Re: [Usability] Minor wording change to the HIG

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Fri, 23 Dec 2005, Corey Burger wrote:

> Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 13:58:38 -0800
> From: Corey Burger <corey burger gmail com>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] Minor wording change to the HIG
>
> In
> http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/input-keyboard.html#standard-shortcuts
>
> It says:
>
> PageUp, Ctrl-PageUp, PageDown, Ctrl-PageDown	Scroll selected view by
> one page up/left/down/right

Not very clear is it?  I think it could be clarified and be made a bit
more specific, explaining the difference between how "Page Up" and
"Ctrl+Page Up" behave.

> However it makes not mention of a common usage of Ctrl+PageUp|Down,
> which is switching tabs.

Does that take priority over Ctrl+Tab?  If so then why?

I know Mozilla took an awful long time to implement Ctrl+Tab maybe it
conflicts with an old school window manager?  Before that I didn't think
of using Ctrl+PageUp for navigating tabs.  I always thought Ctrl+Tab was
the more commonly used binding for switching between tabs and I hope you
can see there is a certain logic to using the Tab key for switching tabs.

Also I didn't think we* particularly encouraged Tabbed interfaces (but of
course accepted they could be useful in limited circumstances if
implemented carefully).

> Did I miss something somewhere else or do we need to add another
> section to the hig telling people which keys they should use for tab
> switching?

Maybe.  :)

Probably best to file a request against the HIG (please add me to the CC
if you do)

> Here is a current survey of apps
>
> Epip  - C-pd|u and c-alt-pg|u
> Gedit - c-a-pd|u
> gnome-terminal - c-pd|u

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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* Maybe it was just me that didn't want Tabbed interfaces absolutely
everywhere.  The idea worked well for Opera but then people seemed to get
a bit carried away and suggested it almost every application possible.