Future Release To-Do Items

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

No focus for "Select headings…"

Okay I had to rework things a bit in HeadingSelector.ui and HeadingSelector.cpp to allow Select Headings to work with tab to shift focus.

Luckily, in the rework I was able to find the reason for a random crash I have seen there over the years and track it down and get it fixed.

This should now be fixed in master.

I will next work on if the Shortcut Selector QLineEdit can use some non-tab based escape to move tab forward before I give up and make it Qt::ClickFocus only.

Thanks for tracking down all of these nits as I am not a tab to move focus kind of person so I have rarely run into any of them and some have existed for a very long time.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

1. Preserences > Keyboard Shortcuts
Shortcut field is focus trap for keyboard only users.
The Tab or Shift+Tab keys either do nothing or the tab is inserted into the field when trying to assign.

The dialogue also lacks Accelerator keys.

Other single line text boxes (e.g. "Set folder where temporary files should be created:") do allow one to Tab to the next control (in that case the "Auto" button).

IMO using a single line text box for entering keyboard shortcut values was a mistake, most of other apps I use take a different approach - see attachments. I quite like the second one, like Sigil it has a sortable/searchable list.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

The shortcuts for those 10 assigned plugins are set in the Shortcut Manager. So by assigning plugins to those positions also assigns whatever shortcut you previoused assigned or are going to assign.

So 6 of of one vs half dozen of another.

These are the plugins I have installed on my test rig:



I dont use toolbars, but if I did I could assign plugins to buttons, thus:



That shows I have assigned "Folder In" to "Plugin button 1", and that I can get a list of installed plugins to select from.

But I do use kb shorts, this is what is presented:



I don't have a clue as what plugins are installed or what shortcuts have been assigned to which plugins, sort by Name is skew-whiff, and to add insult to injury if I remove a shortcut the focus shifts to the Shortcut text box, which of course I can't Tab out of

BR

[KevinH]

Please remember Sigil is a cross platform application.

Qt handles shortcuts directly and needs to remap modifiers on the mac side so the apple key becomes a Ctrl key. They do this so programs can support both mac and linux and Windows when using standard Ctrl-C for copy, etc. It gets remapped to Apple-C internally for macs and so on.

And macs do not need or use menu accelerator keys as they have a unified menu bar and system defined keys to access all menus using the keyboard.

If you think accelerator keys are important for any specific dialog, please pick which letters on which menus. Also get some buy-in from other Windows users of Sigil before formally proposing them making the assignments as clear as possible, and as I get free time I will try to apply them. Testing them will be up to Windows users.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

The dialogue also lacks Accelerator keys.

Other single line text boxes (e.g. "Set folder where temporary files should be created:") do allow one to Tab to the next control (in that case the "Auto" button).

IMO using a single line text box for entering keyboard shortcut values was a mistake, most of other apps I use take a different approach - see attachments. I quite like the second one, like Sigil it has a sortable/searchable list.

BR

[KevinH]

Unless you are building your own from source on Windows on a daily basis on Windows, many of these already fixed issues will recur.

So please hold off identifying issues unless you are making current builds from master. Reporting the same already fixed bug just doubles the volume in this thread without really helping.

Thanks,

Originally Posted by BetterRed

These are the plugins I have installed on my test rig:

Attachment 207686

I dont use toolbars, but if I did I could assign plugins to buttons, thus:

Attachment 207687

That shows I have assigned "Folder In" to "Plugin button 1", and that I can get a list of installed plugins to select from.

But I do use kb shorts, this is what is presented:

Attachment 207688

I don't have a clue as what plugins are installed or what shortcuts have been assigned to which plugins, sort by Name is skew-whiff, and to add insult to injury if I remove a shortcut the focus shifts to the Shortcut text box, which of course I can't Tab out of

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Reporting the same already fixed bug just doubles the volume in this thread without really helping.

Thanks,

Can you be specific. The 'bugs' I raised in the post you referenced are in regard to the Preferences->Keyboard shortcuts for Plugins.

• No visibility as to which plugins are installed.
• No visibility as what shortcut has been applied to which plugin - including in the Plugin flyout menus
• Sorting the list by Name puts "Run Plugin 10", between "Run Plugin 1" and "Run Plugin 2".
• Removing a shortcut shifts focus backwards into a text box that can't be tabbed out of.

I don't see anything about Preferences->Keyboard shortcuts in Post #1.

BR

[KevinH]

The plugin shortcuts set in the Keyboard shortcuts can only be set on plugin numbers, not plugin names. The names are all available via the Plugin menu for launching organized by kind of plugin.

You determine the plugin numbers in the Plugin Manager Shortcut tab!

This is not a bug, it has been that way ever since I created the plugin interface and added plugin support.

So first you choose up to 10 of your most favorite plugins and assign them to shortcut positions in Manage Plugins.

Then show the plugin toolbars so you can see the 10 you selected.

Then in the Shortcut Manager you can assign those 10 whatever shortcuts you want. I used to assign a sequence number as short cuts for those. For example Alt + F1, Alt+F2, etc. Now my set of Plugins remains pretty much unchanged by position so I changed to more mnemonic shortcuts based on that plugin's name.

It is up to you.

Just glancing at the plugin toolbar with each plugin's custom icon helps me remember which shortcut I chose. If you show the plugin toolbars it will help.

The repeat bit was about the QLineEdit for shortcuts capturing tab focus shifts.

BeckyEbook already reported that and the Plugin Preferences tab shifts have all been fixed in master.

