blog: keyboard accessibility

[nikos]

here's the comment area for today's article found at:
www.zabkat.com/blog/09Dec07.htm

[KrippledHick]

Hello Team,

Finally paid for a working copy of the latest and greatest x2 - it's great to be back in full functionality.

My biggest complaint about x2s implementation of keyboard commands is how cycling through open tabs works.

I use Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+Shift+Tab (to toggle backwards) frequently while I browse the web.  It works in every browser I've tried - and with so much browsing and multi-tabbing it's become second nature.

Unfortunately this is not how it's done in X2.  I did read the manual and understand (and appreciate) the insightful idea to make it tab right and left in the same way you would play most PC video games using a keyboard -- Ctrl+Alt(Rt Arrow | Left Arrow).  

However, No matter how long I've done it; I continue to naturally reach for Ctrl+Tab when I want to  navigate to the next tab I need.  Forcing both hands to leave home row - seems unintuitive, cumbersome; and prone to more error (as well as keystrokes).  

Is there any way to customize this in the new version so I can make it cycle through tabs the way I want it too?

 :arrow:

[nikos]

sorry but the current key mapper control doesn't support combinations with the TAB key. This will be fixed in the future

[Kilmatead]

Who's silly idea was it to not allow Modifier+<Tab> keystrokes to be re-assigned?

For reference for the OP: If this does ever get fixed in Nikos' mystical future, you'll want to modify the Customise -> Keyboard -> (Category) "Miscellaneous" settings for 33038 and 33039 with <Ctrl> + <Tab> and <Ctrl> + <Shift> + <Tab> respectively.

In the mean-time, we can assign accelerator pins in Nikos' voodoo doll which may not have a practical effect, but it'll certainly make us feel better.



(And just for the record, I even tried doing this directly by manually modifying the accelerator resources - just for fun - and still couldn't get it to work.  Boo hiss.  On the plus side, I did manage to trigger the license-protection which necessitated a registry settings rewrite, so don't try that at home kids - stick to voodoo dolls.)

[nikos]

Who's silly idea was it to not allow Modifier+<Tab> keystrokes to be re-assigned?

microsoft common controls of course!

[otlaolap]

The freeware program AutoHotkey often allows users to customize a program more to their own taste or habit.  For what it is worth, the following AutoHotkey script does the remap you want.

Code: Select all

#NoTrayIcon
#KeyHistory 0
SetBatchLines -1

  #IfWinActive, ahk_class ATL:ExplorerFrame
    ^Tab::SendInput, ^!{Right}
    ^+Tab::SendInput, ^!{Left}
    #IfWinActive

I just tested this on my Win XP Pro SP3 system, with the Xplorer2 registry at its default starting state.  No detailed checking was done on this -- just the main X2 window and not scrap panes, and not quick viewers and so on in the main window.  I just wanted to check that the alt+tab and alt+shift+tab cold be trapped by AutoHotkey and resent to Xplorer2 successfully.  Additional refinement might be required to restrict the script's effect to just specific subpanes of X2.

[Kilmatead]

The downside being you always need an instance of that script running in the background for it to work... (not a big deal for most people these days, but it should always be noted when suggested as a solution) - many users are unfamiliar with those scripting tools and how they work, so without context, it can all look like gobbledegook to them. (Just a thought.)

[WimdeLange]

Tit can all look like gobbledegook to them. (Just a thought.)

I love gobbledegook. ˙ʞooƃǝpǝlqqoƃ ǝʌol ı

I added this to my Alt-Mouse Left Click script (which moves a window just by using the Alt-LeftMouse combination) Wonderful. Thanks for the script.