XML Mapping Pane. The first time I heard that phrase it sounded a bit shady to me. A really daunting name for a rather simple tool if you ask me. If you want to develop Microsoft Word layouts for Business Central, you better use a shortcut for the XML Mapping Pane because it is the main tool to access your dataset.

Usually you have to navigate to your developer tab in Microsoft Word and then click on the button “XML Mapping Pane” to show it. If you develop a few layouts and do not just add one field, these steps will be eventually a pain in your ass.

Add the Shortcut for XML Mapping Pane

Before we start, please make sure that you already enabled your Developer Tab.

You can make your life a lot easier by moving the XML Mapping Pane from your Developer Tab to your Home Tab. Open Microsoft Word. Right click on some empty space in the ribbon and select “Customize the Ribbon…”.

This is where the XML Mapping Pane is located after we made our Developer tab visible:

Left click on the group “Mapping” (not on “XML Mapping Pane” itself!) and use the arrow on the right side to move it up to the Home tab.

Confirm your changes by pressing OK. The result looks like this:

You can even take this a step further. If you are a keyboard jockey like me, you might want to have a keyboard shortcut for the XML Mapping pane.

I use the shortcut CTRL + ALT + X to activate the XML Mapping Pane inside Microsoft Word. Here is how you can do the same. Right click on empty space in the ribbon and select “Customize the Ribbon…”

This time we go another way. We click on “Customize”.

Navigate to “Home Tab” on the left and choose the command “XmlMappingPane” on the right:

Left click in the blank area below “Press new shortcut key” and press your desired keys. Press assign to confirm your new shortcut.

The key is assigned. We close the window.

If we now hover over “XML Mapping Pane” the new assigned shortcut is shown.

Enjoy. Have a nice day!