[KevinH]

And yes the Shortcut Manager uses an alphabetic sort of descriptor names. Not a numeric. The shortcut master table is stored in settings ini files. They have a fixed set of descriptor keys. There are over 150 right now. Given how many plugins people use and change, using plugin names that change would mean the static set of known descriptor values would no longer be static meaning that the shortcuts ini file would need to change and adapt to whatever plugins you have now and to any plugins changes you make. My allotting 10 shortcuts, and allowing you to determine which 10 and in what order, keeps it all static and simpler.

There are just not enough possible short cut keys to handle all of the inputs, menus, buttons, tools, etc in Sigil. So allowing the user to manage and assign their own subset based on what they think are important to their productivity is what we are trying to achieve. Turning off alot of toolbars could limit you. That said, you can grow the icon sizes in Preferences to make them easier to see and select. You can use menus accessed by system shortcuts and accelerator keys to navigate them, etc.

After that you will have to explore what your system Accessibility settings for full keyboard navigation can do. Qt seems to support many of them on macOS.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

And macs do not need or use menu accelerator keys as they have a unified menu bar and system defined keys to access all menus using the keyboard.

Why do Mac aficionados always raise this red herring.

Windows Accelerator keys are not needed to access menus implemented via the Win32 C++ Menu library - which is most of them, and what I believe Qt uses under the hood. I can traverse such menus, including Sigil's, with one finger. Pressing the Alt key gets me to the first menu item (e.g, File) (i.e. its a universal "Focus on Menu" key) from there I can use the arrow keys to traverse the menu tree.

The primary use of Accelerator keys (Alt+x) is to navigate directly to user input objects (buttons, checkboxes, text boxes, etc) within a form like window (dialogue boxes and the like).

I don't make as much use of Accelerator keys as I once did: a) some applications don't have them at all, b) others have duplicates on the same window (e.g. three Alt+Gs), c) and others are incomplete - e.g. a checkbox is added with no accelerator.

But there are times when their presence comes in handy.

BR

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Why do Mac aficionados always raise this red herring.

Perhaps that with a program that runs on multiple platforms, decisions have to made to keep the interface somewhat consistent? Years back, I used a program that worked on MacOS, Windows and Linux but switching between OS was a total pain since the interface changed making all my muscle memory even worse than useless. Heck, even between Ubuntu and SUSE, the interface changed.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by Jaco

First, congrats. I am a lover of Sigil and a fanatic apostle of it. I am translating your manual into Spanish but it will take me some time (too much work in my life, as everybody. I am a professional editor).

Second, I would like to do 2 request:

a) A portable version of Sigil.
Yesterday I had an exam of HTML / CSS and I miss a portable version of Sigil to carry in a USB pendrive. I had to use Notepad++.

b) A Sigil-web-editor
I discovered that Sigil is easier to use than VisualCode for editing webs. Other good tool was BlueGriffon but... it is dead (http://www.bluegriffon.org/). Why? Because Sigil has:

—A viewer on fly that shows me what I am doing just in time and I don't need to refresh it. The best for a newbie!
—Buttons for all (for making list, for inserting images, etc.)

Could be possible to adapt Sigil as a web editor? I guess the only thing it needs are two things:

—A feature 'export as...' (web page, web site or whatever, not only EPUB).
—Automatic closing of tags, for avoiding to write too much (I mean: a word automatic completion of a tag and also to put the closing tag without using ctrl+. ).

Thanks in advance and apologizes for my English (I am quite better EN-SP).

a) I think there is a portable version of Sigil someplace for Windows users. Please search for a reputable one or ask in a new thread if people can recommend where to download from.

b) In general we are not interested in supporting web development as epubs use xhtml not html. That said you should explore Sigil Plugins. There already is a FolderOut plugin that can just the files to any folder. So creating your own plugin to export or save files anyplace should be easily doable. There already is a close tag feature than can be invoked by shortcut. Plus using Sigil Clips to enter template tag pairs already does most of that to speed entry. Plus Sigil's Mend will close tags left open by following the html parsing rules. You can also use our PageEdit app for proofing and minor typo correction.

Glad to hear you like Sigil.

[KevinH]

Okay, I think I have a way for ShortCut Manager target edit to allow the Tab and Backtab keys to move focus out of that widget.

I have pushed this fix to master.

@BeckyEbook - I think that takes care of your bug list related to tab to shift focus so far.
Please let me know if you run into any new places that break tab to shift focus.

Thanks

[KevinH]

For those interested:

I just pushed a whole bunch of tab focus shift fixes for all platforms but especially macOS.

So if you have time to pull and build from master and run some tests - especially on tab to shift focus issues and on other tools and dialogs besides the MainWindow.

I am hoping we are getting close now.

And just because I could, I added support for the user to override the focus highlight color specified like you would in css with #RRGGBB format.

So

SIGIL_FOCUS_HIGHLIGHT_COLOR="#4AAAFF"

will use a mid deep blue for focus highlighting.

Of course for this to matter, you must have enabled Focus Highlights in Sigil Preferences first (Appearances -> Main UI) and restarted Sigil.

Hav Fun!

[retiredbiker]

Originally Posted by KevinH

For those interested:

I just pushed a whole bunch of tab focus shift fixes for all platforms but especially macOS.

So if you have time to pull and build from master and run some tests - especially on tab to shift focus issues and on other tools and dialogs besides the MainWindow.

Just fyi, tried to build from Master just now, and getting the following make error (POP_OS, like Ubuntu 22.04):

[BeckyEbook]

isValidColorName() works for >Qt 6.4.