Access Key Indicator
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With the new version of Vivaldi (and a few topics posted on the blog) I found out yesterday about the wonderful world of AccessKeys.
Now, if my understanding is correct, currently the only ways to know if a specific page has AccessKeys enabled or not is to either type "Show web..." in the Quick Command window or to enable the Inline Access Keys option at the Page Actions. Both are rather cumbersome and only work on a per page basis. Vivaldi also added the option to define a gesture or key combination to bring up the access key list, which is an improvement.
Neither of this, however, makes much for the discoverability of this feature, in my opinion. Sure, everybody is talking about it now, but in a week or two, once the novelty effect is over, how many people will be going through the pages they visit trying to find AccessKeys? And what is the incentive for webpages to use them if they're not discovered easily?
So I'd like to propose some sort of sign that tells you a page has at least one Access Key - at the address bar, next to the bookmark this page icon, add an icon indicating the fact (maybe an 'a' keyboard key or something similar). A bit like what happens when a page can be switched to Reader View mode or when a website has your password stored:
Clicking that icon would bring up the Access Key list. This is subtle enough (I think) for nobody to complain about it being in the way but, at the same time, "in your face" enough for you to quickly know if you should look for Access Keys or not, in case you like to use them. And, for people who don't know the feature, they might notice the icon showing up every now and then and click it just to find out what it is and find the feature by themselves...
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Actually, I'd love for this kind of interface to be used for other hidden things like "this page has an RSS feed" (like Opera had) or "click here to go to the page this page defines as its index"...
But you got to start somewhere and right now, with the AccessKeys "in the news", this might gather more attention. -
@pauloaguia Some pages would then have two icons — one for Reader View and one for Access Keys.
I assigned a shortcut to Show Webpage Access Key Shortcuts, but all it does is list the available Access Keys. Only the Page Actions button actually displays them on the page. So, I agree that some indicator is needed.
The Shift+Alt modifier on that Wikipedia page does not seem to do anything.
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@Pesala said in Access Key Indicator:
Some pages would then have two icons — one for Reader View and one for Access Keys.
Just like now some pages already have several icons. Here's an example which shows the "show passwords", "reader mode" and "bookmarks" icon, along with the page size and the address bar drop arrow to bring up the typing history:
Now that I think about it, the position of the address's bar drop arrow should probably be revised, so it's not in the middle of the rest. -
@Pesala
In the age of fullHD+ displays, a few icons don't matter. Especially if they are optional. Your argument is invalid. -
@pauloaguia It could get a bit cluttered.
Yes, the drop down arrow should always be in the same position, before the Add Bookmark Icon. Maybe worth a bug report.
I think Access Keys are so little used that it does not justify an icon in the address field. If the option in settings is enabled they should show up on any page that supports them. They could then be hidden with Page Actions, rather than being shown.
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- Not everyone uses a high resolution display
- Four or five icons is still clutter
- There is no option to disable any of them without custom mods
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@Pesala said in Access Key Indicator:
I think Access Keys are so little used that it does not justify an icon in the address field.
By that rationale, why even bother supporting them on the browser?
All I'm saying is - if someone goes through the trouble of implementing a feature, especially an obscure one that is "so little used", that feature should be easy to discover.
Case in point - the old Opera used to have an icon showing if a page had an RSS feed. When I used that browser, I would often end up subscribing a website's RSS feed simply because I landed in a page that I liked and subscribed to the feed in the hopes that I'd like other stuff they published.
Nowadays, since I can't see if a page has a feed or not, I add new feeds a lot less frequently than I used to in those days (which is not necessarily a bad thing, because I also spend less time managing them and deleting stuff that I don't find interesting after all).There is no incentive for website developers to implement access keys unless their users have an easy way to find out about their existence or unless it's for their own personal gain.
Vivaldi having some sort of indicator that such a feature exists on a page could be the game changer for this feature and make more webmasters implement them and more people migrating to Vivaldi so they could use them or even make it so other browsers implement a similar feature themselves (making the feature even more well known).Ok, my mind wandered a bit right now but I still remember when Opera using tabs was criticized by so many people who didn't like all their browsing in one window and that it was a feature that would never stick... (gosh, I feel old now )
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Anyway, the whole purpose of this request is about some sort of an Access Key indicator. How it gets implemented is left at Vivaldi's discretion (obviously).
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- Not everyone has to use this option. There are other methods to access this feature.
- You forget "for me", again. People may think different.
- For now. GUI customization is on the way.