Re: [Usability] Switching between tabs with Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab and "recency list"

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On 2 Mar 2006, at 17:58, Simon Francis wrote:

> My biggest complaint with Ctrl-Pg Up/ Ctrl-Alt-Pg Up is it is  
> really hard to use. Ctrl-Tab can be used with only one hand and you  
> hardly even have to move your fingers anywhere to use it, its just  
> right there. Ctrl-Alt-Pg Up requires you to use both hands and move  
> them rather far from home row. This is one of the many little  
> things that cause me to use Firefox over Epiphany.

It's a valid enough complaint, but I'm not sure what we could use  
instead of Ctrl-Tab for its existing purpose... Shift-Tab and Alt-Tab  
are already used up (and anything other than modified-Tab would be  
seriously undiscoverable).

The "one-handed" alternative for tab navigation, although a bit more  
long-winded, is usually to give focus to the notebook tabs themselves  
(using Tab, Shift-Tab, Ctrl-Tab, or whatever other means is most  
convenient for that particular window), then use left/right arrows to  
switch between them.  If a GNOME app doesn't let you do this, it's  
broken and a bug should be filed.

Cheeri,
Calum.

--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            Java Desktop System Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems