Shortcuts for Find and Replace Within Find/Replace Dialog (Mac OS)

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sarcanon
Posts: 39
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:42 pm

Shortcuts for Find and Replace Within Find/Replace Dialog (Mac OS)

Post by sarcanon »

Hello.

I cannot find keyboard shortcuts for Find Next, Replace/Find, and Replace buttons within the Find/Replace dialog on Mac OS. On Windows, we have shortcuts (alt-F, alt-R, etc.), but I can find no such equivalents on Mac OS. And the Menu Shortcuts Key panel in the Preferences dialog appears to offer no options. Is there some way to add shortcuts for these buttons if they do not currently exist?

Thank you.
adrian
Posts: 2855
Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 4:01 pm

Re: Shortcuts for Find and Replace Within Find/Replace Dialog (Mac OS)

Post by adrian »

Hi,

Alt-F, Alt-R on Windows are called mnemonic shortcuts (or "Access keys"), the mnemonics get highlighted on actions and field labels when you press and hold Alt. macOS does not have native support for mnemonics and as a result Oxygen does not try to implement mnemonics on macOS. This feature is difficult to accommodate because the Alt (Option) key has a different meaning on macOS. When used in combination with alphanumerical keys, it inputs special characters, similar to AltGr on Windows. Some developers have tried to accommodate mnemonics on macOS by using the combination Ctrl+Alt+key (instead of Alt+key), but this is still troublesome as you can also define shortcut keys using these key combinations.

For the "Find" action from the dialog you can use the same shortcut as Find > Find Next. I believe it's Command-G. For the rest there are no equivalents.
Is there some way to add shortcuts for these buttons if they do not currently exist?
No, there isn't. The action names have to appear in the "Menu Shortcut Keys" list and dialog button actions are not listed.

Regards,
Adrian
Adrian Buza
<oXygen/> XML Editor, Schema Editor and XSLT Editor/Debugger
http://www.oxygenxml.com
sarcanon
Posts: 39
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:42 pm

Re: Shortcuts for Find and Replace Within Find/Replace Dialog (Mac OS)

Post by sarcanon »

Understood. Thank you for that explanation.
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