Using keyboard to navigate between authors

[mariaclaudia]

Hi my friends:
I don't know if it's possible, I hope it will, so I make my question to you.
Calibre has keyboard shortcuts for navigate between authors in the main list? I mean, when I expand the Authors group, I find a list grouped by initial letter, of course, from A to Z, and between parentheses, the number of author for each letter.

When I select a letter, by example, A, i see the complete list of authors with that letter, and in parentheses, how many books have.

So, I want to navigate between authors, not books, using the keyboard, it that possible?

I hope I've explained well

Thanks for your time
Sorry my grammar
Regards from Lima, Perú

[BetterRed]

@mariaclaudia - As far as I know the left sidebar (Author, Publisher, Series Tags etc) can only be accessed and 'navigated' via the mouse, because it never gets keyboard focus. It doesn't seem to be reachable via the Tab or Shift+Tab keys.

A category Find puts a hard to see fine underline under the found item - but it doesn't get keyboard focus so you have to 'spot' the underline and click it. AFAIK the Find box has no keyboard shortcut, so you have to get into it with the mouse and then you have to type the find 'string'.

I only reasons I use the Tag Browser is to get at the Alter Tag Browser->Manage Authors, Tags etc... feature; or to access one of the lesser known features in the item context menu - eg Remove Tag from all books.

BR

[chaley]

@BetterRed: On Windows, Alt-f moves the focus to the tag browser find box and Alt-i pushes the find button. Neither of these shortcuts use the keyboard customization stuff.

I also found that if you are in the tag browser find box, 3 tabs will take you to the Alter Tag Browser box, at which point the space bar opens it.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

@BetterRed: On Windows, Alt-f moves the focus to the tag browser find box and Alt-i pushes the find button. Neither of these shortcuts use the keyboard customization stuff.

If they can't be put into the kb customisation, perhaps could they be documented in the manual - I looked in both places

I also found that if you are in the tag browser find box, 3 tabs will take you to the Alter Tag Browser box, at which point the space bar opens it.

@chaley I was wondering where focus went I hit tab up 'there'

I think I might have discovered this once before, but I would have tried down arrow to open the drop down - that's what seems to work elsewhere

I wish there was a slicker way to get into the Manage Authors, Tags... feature. Maybe a toolbar item that has a customisable keyboard shortcut.

BR

[mariaclaudia]

thanks a lot for all of you for answer... you're the best!!!

[chaley]

@BetterRed and @mariaclaudia: Kovid accepted my changes to add configurable keyboard shortcuts for some tag browser functions. The attachment shows what they are. Two of them have assigned shortcuts for compatibility.

The "Alter tag browser" opens the drop down menu and puts the focus on the first line.

The Click found item pretends that you clicked the mouse on the item found using the Find function, thereby changing the book list. It also "clicks" the last item clicked with the mouse, permitting rapid cycling through the searches.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

@BetterRed and @mariaclaudia: Kovid accepted my changes to add configurable keyboard shortcuts for some tag browser functions...

@chaley - for the new shortcuts - more reasons to cheerful (part ... VI)

BR

[chaley]

@BetterRed: after some thought I decided to remove the two default shortcuts, so now none of the operations have defaults. Rationale: moving then to the general keyboard shortcut manager might create conflicts with user-defined shortcuts. Fixing this might not be obvious, leading to various confusing support questions. If someone uses the existing shortcuts then they will stop working, giving the person a good hint that something must be changed. Supporting the latter is easier, because the questions will be (or should be) more specific.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

@BetterRed: after some thought I decided to remove the two default shortcuts, so now none of the operations have...

- this makes me wonder if there are other hidden/undocumented keyboard shortcuts. I've had instances (< 10) where a keyboard assignment was accepted (i.e. no conflict) but failed to work, they might have been Alt+[F, I] but I normally avoid assigning Alt+[A-Z][1-2].

I can't recall details as I've been able to assign an alternative sequence easy enough, and there was always the possibility that they'd been intercepted by some other program or the OS itself.

Just a thought

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

- this makes me wonder if there are other hidden/undocumented keyboard shortcuts. I've had instances (< 10) where a keyboard assignment was accepted (i.e. no conflict) but failed to work, they might have been Alt+[F, I] but I normally avoid assigning Alt+[A-Z][1-2].

Looking for underlined letters in labels I see two of them: Alt+r for Virtual Libraries and Alt+g for execute the search. Both labels are translatable so the shortcut can change or disappear in other languages.

[BetterRed]

Ah-ha - I can 'see' the 'G' and the 'r' plain enough, but I must peer/squint to see the 'i' - solution, up the font size a notch

BR