10.1 takes a step backward?

First, if this has already been mentioned on the list or via your bug reporting system and I've missed it, my apologies. Second, let me state for the record that despite the following complaint, I am a big fan of oXygen. There is no other commercial proprietary software that I outright recommend people buy, except for Mac OS X. (And even that only for those not up to dealing with Ubuntu.) I have severe tendonitis to my wrists (bilaterally). One consequence of this is that I really try to avoid using the pointer (in my case a trackball or trackpad, as I cannot use a mouse at all), and try to type most commands. For those menu items that do not have keyboard shortcuts, I often use the operating system's "access the menu" shortcut (ctl-F2 on a Mac, alt-underlined_letter on my GNU/Linux system). I have not tried oXygen 10.1 on a GNU/Linux yet (I use oXygen there very rarely), but I use oXygen almost daily on Mac OS X 10.5 with "In windows and dialogs, press Tab to move the keyboard focus between" set to "All controls" in the Keyboard & Mouse pane of System Preferences. One action I perform reasonably frequently is Associate Schema, although it's usually via the New XML Document rather than explicitly associating a schema to an already existing XML document. Either way, in previous versions of oXygen I would perform this entirely from the keyboard. Something like: * cmd-N > new dialog * XML Document selected > defaulted from last time * enter > gets "Create an XML document" dialog * Use DTD or Schema checked > defaulted from last time * tab > moves me to set of schema language tabs * R-cursor R-cursor > selects Relax NG * tab tab > selected "browse local" folder icon [X] * space > gets open dialog box * [navigate to schema] > use normal Mac OS X keystrokes * return > syntax button automatically set from extension * return > done! But note the [X]. Here, in oXygen 10.0 (and earlier versions, but I don't know how far back), there was no visual indication that I had selected the button with the normal folder icon that means "Browse for local file" (the leftmost of the 2 or 3 folder icons for browsing local, remote, or archive), but it worked. Now, in 10.1, tabbing in this dialog box skips right over the browse icons! I've tried all sorts of key combinations (ctl-tab, opt-tab, cursor keys, cursor keys w/ modifiers, etc.), but cannot seem to select that button without using the pointer. Snif! Sob! PLEASE give me a way to create a new document with a schema associated without using the pointer! P.S. It turns out I can still create new files in oXygen without using the pointer so long as I don't associate a schema. Some time ago (9.2? 10.0? I forget), the "New" dialog box became a combined "New" and "New from template" box. As far as I could tell, there was no way to select one or the other of those tabs from the keyboard, though. However, I recently discovered that pressing ctl-tab 3 times or shift-ctl-tab once selected the tabs bar, so that either L or R cursor keys would select the other tab. Not exactly convenient, but I'm trying to teach my fingers to do that.

There are a number of dialogs that do not have keyboard shortcuts. The one that bugs me most often is the Find/Replace dialog. I'm sure Syd has run into that. Yes, you can do what you need to by tabbing around, but if there were keyboard shortcuts for each control, you could get things done much more quickly and reliably. A query replace (going through a document with many search hits and replacing only some of them) is painfully awkward due to the lack of keyboard shortcuts on the "Find" and "Replace" buttons. There was an email on this list on 3/20/2007 saying that shortcuts would be added for these buttons, but it doesn't seem to have happened. Like Syd, I am a big fan of Oxygen despite these small shortcomings, and I recommend it to others. The lack of keyboard shortcuts is a blemish on an otherwise excellent product. Lars On 3/6/2009 10:58 PM, Syd Bauman wrote:
First, if this has already been mentioned on the list or via your bug reporting system and I've missed it, my apologies.
Second, let me state for the record that despite the following complaint, I am a big fan of oXygen. There is no other commercial proprietary software that I outright recommend people buy, except for Mac OS X. (And even that only for those not up to dealing with Ubuntu.)
I have severe tendonitis to my wrists (bilaterally). One consequence of this is that I really try to avoid using the pointer (in my case a trackball or trackpad, as I cannot use a mouse at all), and try to type most commands. For those menu items that do not have keyboard shortcuts, I often use the operating system's "access the menu" shortcut (ctl-F2 on a Mac, alt-underlined_letter on my GNU/Linux system).
I have not tried oXygen 10.1 on a GNU/Linux yet (I use oXygen there very rarely), but I use oXygen almost daily on Mac OS X 10.5 with "In windows and dialogs, press Tab to move the keyboard focus between" set to "All controls" in the Keyboard & Mouse pane of System Preferences.
One action I perform reasonably frequently is Associate Schema, although it's usually via the New XML Document rather than explicitly associating a schema to an already existing XML document. Either way, in previous versions of oXygen I would perform this entirely from the keyboard. Something like: * cmd-N > new dialog * XML Document selected > defaulted from last time * enter > gets "Create an XML document" dialog * Use DTD or Schema checked > defaulted from last time * tab > moves me to set of schema language tabs * R-cursor R-cursor > selects Relax NG * tab tab > selected "browse local" folder icon [X] * space > gets open dialog box * [navigate to schema] > use normal Mac OS X keystrokes * return > syntax button automatically set from extension * return > done!
But note the [X]. Here, in oXygen 10.0 (and earlier versions, but I don't know how far back), there was no visual indication that I had selected the button with the normal folder icon that means "Browse for local file" (the leftmost of the 2 or 3 folder icons for browsing local, remote, or archive), but it worked. Now, in 10.1, tabbing in this dialog box skips right over the browse icons! I've tried all sorts of key combinations (ctl-tab, opt-tab, cursor keys, cursor keys w/ modifiers, etc.), but cannot seem to select that button without using the pointer.
Snif! Sob! PLEASE give me a way to create a new document with a schema associated without using the pointer!
P.S. It turns out I can still create new files in oXygen without using the pointer so long as I don't associate a schema. Some time ago (9.2? 10.0? I forget), the "New" dialog box became a combined "New" and "New from template" box. As far as I could tell, there was no way to select one or the other of those tabs from the keyboard, though. However, I recently discovered that pressing ctl-tab 3 times or shift-ctl-tab once selected the tabs bar, so that either L or R cursor keys would select the other tab. Not exactly convenient, but I'm trying to teach my fingers to do that.

