Access keys (i.e., keyboard shortcuts) can be defined for common
features. Something like the following:
- 1 - Homepage
- 2 - Search box
- E - Edit
- R - RecentChanges
- H - History
- P - Preferences
- D - Discussion
- S - Save the current page (when editing)
- C - Cancel the current edit
- V - Preview the current page
Then, for example, in Firefox one could press Alt+Shift+E to edit the
page.
For links, this is implemented as:
<a href="recentchanges/" accesskey="r">RecentChanges</a>
and for forms buttons:
<input type="submit" value="Submit" accesskey="s"/>
--[[JasonBlevins]], March 21, 2008 18:05 EDT
There were also a few thoughts about access keys on the
[[main_discussion_page|index/discussion]]. Now moved to here:
Would anyone else find this a valuable addition. In oddmuse and instiki (the only other
wiki engines I am currently using, the edit, home, and submit link tags have an
accesskey attribute. I find it nice not to have to resort to the mouse for those
actions. However, it may not be something everyone appreciates. Any thoughts?
--Mazirian
Maybe, although it would need to take the critisism at
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/accesskey.html into account.
Thank you for that link. Given that the edit link is the first thing you tab to
in the current layout, I guess it isn't all that necessary. I have had a
a user complaint recently that Alt-e in oddmuse was overriding his access
to the browser menu.
The main criticism there it
seems is that some browsers implement access keys in a way (via the Alt
key) that allows them to override built-in keyboard shortcuts. I
believe this is not a problem any longer in Firefox (which uses the
Shift+Alt prefix) but I suppose it could still be a problem in other
browsers.
Another criticism is that most browsers do not display the access keys
that are defined. The article cited on the main discussion page
suggests underlining the relevant mnemonic. I think it would be
sufficient to just list them in the basewiki documentation somewhere.
It's an unfortunate situation—I'd like an alternative to the
rodent but there are quite a few downsides to using access keys.
Tabbing isn't quite the same as a nice shortcut key. There's always
Conkeror...
--[[JasonBlevins]], March 22, 2008 10:35 EDT
