More hotkeys in the UI

I would love to get more UI Hotkeys. These are the ones I came up with:

Taskview:

  • x to open the delete dialog for this task
  • s to open a dialog for a new task that has the current task as parent task (basically creating a subtask)

General:

  • ? to show the hotkeys modal (clicking ? again closes it)
  • Strg+ to open a dialog to quickly create a new task in default list (I’m not sure which hotkey would be the best…)

Improved List Navigation:
- Currently gn goes to the list view. We could advance this by allowing for a number prefix of this to then go to this specific list.
- So 1gn goes to the first list in your namespace
- 25gn goes to the 25. List
- The same is applicable for Favorites and even for the tasks in a list (3gf goes to the 3. favorite, 5gt goes to the 5. task, …)
- But maybe start with the Lists :wink:

This sounds like a nice idea. These hotkeys are relatively simple to add (for example here is the setup for the “t” shortcut to mark a task done), do you want do send a PR?

I can try.
It won’t be this week, but I’ll try to build Vikunja and then try to implement this :slight_smile:

Thanks for the suggestions!

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+1 on this request:

  1. ? to see the shortcuts dialog
  2. F4 to highlight the “add task” input field when you are in a list view
  3. Ctrl+n to open the “add task” dialog. You could automatically add the +list_name if you are in a list view

Also,
When you are in the command dialog, I would like to be able to search by list name, to switch to that view. And having the top 5 recent searches on top would be super helpful too!

You can already use Ctrl+K to open quick actions which allow you to create a task with quick add magic.

This should happen automatically when opening the list view.

I assume you are referring to the Ctrl+n?

While it’s great to be able to get to it from the command menu, I just think it would be even better if it has a direct shortcut, given the fact that it’s probably the most common command/action in the application.

On F4, you are correct, the hotkey is in case it lost focus. I just picked F4 as it is the hotkey in most browser to focus on the search/address-bar.

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Okay, so it should open the quick action modal with the “New Task” action preselected?

I think we should try to avoid adding shortcuts that use keys already used by browsers.

For sure, CTRL+n is a bad choice here.

The following list shows the Hotkeys Todoist provides, which is a very good start:

Two things that bothered me the last weeks while using Vikunja extensively:

  • Please allow getting out of any input field with pressing Esc
  • Please allow the user to add a new task from anywhere. Todoist uses Q, when you are not in a list (it then stores the task in the default inbox) or A when in a List

Where should it go?

Did you try the command palette?

Where should it go?

What do you mean by this? What I would like to see is pressing Esc while in a Input field (edit Task, new task for this List, Add label to task, etc.) and it looses focus. Currently when adding a label to a task I have to do:

  • press l
  • enter label name
  • press <CR> to save it

Now I’m still in the label field. I would like to get out of it by pressing Esc, but it doesn’t work :frowning: So I have to use the mouse. I hate using the mouse :smiley:

Did you try the command palette?

The one opened with Ctrl-K? Yes, I tried it. And while it is possible to add a new task here with:

  • press Ctrl-K
  • type “Neue Aufgabe” (german for “new task”)
  • press CR
  • enter new task name
  • press CR

The easier way would be:

  • press Q
  • enter new task
  • press CR

Ah thanks for clarifying. I thought you were talking about the form modals (for example the one to manually create a label from the label overview).

Labels are saved every time you add or remove one. No need to move the focus to somewhere else.

What key is <CR>?

Okay, I agree with that. I think we even have an item in the backlog for that. Do you want to send a PR?

The reason I want to lose focus from the input is that I then can use the other hotkeys again. So suppose for a task I want to add a label and move the task to my Backlog list:

  • l
  • type name of label, press <CR> (Return key, the big one on the right of your right pinkie :D)
  • Manually click outside of the field (this is what I would love to have <Esc> do
  • m
  • type name of list, press <CR>

So for powerusers, the ability to lose focus is quite important.

Oh, I will :smiley: Don’t know when, tho.

The whole thread should serve as a collection of wanted hotkeys features. So I see what others think about it.

Yeah okay that makes sense. Again, PR much appreciated :slight_smile: