Bug 503836

Summary:	Auto-focus on media playing timeline to provide KDE with a rewind/forward media solution
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	kderocks38 <sourcework>
Component:	Media Player widget	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	cwo.kde, kde, nate
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version First Reported In:	6.3.0
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Fedora RPMs
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description kderocks38 2025-05-06 11:26:13 UTC

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open the media player widget with its shortcut
2. Click on the timeline to be focused on it

OBSERVED RESULT
Timeline is not directly focused, you need to click on it manually and then only you are able to use the right and left arrow to move backward forward

EXPECTED RESULT
Timeline to be directly focused so that it becomes easy in KDE to rewind or fast forward a song with the right/left arrows as there is no global shortcut for this.

Use examples : translators making transcripts of audio files, persons doing music partitions, etc.

Comment 1 Kai Uwe Broulik 2025-05-06 11:42:56 UTC

You can also press J/K to seek backward/forward anytime.

The left/right arrow keys are only globally active when the tab bar is active, wonder why it’s not enabled regardless of focus.

Comment 2 kderocks38 2025-05-06 12:51:05 UTC

(In reply to Kai Uwe Broulik from comment #1)
> You can also press J/K to seek backward/forward anytime.
> 
> The left/right arrow keys are only globally active when the tab bar is
> active, wonder why it’s not enabled regardless of focus.

Thanks a lot Kai.
I will use J/K for the moment. I would close this if the info was available in the widget or in its options but I still think left and right arrows is the most obvious for people.

Comment 3 Bug Janitor Service 2025-05-06 20:33:01 UTC

A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/5451

Comment 4 Nate Graham 2025-05-08 18:21:57 UTC

https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/5451 was merged which implements this for the case of only one player. When there's more than one player (e.g. one playing, and one paused but still running) then keyboard focus will be on the tab bar instead, as it's generally a good idea for focus to to top-to-bottom.

I think that's as good as we can do here, and would recommend using the J and L keys for your desired purpose. We'll work on exposing those more prominently in the UI so more people learn about them.

Comment 5 kderocks38 2025-05-08 20:50:50 UTC

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #4)
> https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/5451 was
> merged which implements this for the case of only one player. When there's
> more than one player (e.g. one playing, and one paused but still running)
> then keyboard focus will be on the tab bar instead, as it's generally a good
> idea for focus to to top-to-bottom.
> 
> I think that's as good as we can do here, and would recommend using the J
> and L keys for your desired purpose. We'll work on exposing those more
> prominently in the UI so more people learn about them.

ok Jennifer Lopez will help me remember it :) Thanks a lot to the dev for the implementation, autofocus on the slider with 1 player is enough when doing translation work.