Hello, Adding shortcuts for buttons is scheduled for version 10.3. Regards, Sorin Lars Huttar wrote:
There are a number of dialogs that do not have keyboard shortcuts. The one that bugs me most often is the Find/Replace dialog. I'm sure Syd has run into that. Yes, you can do what you need to by tabbing around, but if there were keyboard shortcuts for each control, you could get things done much more quickly and reliably. A query replace (going through a document with many search hits and replacing only some of them) is painfully awkward due to the lack of keyboard shortcuts on the "Find" and "Replace" buttons.
There was an email on this list on 3/20/2007 saying that shortcuts would be added for these buttons, but it doesn't seem to have happened.

Hello, The buttons used for entering a file path in a dialog (Browse for local file, Browse for remote file, Browse for archive file) are not focusable anymore. We will make them focusable again. Regards, Sorin Syd Bauman wrote:
One action I perform reasonably frequently is Associate Schema, although it's usually via the New XML Document rather than explicitly associating a schema to an already existing XML document. Either way, in previous versions of oXygen I would perform this entirely from the keyboard. Something like: * cmd-N > new dialog * XML Document selected > defaulted from last time * enter > gets "Create an XML document" dialog * Use DTD or Schema checked > defaulted from last time * tab > moves me to set of schema language tabs * R-cursor R-cursor > selects Relax NG * tab tab > selected "browse local" folder icon [X] * space > gets open dialog box * [navigate to schema] > use normal Mac OS X keystrokes * return > syntax button automatically set from extension * return > done!
But note the [X]. Here, in oXygen 10.0 (and earlier versions, but I don't know how far back), there was no visual indication that I had selected the button with the normal folder icon that means "Browse for local file" (the leftmost of the 2 or 3 folder icons for browsing local, remote, or archive), but it worked. Now, in 10.1, tabbing in this dialog box skips right over the browse icons! I've tried all sorts of key combinations (ctl-tab, opt-tab, cursor keys, cursor keys w/ modifiers, etc.), but cannot seem to select that button without using the pointer.

Hello Syd, We scheduled this fix for version 10.2 (the next version). We see that it is painful for users like you to enter a file path in a dialog if some components are not focusable. Regards, Sorin Sorin Ristache wrote:
Hello,
The buttons used for entering a file path in a dialog (Browse for local file, Browse for remote file, Browse for archive file) are not focusable anymore. We will make them focusable again.
Regards, Sorin
Syd Bauman wrote:
One action I perform reasonably frequently is Associate Schema, although it's usually via the New XML Document rather than explicitly associating a schema to an already existing XML document. Either way, in previous versions of oXygen I would perform this entirely from the keyboard. Something like: * cmd-N > new dialog * XML Document selected > defaulted from last time * enter > gets "Create an XML document" dialog * Use DTD or Schema checked > defaulted from last time * tab > moves me to set of schema language tabs * R-cursor R-cursor > selects Relax NG * tab tab > selected "browse local" folder icon [X] * space > gets open dialog box * [navigate to schema] > use normal Mac OS X keystrokes * return > syntax button automatically set from extension * return > done!
But note the [X]. Here, in oXygen 10.0 (and earlier versions, but I don't know how far back), there was no visual indication that I had selected the button with the normal folder icon that means "Browse for local file" (the leftmost of the 2 or 3 folder icons for browsing local, remote, or archive), but it worked. Now, in 10.1, tabbing in this dialog box skips right over the browse icons! I've tried all sorts of key combinations (ctl-tab, opt-tab, cursor keys, cursor keys w/ modifiers, etc.), but cannot seem to select that button without using the pointer.
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participants (3)
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Lars Huttar
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Sorin Ristache
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Syd Bauman