Re: GNOME Shell magnifier and Keybindings

[Joseph Scheuhammer <clown alum mit edu>]

Hi Robert,

You wrote:
> I was just curious as to whether or not it is possible (or would be 
> possible) to use the scroll wheel on my mouse in combination with a 
> key on my keyboard (e.g. the Control key) to zoom in or out on the 
> magnifier. 

Anything is possible :-).  And, this is a no-brainer.  I'll take a look 
to see if there is a feature request in the bug data base somewhere, 
and, if not, raise it.

But, this has me thinking about a related issue.  The GNOME UI design 
team is currently working on a menu that allows quick access to useful 
accessibility preferences -- things like "turn on/off magnification", 
"turn on/off inverse video", "turn on/off screen reader", and so on.  
They are mulling over what should be in that menu.

Controlling magnification factor using the scroll wheel falls into this 
"quick access" category.  Now, in this case, it's not part of any menu; 
it's simply available from one of the common UI devices (the mouse).

> I ask this because many of the key bindings which I used for Zoom in 
> and Zoom Out are used by other programs.

In case you don't know, you can configure key bindings for Zoom from the 
"Keyboard" control centre panel:
1. Go to System Settings.
2. Open the Keyboard panel.
3. Choose the Shortcuts tab.
4. Select the Universal Access item from the list on the left.
5. Choose the preference on the right, and set the keystroke you want 
(follow the direction at the bottom of the window).

You can at least assign some key stroke to the zoom in/out functions to 
avoid having to invoke the full zoom options dialog.  Hopefully they 
aren't too different from what you are used to (the bindings that are 
use by other programs).

Hope that helps.

--
;;;;joseph.


'A: After all, it isn't rocket science.'
'K: Right. It's merely computer science.'
             - J. D. Klaun -