Provide no-brainer keyboard shortcut to easily move selected recipients between To/CC/BCC
Categories
(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, enhancement)
Tracking
(Not tracked)
People
(Reporter: thomas8, Assigned: thomas8)
References
Details
Attachments
(1 file)
2.10 KB,
patch
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aleca
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feedback+
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Details | Diff | Splinter Review |
We've had significant and unequivocal user feedback that coming from the design of TB 68 where changing recipient type between To / CC / BCC was allegedly easy (alas only for a single recipient), users want an easier keyboard way of changing recipient type of existing recipients in TB 78. Also wrt enterprise scenarios, let's make sure to provide maximum ux-efficiency. I suggest finding an easy international keyboard shortcut.
The easiest shortcut I can think of is a long keypress on T / C / B, which will move selected recipients to To / Cc / Bcc field respectively. No side effects, no risks, sweet and simple. Let's be creative!
I have tried this in my installation and the ux-efficiency and ease of use is just breathtaking.
Will file a patch.
Assignee | ||
Comment 1•3 years ago
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This patch implements the idea (shortcuts for moving recipients only). Please try it!
Keyboard shortcuts | Move selected recipient items to... | Open/Focus ... |
---|---|---|
... To: | T (long keypress) | Ctrl+Shift+T |
... Cc: | C (long keypress) | Ctrl+Shift+C |
... Bcc: | B (long keypress) | Ctrl+Shift+B |
(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #0)
The easiest shortcut I can think of is a long keypress on T / C / B, which will move selected recipients to To / Cc / Bcc field respectively. No side effects, no risks, sweet and simple. Let's be creative!
I have tried this in my installation and the ux-efficiency and ease of use is just breathtaking.
Assignee | ||
Comment 2•3 years ago
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As discussed with Alex on Zoom yesterday, we want to create a consistent keyboard accelerator system for the addressing area, so the table in comment 1 includes our proposal for Bug 1667692 - Explore implementing keyboard shortcuts to show and focus important address rows (To, CC, BCC): Ctrl+Shift+T, Ctrl+Shift+C, Ctrl+Shift+B (like gmail).
Comment 3•3 years ago
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Comment on attachment 9199160 [details] [diff] [review] 1687432_shortcuts_move_to_To-Cc-Bcc.diff Review of attachment 9199160 [details] [diff] [review]: ----------------------------------------------------------------- I think I like it. It's definitely unusual but it's a nice addition to offer a quick action to move pills without using a mouse. If we decide to adopt these keys, they should definitely be visible as `acceltext` in a menu item, but how do we communicate the "long press" action? That might be tricky. ::: mail/base/content/mailWidgets.js @@ +2790,5 @@ > + > + case "b": > + case "B": > + // Trigger only for long keypress. > + if (event.repeat) { Maybe we should safeguard here against triggering this if the Ctrl or Meta key are pressed. I'm not sure if that's a possible scenario, but better be granular.
Assignee | ||
Comment 5•3 years ago
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At request of Magnus, I tested this a while back against some special access features provided by Windows.
Using long keypress for our shortcut here does not break any of those features, and normally even the shortcut will still work.
Of course, if you disable RepeatKeys altogether, you will not be able to use this particular shortcut, but we will still offer other keyboard ways like context menu
key and Move to *
from context menu. Also, the next iteration will include these commands in the main menu, which is a general requirement for access, so users facing any challenges with their particular access settings can always use that.
SlowKeys - delay first keypress (inconsequential for long keypress)
RepeatKeys - delay before key is repeated (inconsequential; for disable repetition - see above).
BounceKeys - ignore two subsequent first keypresses if they occur within short (user-defined) timeframe (inconsequential; otherwise use menus)
StickyKeys - allow modifier keys to be pressed and "stick" so you can press one key at a time (not involved with long keypress of single character)
Assignee | ||
Updated•3 years ago
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I am pleased to see this discussion about how to improve the usability of the new to/cc/bcc fields in TB.
Can I just point out that 'discoverability' is a big benefit with keyboard shortcuts, and the first path to finding keyboard shortcuts is with the ALT key. Currently in the Compose window in Thunderbird 78 (under Gnome on Ubuntu 20.04) highlights ALT+ options as follows:
- ALT+F -- 'File' menu
- E -- Edit
- V -- View
- I -- Insert
- O -- Format
- T -- Tools
- H -- Help
- R -- From (the 'from' email address field)
- S -- Subject (the 'subject' field of the email)
- M -- Attachments (although that one is only discoverable if the attachments area is already visible)
To me it is completely strange that ALT+C doesn't focus the 'CC' field, and ALT+B doesn't focus the 'BCC' field. It would be quite straightforward for this to be implemented, and this would then make everything else pretty manageable. If the 'CC' box is hidden (folded into that 'Cc' button to the right of the 'To' input textbox), then ALT+C should show it and focus it. If the CC box remains empty, perhaps it could automatically disappear again if it has been auto-shown.
The other little thing that hampers convenient discoverable keystrokes is the TAB behaviour between the TO, CC, and BCC input boxes. If I focus the 'TO' field, then click TAB, I get to focus on a silly 'X' button that is used to clear/hide the CC field. If I am using the keyboard, I definitely don't want that! I just want the input of the CC field to be focussed, then if I want to clear the field, I will type SHIFT-HOME DELETE. It is not helpful for this 'X' button to get in the way of simple navigation between fields. I almost never want to delete the CC field, but I normally want to move addresses around and/or add new ones.
Finally, if something that I would like to do with the keyboard in these input fields is to move the cursor to the start of the address list and start typing an additional first recipient (be it CC or TO). This is totally broken in the new system! I literally can't add an email address to the start of the list with the keyboard. The only place I can type a new address is at the end of the list. This is a major step back in keyboard usability. What is the user supposed to do, assuming they don't want to hunt for arcane keyboard shortcuts?
Suggestions, therefore:
- associate ALT+C and ALT+B with the CC and BCC fields, adding smarts if necessary to show those fields if they are currently hidden
- don't worry about exposing easy keyboard options for re-hiding those fields, that's not very important.
- remove the 'X' delete buttons for CC and BCC from the TAB-key focus cycle for the Compose window. They just get in the way.
PS I'm not a big fan of 'long press' idea, although I expect at least some people will like it. I just think that keystrokes that do 'special' things like this, especially without a modifier key, can be rather annoying in Thunderbird. For example, if I accidentally have my main Thunderbird window focussed, rather than my word processor, and I start typing, a whole cascade of strange things happens: messages get junked, starred, ignored, archived, and you never even know what you have done! Most programs bind actions like these to CTRL+ and ALT+ combinations, and won't happen just from attempting to type. I guess a long press is less of a problem, but still, it's very non-standard. How will you 'show' it as a shortcut in the menus (eg look at the shortcuts explained in the Message menu in the main TB window), so that people can actually find it? These new inputs fields need to be as consistent as possible with standard UI conventions for input textboxes. Personally, I will be trying to use SHIFT-ARROWS and CTRL-X and CTRL-V... that happens without thinking...
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