Re: [Fwd: [Bug 53580] Changed - KEYNAV: GtkTreeView]

[Calum Benson <calum benson ireland sun com>]

Calum Benson wrote:

> It's not reserved in that context, but it would mean you'd have to be
> able to give keyboard focus to a column header, which isn't something
> that's mentioned in the document at all at the moment :)  But it sounds
> like something that ought to be made possible anyway

Okay, so I've been thinking about this issue this afternoon, of how to
give focus to a list's column headers with the keyboard, so that you can
then (still using the keyboard) rearrange, sort, or popup the header's
context menu if it has one.  I'm torn between two a couple of possible
solutions, though, so I'm looking for some advice  :)  The two options
I'm toying with are:

Option 1) Tabbing into the list gives focus to the first column header
in the list, rather than the list of items itself.  At this point, the
left/right arrow keys move focus between the headers, and pressing Tab
for a second time moves focus into the main body of the list.  When the
list items have focus, Shift+Tab moves focus back to the column headers,
and Tab moves focus forward out of the list control altogether.

Advantages: Totally consistent with our proposed navigation mechanism
for notebook/tab controls, and makes it obvious that focus can even be
given to the headers at all, by explicitly including them in the tab
sequence.

Disadvantages: Requires one extra press of the Tab key for the most
common action (giving focus to the list items themselves).  Also, the
"first" column header in a list is often the header for a column of
icons, which is generally very small in comparison to the other headers,
so the fact that it had gained focus may not be immediately obvious-- it
may look as though the focus had just disappeared.


Option 2) Tabbing into the list initially gives focus to the list items,
as it does now.  Pressing Tab or Shift+Tab again moves focus right back
out of the list control again, as it does now.  Focus is given to the
column headers by tabbing into the list, then pressing Ctrl+PgUp.  Once
the headers have focus, left/right arrow keys move focus between the
headers as in suggestion 1, pressing Tab gives focus back to the list
items, and pressing Shift+Tab backs focus out of the list control
altogether.

Advantages: No extra steps added to the tab sequence.  Still has some
consistency with our proposal for notebook/tab controls, where we
suggest that Ctrl+PgUp should move focus from a control on a tabbed page
to the tab control itself.

Disadvantages: Functionality is well-hidden, you wouldn't find it
without some experimentation or (more likely) somebody telling you about
it.



Any thoughts/preferences/better ideas?  Just writing this email has made
me lean more towards option 1, but comments would be appreciated.

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems