Bug 75671

Summary:	Better support for keyboard navigation
Product:	[Unmaintained] kmail	Reporter:	Olivier Fisette <olivier.fisette>
Component:	keys and menus	Assignee:	kdepim bugs <kdepim-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Severity:	minor	CC:	a.gungl, jtamate, kdebugs, webmaster
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	triaged
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	unspecified
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Olivier Fisette 2004-02-20 03:24:24 UTC

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.2.0)

In KMail, the keyboard shortcuts are not always obvious from inside the interface, and the real shortcuts don't always correspond to those specified in the documentation.

For instance, Previous folder (Ctrl+Left) and Next folder (Ctrl+Right) commands are not listed in the Go menu, so the user has to open the documentation to check those (and if they were modified, there is no way to tell without opening the shortcuts editor). Add next message to selection (Shift+Right) and Add previous message to selection (Shift+Left) should be listed in the Edit menu. It should also be possible to modify the keyboard shortcuts for these last two commands (they are not currently listed in the shortcut editor). 

Also, when moving from folder to folder using Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right, the documentation says to use Ctrl+Space to enter the folder. In my setup, pressing any key (including only Ctrl, Enter, and alphanumeric keys not associated to shortcuts) enters the folder. Only one (configurable) hotkey should do this.

Finally, the Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down shortcuts (to enter the previous or the next folder) aren't documented anywhere.

I think the Go and Edit menus should be extended to make all these shortcuts more obvious and configurable.

Comment 1 Andreas Gungl 2004-02-20 09:08:52 UTC

Olivier, thank you for your detailed report. Sometimes these small usablitity things tend to get out of scope of the developers, It's good that you gave us a reminder.

Comment 2 Rob Kaper 2004-03-04 02:43:01 UTC

Please also use a KAction for "Read Message" so I can assign a keyboard shortcut to it. Quite important because without it, KMail is unusable without mouse with the preview pane disabled.

(and I've got too many friends with RSI symptoms to call this "minor", btw)

Comment 3 marco 2004-12-21 12:54:37 UTC

good hint to use KAction, also for keyboard prefered users. The "[Oo]" - key or in combination with "Ctrl" (like normally used for open (intuitiv usability)) could be an idea?

Comment 4 Jaime Torres 2008-09-09 18:48:09 UTC

In 1.10.1, the default next folder key (Ctrl++) and previous folder key (Ctrl+-) only change the window title using the folder name, but the folder selection is not changed.
Also, the read message key seems to be Enter.

Comment 5 Laurent Montel 2015-04-12 10:23:30 UTC

Thank you for taking the time to file a bug report.

KMail2 was released in 2011, and the entire code base went through significant changes. We are currently in the process of porting to Qt5 and KF5. It is unlikely that these bugs are still valid in KMail2.

We welcome you to try out KMail 2 with the KDE 4.14 release and give your feedback.

Comment 6 tony den haan 2016-09-29 12:24:07 UTC

it's a lot easier to configure your own now, i'm happy :)