GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 676836
keyboard shortcuts for inserting/deleting a row
Last modified: 2013-05-06 02:13:53 UTC
It would be really nice to have keyboard shortcuts for inserting or deleting a row in Gnumeric. Currently I have to type Alt+I R to insert and Alt+E D R to delete, which isn't convenient at all.
If you have a row or column selected, ctrl-- will delete said row/column and ctrl-+ will add a row/column. The difference from what you might be asking is that for the above you need to select the row or column first. Of course I don't really see how we could be much more convenient than "Alt+I R". Currently if you don't have a row selected: to delete a row: "shift-space ctrl--" or "Alt+E D R" to insert a row: "shift-space ctrl-+" or "Alt+I R" What would you hope for?
I didn't know about the shortcuts you mentioned, which are helpful - thanks. Still, I was hoping for shortcuts that work all the time, even when a row/column is not selected. I think it should be as easy to insert/delete rows in Gnumeric as it is to insert/delete lines in a text editor. I assume that your comment "I don't really see how we could be much more convenient than "Alt+I R" is ironic! "Alt+I R" is a nuisance to type. I'd suggest maybe Shift+Ctrl+I to insert a row and Shift+Ctrl+K to delete a row, for instance.
I wasn't intending to be ironic when I wrote how we could be much more convenient than "Alt+I R". That's 3 keys versus Shift+Ctrl+I that is also 3 keys. I find that using the shift key in an accelerator to be problematic. For example for me to type "ctrl-+" I in fact have to use the shift key.
Well, I personally find that inserting (or deleting) a row is so common that I'd be happy to have a shortcut consisting of Ctrl + a single letter. Most of those are probably taken already, but perhaps Ctrl+R could insert a new row and some key adjacent to it (Ctrl+E or Ctrl+T) could delete a row, for instance.
Actually Ctrl+R is taken by Data->Fill->Fill to right, and Ctrl+E by Data->Export Data->Repeat Export.
Created attachment 240135 [details] [review] patch Here's a patch that adds the shortcuts Ctrl+Shift+I for Insert->Rows and Ctrl+Shift+K for Edit->Delete->Rows. As I've mentioned, I find these easier to type then 'Alt+I R' and 'Alt+E D R', especially when inserting or deleting several rows (e.g. I can just hold down Ctrl+Shift and press 'I' several times).
Andreas, even though Adam isn't using those words, I think he is asking for user-editable shortcuts. It's somewhere on my list right next to user-editable toolbars.
I wasn't asking for user-editable shortcuts (though I'm not opposed to them). In this particular case, I think a fixed shortcut for these items is a lot better than nothing and is probably good enough.
Adam, of course you didn't ask for user editable short cuts, but we regularly get the request of adding this or that short cut and having user editable once would make this all go away. For example bug 594010 would like us not to use any F-keys (or if we do use them to have an equivalent shortcut that does not use an F-key.) I am still not convinced that adding the short cuts that you are suggesting are useful, when to add a 10 rows I could do: shift-space ctrl-+ ctrl-+ ... 8 more times and to delete 10 rows I could shift-space ctrl-- ctrl-- .... 7 more times There is a finite number of possible shortcuts so virtually duplicating shortcuts just to save the shift-space, I am not convinced is a good idea.
I have created a bug #699737 report to collect all the "please provide a keyboard shortcut for my favourite command" enhancement requests. They could all be simultaneously solved by having editable short cuts. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 699737 ***