Add keyboard shortcuts to Filer (like QuickFiler?)

Add QuickFiler type of facilities to the Filer, so QuickFiler (which is a rather nasty bodge, although it does work well) is no longer required.

QuickFiler is a utility which allows you to use many standard keyboard shortcut keys in conjunction with the RISC OS Filer, which currently is totally mouse and menu-driven.

A simple click in a Filer display would enables it to gain the input focus. Thereafter there are many keyboard shortcuts available for Filer facilities which would normally require a menu traversal. The code to do this is probably fairly simple – QuickFiler is more complicated because it needs to do things through filters, and check it is patching the correct version of the filer.

Discussion will no doubt be required on at least …

- which shortcuts to include. I would suggest starting from the QF ones.

- whether to make optional, controlled by Configuration.

- whether to mimic RISC OS 6, rather than QuickFiler.

The first step would be to list the shortcuts provided in RISC OS 6 alongside the shortcuts provided in QuickFiler. Then we can consider which to use on a case by case basis.

I can easily supply the normal QuickFiler ones – see below.

Can anyone else supply the RO6 ones?

!QuickFiler v2.19   !Help file  
Generated for Filer v2.13 RO v5.13

     Select all ........... Ctrl-A
     Clear selection ...... Ctrl-Z
     New directory ........ Ctrl-D
     New directory ........ Ins
     Open parent .......... Ctrl-B
     Set directory ........ Tab

     Large icons .......... F2
     Small icons .......... F3
     Full info ............ F4
     Sort by name ......... Shift-F1
     Sort by type ......... Shift-F2
     Sort by size ......... Shift-F3
     Sort by date ......... Shift-F4

     Copy ................. Ctrl-C
     Rename ............... Ctrl-R
     Delete ............... Ctrl-X
     Delete ............... Del
     Count ................ Ctrl-N
     Help ................. Ctrl-H
     Help ................. F1
     Info ................. Ctrl-I
     Find ................. Ctrl-F
     Set type ............. Ctrl-T
     Stamp ................ Ctrl-S

     Protected ............ Ctrl-F5
     Unprotected .......... Ctrl-F6
     Public ............... Ctrl-F7
     Private .............. Ctrl-F8
     Access details ....... Ctrl-E

     Confirm all .......... F5
     Confirm all Off ...... Shift-F5
     Verbose .............. F6
     Verbose Off .......... Shift-F6
     Force ................ F7
     Force Off ............ Shift-F7
     Newer ................ F8
     Newer Off ............ Shift-F8
     Confirm deletes ...... F9
     Confirm deletes Off .. Shift-F9
     Faster ............... F10
     Faster Off ........... Shift-F10

     Run .................. Return
     Close Window ......... Ctrl-F2
     Scroll Up ............ Up
     Scroll to Top ........ Ctrl-Up
     Scroll to Top ........ Home
     Scroll Up Small ...... Ctrl-Shift-Up
     Scroll Down .......... Dn
     Scroll to Bottom ..... Ctrl-Dn
     Scroll to Bottom ..... End
     Scroll Down Small .... Ctrl-Shift-Dn
     Page Up .............. PgUp
     Page Down ............ PgDn
     Refresh Filer ........ F11

RISC OS 6.14 (01 Dec 2008) Tutorials/UserGuide/guide/chap07.htm#L0099

Keyboard shortcuts

As the RO6 Filer can now display column layout or the normal row layout, some keyboard shortcuts have alternate behaviour depending on which view layout is active. Such shortcuts are distinguished by use of “or”.

^Insert.... Toggle viewer retention behaviour (see -RetainViewer)
Tab........ Move the focus to the next viewer
Shift-Tab.. Move the focus to the previous viewer
^.......... Open current viewers parent with focus
$.......... Open current viewers root with focus
Page Up.... Move one window full up, or one window full right
Page Down.. Move one window full down, or one window full left
Up......... Move the highlight up one
Down....... Move the highlight down one
Left....... Move the highlight left one
Right...... Move the highlight right one
^Up........ Move the highlight to the first object, or top of column
^Down...... Move the highlight to the last object, or bottom of column
^Left...... Move the highlight to the left of row, or to the first object
^Right..... Move the highlight to the right of row, or to the last object

For use in building a selection of files:

^[Shift]-A...... Select all objects in the current viewer
^[Shift]-Z...... Clear the current selection
^[Shift]-Space.. Toggle the selection of the highlight object
^Shift-Tab...... Swap active selection end points
^Shift-Left..... Toggle select left one object, or left up one column
^Shift-Right.... Toggle select right one object, or right down one column
^Shift-Up....... Toggle select left up one row, or up one object
^Shift-Down..... Toggle select right down one row, or down one object

For actions previously only possible with the mouse and menus:

Escape........ Cancel drag or key selection
Return........ Perform the 'run' action on selected object(s) in current viewer, either running files or opening directories
Shift-Return.. Perform alternate action on the selected object(s):
               Load files into a text editor
               Close open directories, or open a new directory
               Open applications
Insert........ Create a new directory (path) in the current viewer
Delete........ Delete selected object(s) after confirmation
Shift-Delete.. Delete selected object(s)
^T............ Timestamp selected object(s) in current viewer
F1............ Load help for selected application (if available)
Shift-F1...... Info on selected object
F2............ Force selected image(s) to be [re-]thumbnailed (Thumbnail mode only).
^F2........... Close the current viewer
F3............ Copy selected object in current viewer
Shift-F3...... Rename selected object(s)
^F3........... Set type of selected object(s)
^Shift-F3..... Set access for selected object(s)
F4............ Find object within selected object(s) in current viewer
F5............ Refresh the current viewer
F6............ Cycle through sort orders for the current viewer
Shift-F6...... Reverse cycle through sort orders
^F6........... Toggle reverse sort order
F7............ Cycle through display formats for the current viewer
Shift-F7...... Reverse cycle through display formats
^F7........... Toggle display orientation
F10........... Count selected object(s) in current viewer
F11........... Set work directory to the current viewer
^F11.......... Share selected directory

Alphanumeric keys: These move the highlight through the list as the name is progressively typed. The break for typing the name of the object is 1 second, with any keys pressed after this initiating a new search.

Notes

It is strongly recommended that Recyclone is used with key shortcuts, although some limited protection has been added to the Delete key action.

• Delete will always prompt for confirmation, regardless of configuration.
• Shift-Delete will only ask for confirmation if configured to do so.
• ^Shift-Delete does nothing, intentionally.

Refresh (F5) now also re-evaluates -AutoThumb ratio (if enabled) forcing images which were previously too big to be re-tried (for thumbnail display).

For ‘sort by name’ search as you type will move to the nearest object. For other sort types, an exact match must be found before the highlight will move. Space must be pressed twice if you wish to search for an object name that starts with a Space character (not required for a Space within a name).

A sub-path can now be specified in the ‘new directory’, ‘copy as’, and ‘rename’ writables. If it does not already exist, a sub-path is created (relative to the viewer directory), with an error being raised if any part already exists but is not a directory.

I object to QuickFiler being called a nasty bodge. ;-)