Keyboard shortcuts within program dialogs

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Puffolino
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Keyboard shortcuts within program dialogs

Post by Puffolino »

I'd like to have keyboard shorcuts with (many) program dialog windows. This would make life easier. :roll:

Just one example, the Transform Selection dialog:
image.png
image.png (78.69 KiB) Viewed 1968 times
I have defined a keyboard comination (Alt+Shift+T) to call the function to be able to change things very fast. Let's say, multiple objects (on different pages) need to be moved 20mm upwards, so this have to be done multiple times.

Actually, after selecting an object and Alt+Shift+T I have to press [9 times] Tab, Space, [6 times] Tab, -20, Enter
Wouldn't be something like the following much better? Alt+D (to toggle the relative/absolute mode), Alt-Y (to jump to the field 'Y'), -20, Enter

It would really speed up things, if Alt+L would toggle the aspect ratio flag as well.

PS: when using 'Tab' to activate the different dialog elements, there are two stops (after pressing 10x or 11x Tab), where no element will be highlighted, which is also a non standard behaviour.

PSS: adding shortcuts to all dialogs may mean some work, I'd also think there's another possibility for a higher productivity: adding an additional "History" button could allow to reload the last settings of a dialog. That means, every time I press "Ok", all settings of a dialog would be stored into a stack which holds up to 10 or so configuration sets.
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Keyboard shortcuts within program dialogs

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hi, Puffolino

Thank you for the requests, you are not incorrect when you say "adding shortcuts to all dialogs may mean some work" but I think you may be underselling it a bit there. This would essentially mean opening the entire UI up and ensuring that every single numerical action has multiple options for which hotkey to use, what increments could be viable, some multiplicative modifiers, etc.
It would be beyond a monumental undertaking and is frankly not something that I see being accepted by the dev team. Even that is ignoring the possibility of later changes to the UI and any maintenance that would need to be done to ensure that this stay fully functional in any new UI options. I will still mention it to our dev team, but please do not get your hopes up.

The extra "blank tab" behavior you have described seems like it should be pointing to the "link" and "Shear" functions, which I imagine should be skipped when not usable, So I will report this to the Dev team shortly.

As for history, we do already offer configurable "presets" for many of the more complex dialogs, but currently will not be entertaining the idea for situational dialogs like this one (especially considering that "storing" these values would cause you to place multiple items in the same location, not quickly move multiple items 5 points to the left). We are already looking into adding additional configurable presets to some other dialogs which could benefit from it however.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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Puffolino
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Re: Keyboard shortcuts within program dialogs

Post by Puffolino »

Hi,

I understand it means definitely work to implement shortcuts, but I don't think that the programming part is that complex - isn't shortcut support done by the OS automatically, and (more or less) the same event will be seen for a shortcut like doing a mouse click on the appropriate gadget. I'd think the most work is to find the perfect character patterns for different languages (so I would do this job for the english language only)... so I still hope, something like this will be done somewhen.

There are not many (windows) programs which don't use this functionality. That's also why I wrote a background program some years ago which scans the active dialog for all gadgets to add shortcut support. I did this for the old XChange Viewer, so I was able to close the preferences dialog by using the shortcut Win+O and so on... (must check, if this could also work for the new programs).

Another remark: there's a reason I was showing the "Transform" dialog. I do use it very often for different things, to move text elements up or down for instance. The simple reason for exactly that - there's no possibility to move elements horizontal or vertival by using the mouse (in CAD or drawing programs, this can be done by holding a certain key while moving the objects).
So I have a shortcut for the "Transform" function to speed things up, but then I do need the mouse and fill in the right values every time and as Dr.Murphy knew years ago, the faster I try to fill in the dialog the more often I will make errors like forgetting to uncheck the aspect lock or so... :oops:
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Keyboard shortcuts within program dialogs

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hi, Puffolino

Some good news for you, The Dev team has reconsidered this and it sounds like they do intend to add shortcuts to this dialog as a start. I cannot say when exactly this will happen, and there are some limitations. For example, we will not be able to offer shortcuts for items which have no text or make the shortcut a use a letter which is not part of the "control text", but they are going to at least try with this one, "test the waters" and after we see how that goes, then we can consider working on other dialogs.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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Puffolino
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Re: Keyboard shortcuts within program dialogs

Post by Puffolino »

Hi, 've seen the changes in 357, thanks for doing this job, it really speeds up things :wink:
Even the delta checkmark can be toggled (anyhow Alt+Shift+',' is more tricky than my proposed Alt+'d'), but how to be able to aspect ratio flag? Tried some key combinations, but wasn't successful :roll:
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Keyboard shortcuts within program dialogs

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, Puffolino

The Delta checkmark should simply be Alt+; (semicolon) and not Alt+Shift+, (comma). As for the aspect ratio flag, remember the small note i made above:
TrackerSupp-Daniel wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 8:39 pm For example, we will not be able to offer shortcuts for items which have no text
Unfortunately, the Link field, (and the percentages beside it) both do not have any text, and thus there is no available "control text" to be used, so no hotkey is available. That is an item that, for now at least, will always need to be toggled with the mouse.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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Puffolino
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Re: Keyboard shortcuts within program dialogs

Post by Puffolino »

That hurts :wink:

Every programming language for windows I know so far (and I am old, so I know many) is able to deal with shortcuts for all kind of objects as a shortcut is just an alias for sending a windows message (which is possible for all dialog elements).

I often need to move an object 75mm to the right (or left), that's why the relative mode needs to be activated each time. Hm, maybe a javascript could also do this job, would be a perfect workaround... :idea:
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Keyboard shortcuts within program dialogs

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

:)
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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