Trivial quality-of-life feature request

Hate to be so consistently demanding here, but my subscription did just autorenew :slight_smile:

I’m spending more time linking in the outliner than I ever did before; I suddenly have found it a great way to link note rewrites (and Duet display on my iPad is giving me a less constrained workspace).

I pick a note on and tap ⌘⇧L to invoke the link (parking space) popup. I can start typing the target name immediately as the text entry box is selected, and it whittles down the autocompletion candidates as I go, which is great. I press return to set a target, and a new popup appears, promting me to describe and create the link (with a default of *untitled). However, in this popup the text box isn’t automatically selected.

Would it be possible to make the text box autoselect so a user could just start typing? And even better - could some of the magic autocompletion be implemented in this text box, with a press of ‘return’ invoking the ‘Create Link’ button? It’s so nearly perfect being able to link entirely from the keyboard (I was trying to drag links from two windows on the same document across two screens, which Tinderbox - understandably - didn’t even want to attempt).

Experimenting, I find this works (testing in v9.5.1):

  • I pick a note on and tap ⌘⇧L to invoke the link (parking space) popup.
  • I can start typing the target name immediately as the text entry box is selected, and it whittles down the autocompletion candidates as I go, which is great. I press return to set a target
  • A new popup appears, press Tab and the link type box appears. I type the desired link type
  • I press Return and the link is completed

So, the process is completable keyboard-only. I don’t think that invalidated the suggestion that the Create link pop-over open with focus already set in the link type box.

Interestingly, if when the Create Link pop-over opens and I hit Return (e.g. because the displayed choices are correct) the link is made but the pop-over remains on screen and can’t be cancelled from the keyboard (Escape ought to work here?).

Two other aspects of this dialog are also keyboard inaccessible: the button altering link direction, and the pop-up list of link types. My hunch is the former is probably more used in deliberate link work that is more likely done using the trackpad/mouse. But being able to tab-select toggle between the input box and type pop-up list does seem useful. with the list selected-and-popped-open up/down arrow keys allow a type selection with Return either both closing/completing or just closing the list with another Return to complete the link (and dismissing the pop-over).

TL;DR; in v9.5.1, as long as you know the correct name of the link type you need, when the Create link pop-over opens hit Tab, type the link type and hit Return.

This was the missing step! Thanks @mwra. I’m used to tabbing to move between UI elements (particularly when prompted with an interface where one is highlighted by default) but was thrown by the difference in behaviour between the link parking UI and the subsequent link naming UI. I think having the text entry box autoselected would be less frictious.

Sure, I’ve passed more detail on the over-arching context of using this linking mathod via keyboard via another channel, so the thought is on the ideas spike somewhere. :slight_smile: