78261 - need shortcut to switch btwn category tree and right-hand panel

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(SeaMonkey :: Preferences, defect)

Description

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

it'd be good from an accessibility pov to be able to switch focus between the
category tree and the right-hand panel of the Preferences dialog.

unsure how feasible this would be. if it is, it could also be applied to similar
dialogs such as the Mailnews Account Setup.

should this bug reside in the prefs component, or should it go over to toolkit?

Comment 1

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

suggested shortcut[s]: use the same one[s] used for switching btwn
frames/mailnews panes: f6 and shift+f6 [which would be redundant with ctrl+tab
and ctrl+shift+tab].

Comment 2

[Chris McAfee]

1.0, keyboard nav

Comment 3

[Aaron Leventhal]

I would just put an accesskey on "Category", so the user can press Alt+C to get
to that from the dialog.

To get from the category pane to the right hand part of the dialog, just press Tab.

Is there a bug for the fact that, after you tab out of the category side, you
can end up in no man's land for a while until you keep tabbing?

Comment 4

[Jesse Ruderman]

>Is there a bug for the fact that, after you tab out of the category side, you
>can end up in no man's land for a while until you keep tabbing?

Yes, bug 64052.

Comment 5

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

I think that where a top-level control in a window is used to determine the 
presence or absence (as opposed to just the enabled/disabled status) of other 
controls, (Shift+)Ctrl+Tab should be used consistently to access this control.

For example:
*   (Shift+)Ctrl+Tab should cycle through the tabs in tabbed dialogs.
*   (Shift+)Ctrl+Tab should cycle between the content area, the address field,
    and the Sidebar in Navigator (since the address field and the Sidebar can
    be used to determine what URL is loaded, which in turn determines what form
    controls are available in the content area).
*   (Shift+)Ctrl+Tab should toggle between the category pane and the prefs
    panels themselves in the prefs dialog.

In any case, controls such as these should not have accesskeys, because that 
prevents the same mnemonic from being used in *any* of the subsidiary panels. 
(I bet there's several panels where we use the `C' accesskey, and we probably 
use all the other letters in the word `Category' in various panels too.)

Comment 6

[Aaron Leventhal]

mpt, thanks for the interesting comment.

The only problem I have with what you say, is that Ctrl+Tab is much less 
discoverable in a situation like this. I don't think anyone would figure that 
our unless they specifically read the keyboard docs. 

On the other hand, Alt+C for Category is easy to figure out, because the C would 
be underlined.

Comment 7

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

You can't give the `Category:' label the `C' accesskey (at least, not without 
changing it in every prefs panel which uses `C' for something else), so how 
easy it would be to figure out is a moot point.

As for discoverability, I don't think it needs to be very discoverable. If you 
don't know about Control+Tab, you'll just use Tab, and you'll eventually get 
there. But if you're the sort of person who relies on keyboard navigation (e.g. 
someone who can't use the mouse), then Control+Tab will be one of the things 
you learn when reading up on the keyboard shortcuts Mozilla provides.

Comment 8

[Chris McAfee]

over to vishy to find an owner

Comment 9

[Peter Trudelle]

->ben, clearing mozilla1.0 target for retargetting in MachV if the current
method (tab key) is insufficient.

Comment 10

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

need to hook up an accesskey to 'Category'.

Comment 11

[Aaron Leventhal]

-> Andreww

Comment 12

[Aaron Leventhal]

-> Andreww

Comment 13

[:deanis74]

This shouldn't block bug 18575, now that bug 64052 has been fixed.  Tab will
cycle through the contents of the prefs dialog repeatedly, without losing focus
on any hidden controls.

Comment 14

[Mark Pilgrim (inactive)]

Is this bug even valid anymore?  The preferences window no longer uses a category tree; it uses (fully keyboard accessible) "panes".

Comment 15

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

This was about Seamonkey -- it doesn't apply to Firefox or Thunderbird.

Comment 16

[Phoenix]

F6 (or Ctrl+Tab) brings focus back on category tree, but second press doesn't returns back to right pane. Not sure, this how it supposed to be, or it is unfinished
Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:10.0a1) Gecko/20111017 Firefox/10.0a1 SeaMonkey/2.7a1

Comment 17

[Karsten Düsterloh]

Where should it return to? The item you left? The first one?
You can always leave the category tree by Tab.

(Actually, the internal workings of the preferences panel changed since this bug was filed: in the past, the pref panels were real iframes, thus some focussing/tabbing problems occured. These days, category tree and panels are in the same document, so the proposed change isn't very helpful anymore (if it ever was).)

Closing as WONTFIX.