GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 373286
New Window accelerator conflicts with Nautilus's Close Parent Window accelerator
Last modified: 2015-04-03 13:18:53 UTC
In Nautilus, Shift+Ctrl+W is "close all parent windows", but in Evolution, Shift+Ctrl+W is "open a *new* window" This seems strange. I'm not sure who is «correct», but I would like to see if we can get the two groups talking to discuss a solution. I realize full well that there are going to be accelerator conflicts, but from a desktop usability standpoint these are both every day applications and this really glares as an inconsistency for the user. I would observe that Ctrl+W is "close [this] window" in both applications. AfC
On the kill-bonnobo branch I have disabled Ctrl+W when one only window is open to prevent accidental shutdowns (esp. when reaching for expunge - Ctrl+E). Shift+Ctrl+W still opens a new shell window. Ctrl+N is taken (triggers the New button). Any suggestions for an alternate shortcut?
One thought is to introduce Shift+Ctrl+[1-5] to open a particular component in a new shell window (cf. Ctrl+[1-5] for switching components in the current window). Then perhaps the accelerator for File -> New Window could be Shift+Ctrl+<n> where <n> is the number for the current component (e.g. 1 for Mail, 2 for Contacts). Probably breaks all manner of interface guidelines, but at least it would be internally consistent. This would be fairly simple to implement on the kill-bonobo branch. Would not attempt it with the current BonoboUI-based code.
(In reply to Andrew Cowie from comment #0) > In Nautilus, Shift+Ctrl+W is "close all parent windows", but > in Evolution, Shift+Ctrl+W is "open a *new* window" This is not an accelerator conflict as such, right? Those are two different applications which do different things when pressing the same short cut, but only in that respective application, which had focus. I do not think it's a problem, users usually know which application they have focused and work with, together with well-learned short cuts for them. I know that some common shortcuts are good to have the same, like Ctrl+A/C/V/X, but I do not feel that this one is in the same group.