151–160 of 221 posts
Charmstone [1] is a different take from everything mentioned here (I'm the developer). The idea is to use your spatial memory to switch/launch apps faster than anything else that I've found, with a smaller learning curve and less memorization. You can use keyboard shortcuts with the arrow keys, modifier keys + cursor movement, or a trackpad gesture. [1] https://charmstone.app
I couldn't disagree more. My mental sanity depends on some fixed beliefs. One of those is that every key sequence not involving the Win key is sent to and handled by the application in focus. Including F-keys, which many applications expect, in any case. Ex: F2=edit cell, F9=recalculate in Excel. Global actions handled by the SO or DE must involve Win. Ex: Win+L lock screen. And yes, Redmond-imposed Alt-Tab is an abo…
F1 means help.
F2 means edit. It edits filenames on most operating systems if you have a file selected, and cells in most spreadsheet programs.
Alt+F4 means close.
Alt+tab means switch program.
Ctrl+C is copy, Ctrl+V is paste
I feel the same way about automobiles. It doesn't really matter whether we initially decided that the brake pedal would be the right or left of the gas pedal, but the fact that you can get in just about any car in the world and rely on the pedals to be in roughly the same place and do roughly the same thing is magical. If you're going to move them around, you better have a great reason.
The agreements we've achieved on standards, even when they're not perfect (QWERTY keyboard, heirarchical directory structure), should be considered global treasures and treated as such.
Eh..? Don't get me wrong - if it works for you or OP, great! Keep doing it. I use Sway and KDE depending on what tickles my fancy. For application launching, I just use Alt+Space and type the first few letters of what I want. My frequent flyers get assigned to Meta+Alt+Letter. - Krunner / Rofi - Alt+Space (Meta+D was a bit contorted for me) - Meta+Enter - Konsole (KDE) / Kitty (Sway) - Meta+Shift+ - move active windo…
He does cover this briefly: "Is it up to an app launcher such as Spotlight or Alfred?" I'd be curious as to why he finds the F keys faster. Perhaps not having to wait for the bar to appear, not having to "context switch" by thinking about the app's name and not having to type anything. He talks about how one key is his music software for example, so by simply remembering F6 it skips having to even know what the app's…
No, you're using the computer wrong. See, you should use a tiling window manager with several workspaces and shortcuts without having to look at your keyboard, e.g. Meta+4 to go to workspace 4 where you have your chat apps.
Yep. Came to say this. Having say, meta+4 for "chat" is far better than having f4 for " a chat app". You arrive to your chat workspace, your works slack side by side with your favorite irc and matrix clients, all positioned and scaled perfectly every time. Adding more / fewer / swapping apps in is just a matter of invocation, and there the new configuration sits waiting. The concept is expanded greatly. Shoutout to i…
I couldn't disagree more. My mental sanity depends on some fixed beliefs. One of those is that every key sequence not involving the Win key is sent to and handled by the application in focus. Including F-keys, which many applications expect, in any case. Ex: F2=edit cell, F9=recalculate in Excel. Global actions handled by the SO or DE must involve Win. Ex: Win+L lock screen. And yes, Redmond-imposed Alt-Tab is an abo…
I’d like to add two parts:
1. Alt-Tab also works to select which Excel file you want in focus. I often have 10+ Excel files open and choose what I need with Alt-Tab-Arrow.
2. I can open all apps fast using Windows+Text. For example, Excel opens if I hit the Windows Key then “exc”, Chrome opens if I hit the Windows Key then “chr”, etc. Mac users can do the same by replacing the Windows Key with Command + Space.
I see no upside.
I couldn't disagree more. My mental sanity depends on some fixed beliefs. One of those is that every key sequence not involving the Win key is sent to and handled by the application in focus. Including F-keys, which many applications expect, in any case. Ex: F2=edit cell, F9=recalculate in Excel. Global actions handled by the SO or DE must involve Win. Ex: Win+L lock screen. And yes, Redmond-imposed Alt-Tab is an abo…
In the beginning, there was no "windows key".
In this kind of discussion people often focus solely on frequent actions, but there is one class of action that should have priority for the limited keys: the infrequent urgent. That is, tasks that don't happen that often, but when they do they are very urgent. For me the best example is the sound volume controls, I don't change sound volume nearly as often as I alternate between apps, but when I need to change the s…
Agreed. Some keyboard come with dedicated volume +/-/mute keys which is great and frees up function keys. I have "screenshotting" as a frequent need -- which in some occassions is an urgent one too :) I use 3 different types of screen capture (current window, select a region, repeat last region) mapped to F6 F7 F8 on all my machines now which gets a lot of use.
F keys are in my opinion better used elsewhere when you can override screenshot key for screenshots.
I know lots of apps that use those F keys you've overriden.
In this kind of discussion people often focus solely on frequent actions, but there is one class of action that should have priority for the limited keys: the infrequent urgent. That is, tasks that don't happen that often, but when they do they are very urgent. For me the best example is the sound volume controls, I don't change sound volume nearly as often as I alternate between apps, but when I need to change the s…
That is a fine use, but multimedia keys use 3-7ish (depending on how crazy you go) of the 48-ish function keys readily available. By which I mean, unmodified, SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT, and that's without counting multiple modifiers. I've got volume, mute, pause, fast forward and reverse in there but it's far from the only things I've got. (Well... technically FF, reverse, and pause are WIN-right, WIN-left, and WIN-up res…
Mute is the only one that has real urgency. The others are all second tier.