Revised hotkey system

[mairdl]

Revised Hotkey System

In the next release of JabRef we will introduce a revisid hotkey system. The 2 goals of this revision is to improve maneuverability through the keyboard and streamlining hotkeys. Some related hotkeys like for the side panes were scattered across the keyboard, so we grouped them together. You might be wondering what has changed, so have a look at them:

• Change default key bindings (have a look at the table below)
• Add a hotkey for creating a new technical report
• Add a hotkey for opening the OpenOffice/LibreOffice pane
• Add “Print preview” to the right-click menu
• Improve group pane maneuverability by making groups selectable by arrow keys
• Improve main table maneuverability by making “TAB” jump to the next entry instead of the next cell, “SHIFT+TAB” selects the previous entry
• Resize the “change key bindings” dialog to 500x500

Keys - new	Keys - old	Function
F7	alt + f	Automatically set file links
F8	ctrl + shift + F7	Cleanup entries
alt + 1	ctrl + shift + E	Focus entry table
alt + 2	ctrl + F9	Toggle entry/preview editor
alt + 3	ctrl + shift + G	Toggle groups
alt + 4	F5	web search
alt + 0	-	Open Openoffice/LibreOffice connection
ctrl + shift + F7	ctrl + f4	Synchronize file links
ctrl + shift R	-	Technical report
-	alt + P	Print entry preview
-	ctrl + alt + T	Hide/show toolbar
-	ctrl+P	Edit preamble

As you can see we moved related functions together. “F7” is now affiliated with file links, hence we changed key bindings if they contained “F7” but weren’t related to file links.
Also we moved all side panes together by changing them to “ALT+(1,2,3,4,0)”. By doing so we hope to improve the accessibility, because now you don’t have to remember all kinds of key combinations for side panes, only which number stands for your desired pane. On a side note: Open OpenOffice/LibreOffice connection was added to this family due to being a side pane.
The hotkey for “Edit preamble” was changed due to normally being the hotkey to print.
The new hotkey for “New technical report” was requested by some users that use it frequently, so we added a key binding.
We removed the hotkey for “Hide/show toolbar” due to being not of any imaginable use for users.
We removed the hotkey for “Print entry preview” due to some conflicts with others and the fact that this function wasn’t really used that often by users. But we didn’t remove it completely, we added it to the right click menu.
We removed the hotkey for "Edit preamble" due to being a seldomly used action that doens't require a hotkey.
We resized the “change key bindings” dialog due to being too small for some descriptions.

For questions about the functioning or suggestions for improvements please use the discussion forum. In case you have trouble, report bugs on GitHub.

[boceckts]

I think you should leave a comment in the changelog

[boceckts]

Please fix failing check.

[oscargus]

I think that is currently the only way to print the preview. Unless one enables the preview toolbar, which, if I recall correctly, is only supported by manual editing of the preferences... But I may be wrong here.

[mairdl]

I have disscussed the new bindings with @koppor. As far as I remember he said that print entry preview isn't needed at all.

[tobiasdiez]

• Printing preview: just add it to the right-click menu
• I would put the websearch on Alt + 4 (more important then OpenOffice)
• for the same reason, OO -> Alt + 0
• Remove default Toggle Toolbar shortcut (can't imagine that this is useful for somebody, I would leave alt + num for toggling real panes)
• What is the difference between F7 and Alt + F7, both are mapped to the same command according to your table.

[mairdl]

I fixed my table regarding Automatically set file links (F7 was the right one)

[koppor]

Please also test how this works in conjunction with the emacs mode.

[mairdl]

Ok I'll look into it.

[koppor]

• tab in the main table: When I click on an entry and select tab, the next entry should be selected. Current behavior: next cell in the entry table is selected.

[koppor]

Better support of groups:

1. Open a bib file with groups and 10 entries.
2. Click on entry 10
3. Click on a group
4. Press cursor down

Effect: Cursor moves to the first entry in the entry table

Desired effect:

• Next group is selected

Side comment:

• When the group window has the focus, tab should jump to the first entry in the entry table.

[tobiasdiez]

Maybe one should consider that Tab always cycles to the next frame if there is nothing to select in the current subwindow. For example, tab in entry list goes to entry preview / edit. Tab in some field in entry edit goes to next field, but tab in last field goes to group window. Tab in group window goes to next sidepane component and from there back to the entry list.

[Braunch]

@koppor I don't think tab for the next entry is a convenient interaction. As I encountered when working with the customize entry type dialog, lists and tables are all navigated with the arrow keys, so the next enry is reached by pressing arrow-down. I think we should keep that consistent as it is right now. Do you agree?

[mairdl]

I have to agree with @Braunch

[mairdl]

• Printing preview: just add it to the right-click menu
• I would put the websearch on Alt + 4 (more important then OpenOffice)
• for the same reason, OO -> Alt + 0
• Remove default Toggle Toolbar shortcut (can't imagine that this is useful for somebody, I would leave alt + num for toggling real panes)
• What is the difference between F7 and Alt + F7, both are mapped to the same command according to your table.

[koppor]

@Braunch Currently, when pressing tab, the next cell in the entry table is selected. One cannot do anything at a cell, can I? For instance, when pressing space on the url/doi file column, I would expect that the same behavior as when left-clicking is done. This currently doesn't happen. So, either jump to the next line via tab or do something meaningful when a single field in the table is focused.

[koppor]

"is now consistent"

[koppor]

Where does one find information (help page / blog post / ...) about what was changed and how the hotkeys are configured now?

[mairdl]

I wanted to add the Information when everything was finalized, do you think i should add it beforehand?

[koppor]

Blog article at http://blog.jabref.org/2016/08/15/HotkeyRevision/
Currently, no help page on the hot keys.