Re: [Usability] Toolbar key navigation

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

Padraig O'Briain wrote:

> Is it proposed that Tab and Shift+Tab will cycle between menubars and toolbars
> in the window?

That was the original proposal, yes.
 
> Currently when switching to the menubar, the first menu in the menubar is popped
> up. Is it proposed to change this or is it intended that pressing Tab when in a
> menu will, if the menu is attached to the menubar, cause all intermediate menus
> to be closed and switch to the next menubar or toolbar?

With this proposal, I'd expect the latter behaviour.

However, Marc Mulcahy suggested to me off-list that we swap the proposal
around a little, and use [shift+]Ctrl+Tab to cycle through
menus/toolbars, and [Shift+]Tab to cycle through elements on the
menus/toolbars.  Presumably then pressing Esc, and/or F10 again, would
remove focus from the menus/toolbars altogether and put it back into the
main window.  

Marc's proposal is probably a little more intuitive once you discover
it, and it also makes menu/toolbar navigation more consistent with the
panel keynav proposal.  My only concern is that it uses Ctrl-Tab as a
primary navigation method rather than the 'last resort' navigation we
use it for elsewhere.  It also effectively rules out the possibility of
including 'regular' widgets (e.g. option menus) that happened to live on
a toolbar in the regular tab sequence for the window.  But I don't
personally think that's a big loss.

So, on balance, Marc's suggestion probably gets my vote...
implementation issues aside  :o)

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