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Author Topic: Using the keyboard -- some possible improvements  (Read 1020 times)

Jonas

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Using the keyboard -- some possible improvements
« on: July 26, 2002, 12:04:11 pm »

I tend to use the keyboard rather than the mouse most of the time, especially for repetitive tasks where it's much faster if I can learn the key combinations for doing something rather than having to point and click my way through a lot of menus.

Sometimes MJ 8.0.336 prevents me from using the keyboard efficiently, though.

The most important problem I've so far is when I want to delete some items from the Playing Now list.  I move to the first line, then shift-cursor-down to the last line, and then I press Delete to remove the items.  The problem is, the highlight does not end up on the line immediately below the stuff I just removed.  Instead it disappears completely.  If I press cursor up/down again I end up at the beginning of the list, which may be thousands of lines from where I was, and I have to try to find where I was.

The second problem (less important) is that many menu items and labels lack keyboard accelerators, so in order to use the menus without the mouse I have to navigate through them using the cursor keys.  I can go to the plug-in manager by pressing Alt-T M, for example, but there's no corresponding accelerator for Skin Manager.  In Media File Properties / Tools, there are accelerators for three of nine items.  If I select "Fill properties from filename", there's no Alt-D shortcut for "Directories" or Alt-F for Filename.  If I select "Clean File Properties", there are no shortcuts for the four checkboxes.
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ZRocker

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RE:Using the keyboard -- some possible improvements
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2002, 12:22:23 pm »

Jonas,

Prob #1: That used to work (Matt fixed it)...I too noticed that sometime in the later 8.0 betas it has been 'broke' again (argh).

Prob #2: Yea, there are lots on keyboard friendly things missing...but, after a while you just get used to it and go 'grab' the mouse.
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Jonas

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RE:Using the keyboard -- some possible improvements
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2002, 02:30:27 am »

Well, to some degree I get used to it but it's still much less efficient, especially when I'm using my laptop.  And I often automatically press Alt while I'm looking for the underlined characters to see which key to press, and then it takes me half a second to realize that there's no keyboard accelerator available and I have to let go of the Alt key and use the mouse.
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cjdshaw

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RE:Using the keyboard -- some possible improvements
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2002, 03:55:00 am »

Apart from anything else, having keyboard functions for everything makes MJ much easier to operate with Girder and a remote. I suggested a while back that all the J River developers unplug their mouses for a day and see how they get on.
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JimH

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RE:Using the keyboard -- some possible improvements
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2002, 04:29:04 am »

I suggested the same, but when we make changes daily sometimes things get broken.

We're at a point now with 8.0 where I think we will leave it.  It is very clean, and we've got 9.0 going now, so....

Hope you will understand.

Jim
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Jim Hillegass
JRiver Media Center / Media Jukebox

Jonas

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RE:Using the keyboard -- some possible improvements
« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2002, 04:50:45 am »

For the shortcuts I certainly understand if you don't make these changes now, since it would require going through the entire program and checking that everything is consistent.  What really bothers me is not being able to delete things in the play list without having to click in the playlist.  Would it be difficult to fix this in 8.x?  After a couple of weeks I still haven't gotten used to it.
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