[macronencer]

Originally Posted by Toadling

Maybe pressing the Return key should commit an active edit (as the Enter key currently does). However, if no edit is active and the action is only selected, then have the Return key create a new action with the cursor in the title field, ready for editing.

The practical difference is that you'd have to hit Return twice to create a new action if you're currently editing some other action (once to commit the current edit and once again to create the new action).

Would this be acceptable?

-Dennis

Dennis, that is exactly what I had in mind. :)

To be honest, part of my difficulty with this is the move from Windows. I am totally in love with my iMac, but there is a learning curve. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to skip to the next word with ctrl-right and ended up in an adjacent screen space. These things take time to re-learn, and although many of them are universal, some have "dialects", different between PC and Mac. I think this whole business of escape/return/enter is one of those dialect things.

I don't believe I've even touched the "enter" key since I got the iMac last month. Is that the one next to the numeric keypad? Seems a long way to reach when I've normally been entering alphabetical data :|

I have a general complaint, which applies across the board these days, to all software on all platforms, pretty much... there are never quite enough keyboard shortcuts. No matter how many of them you learn, at some point you always have to pick up that damn mouse and spend a couple of seconds making sure it's over a control, then clicking it. In the case of OF it's the inspector window, which I am currently finding something of a nightmare. There's a hotkey to open it, but after that, there are no hotkeys to navigate within it because the main window still has focus. Since you have to use the mouse to click in the inspector regardless, why on Earth have they bothered to provide a shortcut to open it? :) Have I missed something, or is there an easy way to enter extended data in the inspector without picking up my mouse? Sorry, I may be straying off topic here...

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by macronencer

In the case of OF it's the inspector window, which I am currently finding something of a nightmare. There's a hotkey to open it, but after that, there are no hotkeys to navigate within it because the main window still has focus. Since you have to use the mouse to click in the inspector regardless, why on Earth have they bothered to provide a shortcut to open it? :)

Who says you must only use the inspector to change things? Some of us use it to inspect things, as difficult as that may be to believe :-) And even if I am going to use the mouse to edit something with the inspector, I find it more convenient to use the keyboard shortcut to bring up the inspector than a menu item or a toolbar button, because there are fewer mouse/trackpad actions needed.

[macronencer]

My point was that a keyboard-based quick edit is needed. Whether it's done via the inspector or via a new form is pretty much irrelevant to me. Sorry if I didn't make that clear :)

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by macronencer

My point was that a keyboard-based quick edit is needed. Whether it's done via the inspector or via a new form is pretty much irrelevant to me. Sorry if I didn't make that clear :)

I understand what you want, but you also asked why there's a keyboard shortcut to open the inspector, and I gave you a reason.

[macronencer]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

I understand what you want, but you also asked why there's a keyboard shortcut to open the inspector, and I gave you a reason.

Yes I did, and yes you did. Thank you! :)

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by Toadling

Maybe pressing the Return key should commit an active edit (as the Enter key currently does). However, if no edit is active and the action is only selected, then have the Return key create a new action with the cursor in the title field, ready for editing.

The practical difference is that you'd have to hit Return twice to create a new action if you're currently editing some other action (once to commit the current edit and once again to create the new action).

Would this be acceptable?

That wouldn't be so nice if it means hitting the return key twice as often when entering successive items, which is the usual case for me. I was here first, I'd rather the new guy have to learn new keyboard habits :-)

[macronencer]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

That wouldn't be so nice if it means hitting the return key twice as often when entering successive items, which is the usual case for me. I was here first, I'd rather the new guy have to learn new keyboard habits :-)

That's a good point. Now that I've used the app for a couple of days, the issues I had have almost gone away. I think it's because I've become more willing to press Escape. :)

There are still situations where I find I've created a new item when I didn't want to, but there's always cmd-Z, of course...

[markand]

The way I want it to work is how the "Enter" key appears to work -- in my one test. Like another poster, I did not even know this key existed! I have never hit Fn-Return on my MacBook Pro and the external keyboard has it on the numeric keypad.

So I don't want any "magical" stuff happening. I think it's a pretty simple request and there's already a key that does this.

[markand]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

That wouldn't be so nice if it means hitting the return key twice as often when entering successive items, which is the usual case for me. I was here first, I'd rather the new guy have to learn new keyboard habits :-)

I have no idea what this even means. I've been using OF since before it was released, and I have ALWAYS found this weird and annoying. It seems others do too.

Also note that what I was asking for was an option to change behavior. So you should be able to leave it as is. That way you can continue to delight in how superior you are, while I can set the box and not be annoyed every time I enter an empty item. ;-)

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

That wouldn't be so nice if it means hitting the return key twice as often when entering successive items, which is the usual case for me. I was here first, I'd rather the new guy have to learn new keyboard habits :-)

I tend to agree with you. And personally, I don't really have a problem with the current implementation. I'm just brainstorming out loud. :-)

-Dennis