GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 94910
Zoom accelerators, allow both = and +
Last modified: 2020-12-04 18:20:06 UTC
The HIG suggests Ctrl++ for zoom in and Ctrl+= for normal size, but this effectively means Shift+Ctrl++ for zoom in. Is that intended? It breaks symmetry with Ctrl+- which does not require the Shift.
Yeah, it's a good question... ironically enough I raised a bug against treeview for this a while back because it uses + and - to expand/hide nodes, too, even though it was me who suggested it :) A possible hack for applications that use them is to make '=' work in addition to Ctrl+plus. Of course that's somewhat keyboard-dependent, but as jrb said in bug #88314, 'in practice, no one has ever complained' :) Are there any suggestions for keybindings that would be obviously-better?
Allowing alternative shortcuts still leaves the issue of what shortcut should be displayed in menus. By the way, bug 55629 and bug 56108 also contain relevant pieces of information, like examples of keyboards where '=' is composed and hence a bad choice.
The HIG suggests having Ctrl+= as being reset to Zoom 1:1, but I would much prefer if both Ctlr+= and Ctrl++ worked for Zoom In. Thing about Ctrl++ is that most users* with a US/UK keyboard will hit Ctrl and the key with + on it and expect it to work and not necessarily think about Shift+=. If you allow both, it "Just Works TM" and you avoid annoying the hell out of European and other users who dont necessarily have = on the default keyboard [see the thread about 'Bad keyboard shortcuts; on the usability mailing list for this month, May 2003, http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/ ] * and when i say most users I mean ME but I could probably fabricate some data if it makes you feel better ;)
*** Bug 113600 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(NB, it would be good if we could specify version in this bug report) This bug should probably be filed against "User Input" because that is the section of the HIG that specifies keyboard accellerators. I have somewhat repeated myself in bug 113600 rather than discussing this further I have come to a conclusion and proposed a solution. the more important of my comments from bug 113600 pasted here for your convenience: ... I really dont like this because on my keyboard to get plus I need to type both Shift and =, which is fairly cumbersome. I think that Ctrl+= should also work for Zoom In although it need not be shown in the menu. Ctrl++ makes more sense on certain types of keyboard layout and if Ctrl + = is also supported I suspect users wont even think about the fact that they only pressed Ctrl + = when they actually needed to press Ctrl + Shift + =. A different shortcut should be found for Zoom Normal (1:1). Mozilla uses Ctrl+0 (that is Zero not the letter O). Which I think is fairly reasonable. The 0 key is conveniently located next to - and + and that Ctrl 1-9 often used in many applications for recent documents (although if you wanted to have as many as 10 recent documents available you might want Ctrl+0).
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That's a problem, as it only works for US keyboard layout. For example, on the czech keybord, we press "1" key to get "+" and "/" for "-". That makes about 20 cm distance between Zoom In and Zoom Out keys! Secondly, we have "=" where the US keybord has "-". The physical key label is "%=-_" on my keyboard, users with us-only labels have just "-_". It means, when you press the key with "-" label, you get "=". With such a mess, I prefer using the keypad for digits and "+-*/," but Ctrl+KP_Add and Ctrl+KP_Subtract don't work for me as zoom keys. Can HIG suggest Ctrl+KP_Subtract, Ctrl+KP_Add and Ctrl+KP_0 also do zooming?
This bug was filed almost a year ago and a recent dicussion on the GIMP lists reminded me of it. I think this is really quite important and needs to be decided sooner rather than later. Havoc thinks it is good idea, so does Calum and there seems to be little disagreement that this is a good idea. should i try bringing this up on the usability mailing list or something? Bumping the priority to High.
Any comments from anyone else on usability-maint?
FWIW, another option might be to make sure that '+' and '-' on the number pad work as well... AFAIK that's less sensitive to different international layouts (but admittedly not so good on laptops). I.e. on the menu we continue to show: Zoom In Ctrl-Plus Zoom Out Ctrl-Minus but you can actually use Ctrl-Plus, Ctrl-Shift-Equals (on UK/US kbds) or Ctrl-NumPadPlus to zoom in; and Ctrl-Minus or Ctrl-NumPadMinus (or possibly Ctrl-Shift-Undersore on UK/US kbds,too) to zoom out.
I would definately have assumed that the Numpad keys worked, only a (weird) program not targetted at ordinary users would do otherwise. I am convinced that the proposed solution will provide the best base case and only in rare situations should do I believe developers would consider using the mentioned accelorators for something else.
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Both envince and epiphany have bug reports that the "+" and "-" keys at the numpad can't be used for zooming (as a ctrl-/+ combo). Apperently this needs to be specified by the HIG first before they implement it and refer to this discussion. If the HIG fails to specify the every "+" sign on my keyboard should do the same I find that a mayor bug; it is *very* confusing. And I won't be able to explain to inexperienced users that "+" and "+" aren't the same, that just won't do. Also it should be recognized that non-gnome applications like firefox do use these keys for zooming (in combination with ctrl that is). Furthermore it seems to me that with a "standard" qwerty keyboard it is easier to use the numpad keys for zooming since you don't need the shift key. *Please* make clear how these numpad keys should behave so developers of programs like epiphany and evince won't be reluctant to implement them right.
Hmm, I thought I'd added something to the HIG about that before, but I don't see it now... maybe I just remembered writing comment #10 above :) Will write something into the HIG when I get a chance.
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The latest HIG version recommends using Ctrl+0 for normal zoom level, and that's what Epiphany does.