GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 410753
Keyboard commands to invoke specific actions
Last modified: 2011-07-10 02:25:45 UTC
It would be very useful to be able to directly specify the type of action you want rather than having to manually wade through the result matches. This also aids in habituation. One way to do it is to provide commands such as "firefox:command" or "firefox :command". "command:firefox" should also work at the same time. The corresponding category's first item is selected, and the user can select other items and press enter to invoke the desired action. Another or an additional way is to use accels corresponding to the first letter of the name of the result categoty. Typing "firefox Alt+C" executes the firefox command. Typing "firefox Alt+D" searches for firefox in the dictionary. As above, the first item in the category is selected. Alt+key only seems to close the search window in version 2.16.0, so accels are not used for anything.
Forgot to say - "fiAlt+Crefox" should also be supported, to allow users to mix "command-object" order and "object-command" order. This is cognitively easier. The selection would stay on the first entry in the category as the user keeps refining the search by entering more items. If the category is changed at any time by pressing, say Alt+D, the selection moves as expected.
So hitting Alt+<hotkey> at any time would show the category corresponding to that hotkey, in addition to what is already displayed. Or maybe it should be instead of it? Proposed hotkeys: a = computer action s = switch to window w = web f = file, directory or place c = command (program) Up = history b = beagle search in new window g = Google search y = yahoo search d = dictionary Unfortunately, remembering the hotkeys is difficult because many categories have same salient letters in their names. So it may be better to use Alt+<partialkeyword>, where <partialkeyword> is a substring of any word in the name of the category. For example, holding down Alt and typing "w" selects the three categories "web", "switch to window" and "Beagle search in new window". While still holding Alt, typing an additional "i" matches the latter two categories. Thus "wi" or "win" or "sw" or "swi", etc, selects "switch to window". Only the names of matching categories appear while Alt is pressed. Letting go of Alt activates the search in the matched category or categories, showing the results.
deskbar-applet development has been stalled [1]. Maintainers don't have future development plan so i am closing the bugs as WONTFIX. [1] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2011-June/msg00073.html