_____/ On Thu 10 Nov 2005 12:33:38 GMT, [David House] wrote : \_____
I think we should revert 3020 (inclusion of accesskeys in tinymce).
Access keys are a great idea but have flawed implementations in all
browsers, which make using pages with them impossibly annoying. A
quick example: when I now go onto my Write Post screen and hit Alt-D
to select the URL bar (perhaps to navigate to another page), all I get
is the strikethrough button lighting up.
I won't talk much about this as there has been extensive discussion in
the past. See the following articles:
Mezzoblue: "I don't use accesskeys":
http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2003/12/29/i_do_not_use/
WATS: "Using Accesskeys: Is it worth it?":
http://www.wats.ca/articles/accesskeys/19
WATS: "More reasons why we don't use accesskeys":
http://www.wats.ca/articles/accesskeyconflicts/37
Giving up accesskeys *altogether* would probably be a poor move. They make
Web interfaces as productive as native desktop software. It is possible to
select accesskeys that prevent a large number of key collisions/conflicts
(or mouse gestures collision as I recently experienced).
In the case of Web browsers, the numbers (digits) appear to be valueable,
especially if you align the corresponding buttons horizontally. The choice
of alt+D was probably not a wise one, particularly because it is accommo-
dated by a very fundamental function in a ubiquitous browser. You could
never avoid all conflicts because there are global shortcuts too (e.g.
XMMS, AmaroK). The best you can ever do is try a variety of browsers and
check the default key mappings. Imagine yourself assigning CTRL+W to
tinymce, which is by convention "close tab" and may have someone kill a
textarea in the midst of writing an item. It is tempting to choose short-
cuts that make good mnemonics of the word they correspond to, but colli-
sions should be the prime consideration, as well as the distance between
keys. ALT1..7 appear to be 'safe'.
'nuff sed' as I imagine that similar opinions have been voiced in the
past.
Regards,
Roy
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