GNOME Goal: Shortcut Windows

/!\ Warning:
This page is deprecated and no goals should be added/modified here. Please visit https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/Initiatives for more information. Thanks!

GTK+ 3.19.x includes a new widget called GtkShortcutsWindow. This is a dialog window that shows an overview of shortcuts (keyboard shortcuts and touch gestures) for an application. They are particularly useful when an application doesn't include a menubar (since these were the primary way to learn shortcuts in the past).

Shortcuts windows will be far more effective if GNOME applications consistently provide them. This goal aims to make sure that every GNOME application without a menu bar has one.

Guidelines

If an application has more than a few shortcuts, and doesn't have a menu bar, it should include a shortcuts window.

GTK+ 3 Demo provides examples of different shortcuts windows. Guidance and screenshots can also be found in the documentation and in the GtkApplication documentation.

Which shortcuts to include

  • Include all application-specific shortcuts and gestures.
  • Include system-wide gestures that are defined by either the system or the application, such as F1 for help and Ctrl+N for new.
  • It isn't necessary to describe generic keyboard controls such as Esc to close dialogs or Tab to move focus.
  • Don't forget to include the shortcuts for raising the shortcuts window: Ctrl+? and Ctrl+F1.

Organizing the shortcuts

Group the shortcuts in order to make them easy to read and find.

  • When grouping shortcuts, avoid small and large groups. As a rule of thumb, groups should be 3 - 8 items in size.
  • Often it is necessary to include a General group, containing shortcuts such as Ctrl+N, Ctrl+W, and F1. If included, this should be the first group.
  • Order items within groups so that similar items are adjacent to one another.
  • Each group should be listed in order of importance/frequency of use.
  • You might find it helpful to think of groups in terms of common menu bar titles: Edit, View, Go and Tabs, for example.
  • Use header capitalization for group headings.

There are two other ways that you can organize the shortcuts in a Shortcuts Window:

  • If your application provides a series of fixed views (like Clocks or Software), and each view has different shortcuts associated with them, organize the shortcuts into different views.
  • If the application has several modes, each of which have a large number of shortcuts associated with them (this is only found in large and complex applications, like Evolution), they can be divided into sections.

Gestures

Note that the GTK+ API for shortcuts and gestures has changed slightly after 3.19.2: The GtkShortcutsShortcut widget can now be used to display both keyboard shortcuts and gestures, and it has a list of predefined gestures for which GTK+ provides both an icon and a subtitle. The GtkShortcutsGesture widget should not be used anymore; it will be removed before 3.20.

General guidelines

  • Try to be consistent with other applications in the naming of shortcuts.
  • Try to avoid awkward layouts with large spaces, by adjusting the window height and tweaking the order of the shortcut groups.
  • A Keyboard Shortcuts entry should be added to the application menu for it, above the Help entry. GTK+ automatically creates and action with name win.show-help-overlay that can be used for this.

/!\ Note: every translatable string in the Shortcuts Window (usually the help-overlay.ui file) should have the context="shortcut window" attribute set to disambiguate the strings from other strings in the app in order to help translators.

Comments before approval

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Status of this goal

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Patch Status

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Initiatives/GnomeGoals/ShortcutWindows (last edited 2020-06-16 13:29:50 by MichaelCatanzaro)