XY Inspiration: GIMP's Keyboard Shortcuts

What other productivity software are you working with...
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TheQwerty
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XY Inspiration: GIMP's Keyboard Shortcuts

Post by TheQwerty »

What's with that bizarre subject?

Unfortunately we must occasionally use software other than XYplorer.
However, this diversity in software is a great opportunity to inspire fresh ideas which can improve XYplorer.
I hesitate to call this the XY Inspiration series, since this is the first post, but I could see there being more.

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This is about a feature I just discovered in GIMP for Windows: Use dynamic keyboard shortcuts
2015-09-24 082041.png
2015-09-24 082041.png (60.62 KiB) Viewed 3032 times
From their documentation:
GIMP can give you the ability to create keyboard shortcuts (key combinations that activate a menu entry) dynamically, by pressing the keys while the pointer hovers over the desired menu entry. However, this capability is disabled by default, because it might lead novice users to accidentally overwrite the standard keyboard shortcuts. If you want to enable it, check Use dynamics keyboard shortcuts here.
With this enabled a user can set a shortcut to any enabled menu item by focusing it (via mouse or keyboard) then pressing the shortcut they want to use. That's it!

No need to stop what you're doing, dive into the configuration, find the command, modify the shortcut, and then hopefully get back on track with your original task. Just press the shortcut and continue what you were doing, with that shortcut immediately available.

At first I was worried that there is no warning when the desired shortcut is already assigned to a different command; GIMP just re-assigns the shortcut no questions asked. I still think there should be an optional warning, but I came to see the lack of one as an actual advantage and think it has a profoundly positive psychological affect on the user.

1) It removes the burden a user might feel of having to find a free shortcut before putting it to use.
2) Similarly, this de-emphasizes the importance of the default shortcuts, which means the user feels more empowered rather than at the developer's mercy.
3) Because they can be changed so easily they don't feel as permanent and like they should be set-and-forget. This lends itself to assigning shortcuts fluidly and based on the task at hand instead of the long hull.

"Okay that is pretty sweet, but if I'm assigning shortcuts for current tasks I may not want to use them again next time I open the program and resetting them will be a major pain in the [bleep]!"

Fear not, this can be handled as well! Notice in the screenshot above that there was another option, Save keyboard shortcuts on exit? It holds the answer.

With dynamic shortcuts enabled and saving on exit disabled you have the best of both worlds. You can configure your set-and-forget shortcuts, Save keyboard shortcuts now and they'll be restored at the start of each instance leaving you free to get as crazy as you like with dynamic shortcuts.


How awesome is that?


Further thoughts:
  1. One feature I think they're lacking is a way to diff the dynamically set shortcuts vs the saved shortcuts. Seeing only those shortcuts that have changed would make it easier to determine which might be worth saving at the end of a session.
  2. GIMP allows assigning non-modified characters as shortcuts, this can be done dynamically only if the desired character is not being used as an accelerator for an active item in the same menu. It's rather handy, but then this is an image program that doesn't deal with much text.
  3. I've always felt it lame that customizing keyboard shortcuts in XY is a paid-only feature. (If I were evaluating XY today I'm not sure if that alone would infuriate me enough to purchase or look elsewhere.) Adding dynamic shortcuts could make it possible to allow some customization for free without losing a differentiating feature.

EDIT: And I'm not sure this is the best forum for this topic.
In some respects it's really a wish, but it's a bit of an open-ended "Let's discuss this and see where it takes us" one. ;)
I placed it here because I didn't want to pile on Don, and not in TTQA (Tips, Tricks, etc.) because it's not (currently) in XY.

admin
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Re: XY Inspiration: GIMP's Keyboard Shortcuts

Post by admin »

What about the ALT key. It closes any open menu...

TheQwerty
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Re: XY Inspiration: GIMP's Keyboard Shortcuts

Post by TheQwerty »

admin wrote:What about the ALT key. It closes any open menu...
Not in GIMP.
You cannot use it alone as a shortcut either.

admin
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Re: XY Inspiration: GIMP's Keyboard Shortcuts

Post by admin »

Frankly, I don't feel too inspired by this one.

But I like the general idea of the topic. Inspiration is always welcome!

TheQwerty
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Re: XY Inspiration: GIMP's Keyboard Shortcuts

Post by TheQwerty »

It was the idea of setting short-term keyboard shortcuts contextually that I found really intriguing.
To me it also feels very much in the spirit of XY.

If nothing else this serves to highlight interesting, and possibly overlooked, features of other software.

bdeshi
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Re: XY Inspiration: GIMP's Keyboard Shortcuts

Post by bdeshi »

Intriguing indeed. However, I feel there is a possibility of some confusion in the saving mechanism.
May I interest you in another feature suggestion -- Shortcut Presets? So you can set these dynamic(if implemented)/current-task-based shortcuts and save them as a preset, >>> that is separate from and overrides the overall ks.dat setup.
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rebr
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Re: XY Inspiration: GIMP's Keyboard Shortcuts

Post by rebr »

SammaySarkar wrote:Intriguing. However, I feel there is a possibility of some confusion in the saving mechanism.
May I interest you in another feature suggestion -- Shortcut Presets? So you can set these dynamic(if implemented)/current-task-based shortcuts and save them as a preset, >>> that is separate from and overrides the overall ks.dat setup.
That's a thing I really would to see in XY.

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