Dropdowns in metadata fields

ElMiko · 07-16-2012, 08:41 AM

In the list thats drops down when you start typing in a metadata field, it used to be that the options cycled. That is to say, if you pressed the up arrow from the first position, you'd jump to the end; if you pressed the down arrow from the last position, you'd jump to the beginning. It appears this functionality is no longer available in 8.6. Is this on purpose? Please say no.

theducks · 07-16-2012, 09:15 AM

8.6 is a really old version... did you happen to mean "8.60"
(Calibre revisions are always TEXT, not floating point numbers)

In many cases, the building blocks (from other OSS projects) change and the behavior in Calibre changes (not always what we want).

OddCosine · 07-16-2012, 10:33 AM

What a coincidence, I came here to ask about those same controls. In the latest version, the controls behave in a very non-Windows-standard way for ComboBoxes, and it's driving me up the wall. For example, the home and end keys act on the list rather than the text field, and you can't tab out of them when the list is dropped down.

I use the system default theme, and I'm really hoping that the new calibre-style control was included in the default theme by mistake. If it's intentional, can we please have an option for standard controls?

kovidgoyal · 07-16-2012, 10:36 AM

If you want cycling use the tab key for forwards and shift+tab for backwards. I can restore cycling with the arrow keys as well, though atleast for me, Tab is a lot more natural.

kiwidude · 07-16-2012, 10:49 AM

@OddCosine - just to add it is not "theme" related. As theducks hinted at earlier Kovid completely replaced the combobox implementation with a new one in 0.8.60. This was I believe an attempt to bypass the crashing issues which a few users had reported here on the forums. As to what will or won't be changed further about it's behaviour I leave that up to Kovid

.

Other than things I reported which Kovid has fixed, my biggest behaviour difference that I have noticed is trying to rename say an author name which has incorrect casing. You have to keep hitting escape to cancel the dropdown portion to stop it "fixing" your correction.

kovidgoyal · 07-16-2012, 10:50 AM

@OddCosine: The Home and End keys will be back to normal in the next release (they were an oversight), but the behavior of the Tab key is not going to change.

OddCosine · 07-17-2012, 01:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@OddCosine: The Home and End keys will be back to normal in the next release (they were an oversight), but the behavior of the Tab key is not going to change.

Thanks in advance for the home & end key fix.

ElMiko · 07-17-2012, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

If you want cycling use the tab key for forwards and shift+tab for backwards. I can restore cycling with the arrow keys as well, though atleast for me, Tab is a lot more natural.

@ALL - Eep! Sorry for the confusion I did mean 0.8.60.

@Kovid - Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but hitting tab (or shift+tab) simply jumps the selected field one over the the right (or left). What I'm talking about is vertical navigation within a metadata field dropdown. Let me give an example.

Let's say I'm adding a book to the library by imaginary author Zora Williamson (Williamson, Zora). If I type "Will" in the Author(s) field, a dropdown menu appears with all the authors whose names start with "Will". At the end of that list is "Williamson, Zora". In the past, after typing "Will", I could hit the "Up" arrow and the list would cycle to the last entry. Now, there are only two ways to get to the bottom: hitting end, or scrolling all the way down. Since the end button requires my lifting my hand off the keyboard and putting it down again over by the numberpad, that's not a super convenient option. If, however, the behavior I'm looking to re-instate causes stability issues, I obviously completely understand.

kovidgoyal · 07-17-2012, 04:46 AM

@Elmiko: The cycling with arrow keys will be restored in the next release.

ElMiko · 07-17-2012, 05:36 AM

As always, thank you Kovid.

piper28 · 07-17-2012, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@OddCosine: The Home and End keys will be back to normal in the next release (they were an oversight), but the behavior of the Tab key is not going to change.

I for one will be very happy with that

. I just updated from a much older version, and have to admit, that was driving me nuts. Other than that, I've been pretty happy with the new look though.

07-16-2012, 08:41 AM	#1
ElMiko Addict Posts: 320 Karma: 56788 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle	Dropdowns in metadata fields In the list thats drops down when you start typing in a metadata field, it used to be that the options cycled. That is to say, if you pressed the up arrow from the first position, you'd jump to the end; if you pressed the down arrow from the last position, you'd jump to the beginning. It appears this functionality is no longer available in 8.6. Is this on purpose? Please say no.

07-16-2012, 10:36 AM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,859 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	If you want cycling use the tab key for forwards and shift+tab for backwards. I can restore cycling with the arrow keys as well, though atleast for me, Tab is a lot more natural. Last edited by kovidgoyal; 07-16-2012 at 10:43 AM.

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07-16-2012, 09:15 AM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,804 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	8.6 is a really old version... did you happen to mean "8.60" (Calibre revisions are always TEXT, not floating point numbers) In many cases, the building blocks (from other OSS projects) change and the behavior in Calibre changes (not always what we want).

07-16-2012, 10:33 AM	#3
OddCosine Connoisseur Posts: 91 Karma: 1186533 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: Kindle	What a coincidence, I came here to ask about those same controls. In the latest version, the controls behave in a very non-Windows-standard way for ComboBoxes, and it's driving me up the wall. For example, the home and end keys act on the list rather than the text field, and you can't tab out of them when the list is dropped down. I use the system default theme, and I'm really hoping that the new calibre-style control was included in the default theme by mistake. If it's intentional, can we please have an option for standard controls?

07-16-2012, 10:49 AM	#5
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,637 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@OddCosine - just to add it is not "theme" related. As theducks hinted at earlier Kovid completely replaced the combobox implementation with a new one in 0.8.60. This was I believe an attempt to bypass the crashing issues which a few users had reported here on the forums. As to what will or won't be changed further about it's behaviour I leave that up to Kovid . Other than things I reported which Kovid has fixed, my biggest behaviour difference that I have noticed is trying to rename say an author name which has incorrect casing. You have to keep hitting escape to cancel the dropdown portion to stop it "fixing" your correction.

07-16-2012, 10:50 AM	#6
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,859 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	@OddCosine: The Home and End keys will be back to normal in the next release (they were an oversight), but the behavior of the Tab key is not going to change.

07-17-2012, 04:46 AM	#9
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,859 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	@Elmiko: The cycling with arrow keys will be restored in the next release.

07-17-2012, 05:36 AM	#10
ElMiko Addict Posts: 320 Karma: 56788 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle	As always, thank you Kovid.

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