date, so it stays overdue and appears again the next time you run a pass with the same scope. The end-of-session summary lists what moved, so anything missing from it was skipped.
The profile shortcut went past the one I wanted
It cycles rather than opening a menu, so press it again to keep going round. If a profile you expected is not in the rotation, it may be beyond the number of profiles your purchase has unlocked. Profiles past that point are locked, never deleted.
Frequently asked questions
What is the keyboard shortcut to add a risk on a Mac?
Choose Risks in the sidebar and press ⌘N. A new risk appears pinned to the top of the register with the next reference in sequence, and the panel on the right opens ready for a title. The same key makes a control in Controls, an action in Actions, and so on for every list section in RiskOS.
How do I undo a change in a risk register?
Press ⌘Z to undo and ⇧⌘Z to redo. Edits save as you type, so there is no save command and nothing sitting unsaved; undo is how you step back out of a change you did not mean. Closing a risk is not a deletion either — the row keeps its reference and history, and the show-closed filter brings it back into view.
What are the keyboard shortcuts for reviewing risks?
Four keys carry a review pass in RiskOS. ⇧⌘↩ confirms a risk whose rating still stands. ↩ saves a change and brings up the next risk. ⌘→ skips, leaving the risk completely untouched so it returns in the next pass. ⌘← steps back to the previous risk. Confirming and saving both stamp the review date and schedule the next one.
How do I export a risk report with the keyboard?
From Reports, ⇧⌘P writes a paginated PDF, ⇧⌘E writes a single self-contained HTML file, and ⌘P sends the same pages to a printer. Every output comes from one snapshot of the register, so the figures always agree with each other, and each export confirms with the filename it produced.
What is the shortcut to back up a risk register on Mac?
⇧⌘B, the same as File ▸ Back Up RiskOS…. One file holds everything: risks, history, the audit trail, controls, actions, assets, vendors, frameworks, indicators, events and settings. You choose where it goes, and the default name carries the date. A quiet reminder appears when your last backup is getting old, on an interval you set.
How do I switch between client profiles quickly?
⌃⌘P cycles through your profiles from anywhere in RiskOS, and there is a switcher in the sidebar footer as well. Each profile carries its own methodology, appetite, report defaults, client name and client logo, so switching changes what an export says about itself. Do it before producing a report rather than afterwards.
Does ⌘N always create the same thing?
No. It creates whatever the section you are in holds, which is why one key covers risks, controls, actions, indicators, events, assets and vendors. It reads the sidebar rather than the panel, so if it makes something unexpected, the sidebar was on a different section. Select the section you want first, then press it.
Does a risk register on a Mac need an account or an internet connection?
Everything here happens on your Mac. There is no account, nothing is uploaded, and your register never leaves the machine. There is no sign-in, no tracking and no sync, so every shortcut on this page works with the network switched off. The only network use is Apple's App Store, for purchases, and it never sees your register.