Nixta's experiences switching to Mac - Latest Comments in Navigating with the keyboard

Re: Navigating with the keyboard

Nixta — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:42:16 -0000

Why, thank you, Tartus meus. Much appreciated. And you're the only one to know about it so far! 100% success rate.

I think I can rewrite this article a little bit better - it was a rambling prototype of a thoughtsplurge really.

That said, I think that there's much to be said for helping Windows users learn how to more efficiently navigate too. Switching from mouse to keyboard to mouse all the time is very inefficient and depending on how you work it really might not even be the easiest, let alone most efficient way to do things.

I think I will pull together various Mac hints for working with the keyboard and tie them in with applications like Quicksilver and Sizzling keys that can really help. That said, I'd be happy to include similar articles for Windows users.

Re: Navigating with the keyboard

Jonathan Hartley — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:19:02 -0000

Yeah, this is such a pervasive problem - nobody gets it right.

Window management, by which I mean moving and resizing, using the keyboard is a similar bugbear. On Linux this is obviated to some extent by Compiz, which lets you bind keys to all sorts of window shuffling operations. On Windows I have been delighted to discover 'WinSplit Revolution', which in intended to east the pain of moving windows around dual screens, but also serves up a fabulous side-dish of brilliant Ctrl+Alt+numpad keybinds. For example, Ctrl+Alt+6 (on the right side of the keypad) will snap the current window to the right side of the screen, vertically maximised. Repeat presses cycle the width of the window through 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 of the screen width. I love this to death.

I also already love love love your new blog Nick!