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Remove redundant CTRL-E shortcut in formula editor

Dan Kamins

February 13, 2017 20:44

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The Klipfolio "CTRL-E" shortcut in formula editor to "Select Function" is redundant as most common platforms provide some shortcut to select all text (CTRL-A on Windows, CMD-A on OS X).

Furthermore, it overrides and blocks the standard OS X keyboard shortcut (CTRL-E) to move the cursor to the end of the line.

Is there even a reason to promote "select all" with a special shortcut key?  (I.e. is this such a common action when editing a formula that it needs to be mentioned at all, let alone have a special custom shortcut key assigned to it?)

This feature request is to remove the CTRL-E shortcut and allow it to be used by the system for what it is otherwise globally used for (move to end of line).  Users can still use platform standard (CTRL-A or CMD-A) means to select all text if desired.

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3 comments

• 0
  
  Scott Lawrence February 13, 2017 21:03

  Hi Dan,

  Thank you for your note.  It is great to hear what users are thinking about as they use Klipfolio.

  We consciously looked at a lot of shortcuts/keyboard commands and tried to avoid overriding common ones where at all possible.

  As you point out, when you want to select everything in the formula bar, you can use CMD-A/Ctrl-A.  Those commands work as expected in the formula bar.  What we had heard from users was that they wanted a way to quickly select the entire function and all it's parameters in a quick selection.  We had heard that especially as users built more sophisticated formulas, this became extremely important as they worked on the formulas to copy a function + parameters, or to ensure what they were inserting was within the context of the function they had intended.

  If your formula happens to only have one function in it, the Ctrl-E will look like it is also acting like the Ctrl-A command.  

  Does this help clear up the distinction?

  Cheers,

  Scott.

   

   

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  Dan Kamins February 13, 2017 21:25

  Scott,

  Thank you for the clarification.  I now understand that CTRL-E does more than simply "select all", and I can see how this would be useful when developing a more complex formula!

  That said, it is still overriding an OS X standard shortcut key combo.  Might you move it to a different otherwise unused keystroke?

  dk

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  Scott Lawrence February 14, 2017 19:37

  Hi Dan,

  Thank you for following up.  There seem to be multiple Mac command commands to achieve the same thing.  For example, use Command-shift-right arrow will also select from your current position to the end of the line.  Or just Command-right arrow to move to the end of the line.

  We do try hard not to overlap with common keyboard commands, however whatever we do needs to also work across multiple platforms and multiple browsers.  Unfortunately, it is not always possible to find a combination that works across all possible scenarios.  I have discussed it with our UX team, however at this stage, we are not planning to change the shortcut key combo. 

  We will continue to keep an eye on opportunities for future changes.

  Cheers,

  Scott.