[scribus] Discovering shortcuts (Was: Scribus Icons Contest 2011)

[ale rimoldi]

hi


> >> On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 5:46 PM, Gregory Pittman wrote:
> >>
> >>> Although they're rather small, I have wondered if there was some
> >>> way to include keyboard shortcuts in at least some of the icons.
> >>> The text frame
> >>> icon has an A in it, but could just as easily have a T. Such
> >>> letters might
> >>> even help one recognize what the icon is supposed to represent.
> >>
> >> Just make the tooltips mention shortcuts the way GIMP does it :)
> >
> > The idea is to not to have to use the mouse to learn a shortcut for
> > not using the mouse.
> >
> > Greg
> 
> Please don't mix icons and tooltips/shortcuts - think also about
> localization [...]
> 
> Some games I've seen have a dedicated F-button for showing keyboard
> shortcuts, maybe that could be handy?

the idea is neat.


to me, the questions are: which key to use, which information to
show and how to show it :-)


i have the feeling F-buttons are a very -- old school -- MS / DOS way of
doing and most people won't press it and start discovering the
shortcuts...

i'm not 100% sure that i really like the way unity (the ubuntu graphics
interface) is doing it, but it could be a source of inspiration:
- if you shortly press the windows key the command launcher is activated
- if you press it a little bit longer it will show the launcher toolbar,
  instead
- and if you keep it pressed for even a longer time it will show you
  some hints on the toolbar with the keys you can press.
if i recall it correctly, microsoft office has a similar mechanism.

in scribus' case, i would say that keeping the ctrl key pressed without
hitting another key or moving (or clicking) the mouse could trigger
the hints.

there should be an obvious way to disable this, though!
otherwise people who already know the shortcuts or -- most of all
-- are not interested in them, would be bothered by this information
each time they're slow on the control key (or any other key)...
we want the people to think "hey, thanks for the help!" and not "again
this shitty helper"...


also, i wouldn't just show the hints for the buttons but also for all
the buttons (and fields?) of the open palettes (and on their title,
there should be the shortcut to the palette itself).


the last question would be: can it be done with Qt? probably, yes...


interesting topic...

ciao
a.l.e