Author Topic: Keyboard shortcuts in android applications  (Read 4410 times)

vldmr

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« on: January 20, 2020, 10:34:57 am »
I feel that owners of android devices with physical keyboard need some reference for existing keyboard shortcuts in various common applications.

For example, I found that firefox does support some shortcuts common with desktop (space, shift-space, ctrl-W), but it drove me nuts that ctrl-L (keyboard focus to address bar for typing url) does not work. Then one time out of frustration I pressed ctrl and started to poke every key on keyboard - and what do you know, ctrl-T does focus in address bar (with side effect of opening new tab, which is fine).

So I thought until there will be some proper central place like some sort of wiki for this kind of knowledge sharing, I would start this thread for posting this kind of happy un-obvious findings about working shortcuts in various application.

I will be updating the first post with shortcuts published in the thread. Here we go:

Firefox mobile
  • space
      show next page
  • shift-space
      show previous page
  • ctrl-W
      close current tab
  • ctrl-T
      keyboard focus in address bar (opens new tab)
  • ctrl-F
      find on page
  • ctrl-C/ctrl-V
      copy/paste
  • shift-arrow keys
      extend text selection. Also works for starting selection in input fields. In the rest of content selection has to be started by long press.
  • tab/shift-tab
      jump to next/previous interactive element (link,input). Link can be activated by enter key.
Opera
  • Ctrl-tab
      toggle through open windows (or open Private windows if the current dsiplay is InPrivate)
  • Ctrl-n
      open a new window
  • Shift-ctrl-n
      open a new private window
Open camera
  • space or enter
      Take picture
Planet App Bar
  • Alt, then enter
      Open launcher (for those, who've hidden navigation bar)
Termux
  • alt-1 through alt-0
       F1 through F10
  • alt-space
      Escape. But better use actual escape key by setting back-key=escape in termux.properties as described here.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2020, 03:06:26 pm by vldmr »

gymbo

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2020, 06:38:16 pm »
Quote from: vldmr
I feel that owners of android devices with physical keyboard need some reference for existing keyboard shortcuts in various common applications.

For example, I found that firefox does support some shortcuts common with desktop (space, shift-space, ctrl-W), but it drove me nuts that ctrl-L (keyboard focus to address bar for typing url) does not work. Then one time out of frustration I pressed ctrl and started to poke every key on keyboard - and what do you know, ctrl-T does focus in address bar (with side effect of opening new tab, which is fine).

So I thought until there will be some proper central place like some sort of wiki for this kind of knowledge sharing, I would start this thread for posting this kind of happy un-obvious findings about working shortcuts in various application. Here we go:

Firefox mobile
  • space
      show next page
  • shift-space
      show previous page
  • ctrl-W
      close current tab
  • ctrl-T
      keyboard focus in address bar (open new tab)
Open camera
  • space or enter
      Take picture
Planet App Bar
  • Alt, then enter
      Open launcher (for those, who've hidden navigation bar)
The Vivaldi browser seems to recognize more shortcuts than Opera or Firefox in Android... (Ctrl-L for instance works)

spook

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2020, 11:32:09 pm »
Thanks vldmr - very useful! I'm also loving that the Ecs key goes back in Firefox...

TomJ

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2020, 08:37:12 am »
In Opera:
Ctrl-tab toggles through open windows (or open Private windows if the current dsiplay is InPrivate)
Ctrl-n opens a new window
Shift-ctrl-n opens a new private window

Vistaus

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2020, 02:19:40 pm »
Quote from: spook
Thanks vldmr - very useful! I'm also loving that the Ecs key goes back in Firefox...

Esc goes back throughout the entire system...

Zarhan

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2020, 09:32:43 am »
I installed Saka key addon for Firefox. It's great in the sense that it allows for almost completely keyboard-based browsing, except for one thing:

Is there some shortcut to move the focus to URL/Location bar? I cannot find one. CTRL+L or ALT+D doesn't work. Right now I have to always hit on it from touchscreen to be able to type in a link or search term.

vldmr

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2020, 02:54:37 pm »
Quote from: Zarhan
I installed Saka key addon for Firefox. It's great in the sense that it allows for almost completely keyboard-based browsing, except for one thing:

Is there some shortcut to move the focus to URL/Location bar? I cannot find one. CTRL+L or ALT+D doesn't work. Right now I have to always hit on it from touchscreen to be able to type in a link or search term.
Well, the list of shortcuts for firefox in the first message of this thread does include ctrl-t, with disclaimer that this gets you new tab as well.

gymbo

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2020, 03:38:12 pm »
Quote from: vldmr
Quote from: Zarhan
I installed Saka key addon for Firefox. It's great in the sense that it allows for almost completely keyboard-based browsing, except for one thing:

Is there some shortcut to move the focus to URL/Location bar? I cannot find one. CTRL+L or ALT+D doesn't work. Right now I have to always hit on it from touchscreen to be able to type in a link or search term.
Well, the list of shortcuts for firefox in the first message of this thread does include ctrl-t, with disclaimer that this gets you new tab as well.
Well, Opera has a ctrl-t function as well, but doesn't focus the  URL/location bar... Oddly Vivaldi doesn't focus on the URL/location bar either when pressing ctrl-t, but has a functioning ctrl-l... (So you need to press ctrl-t and then ctrl-l to be able to do something useful on a new tab in Vivaldi. But you do get to the URL/location bar in the CURRENT tab by simply pressing ctrl-l...)

And as I posted somewhere else on this forum as well: Vivaldi gives you direct access to tab 1-9 (or 10) with ctrl-(1-9/0)...

Zarhan

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« Reply #8 on: February 15, 2020, 03:34:00 pm »
Quote from: vldmr
Well, the list of shortcuts for firefox in the first message of this thread does include ctrl-t, with disclaimer that this gets you new tab as well.

Yes, but what if I don't want to create a new tab...

As a workaround I guess I could create a new tab, type my URL in, navigate to previous tab (Q with Saka by default), and close it with ctrl+w.

vldmr

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2020, 10:35:55 pm »
Quote from: vldmr
  • alt-1 through alt-0

   F1 through F10
I was using vim under termux today with plugins/setup from my x86 box, and was unpleasantly surprised with function keys (alt-number) not working. They do work in the same session in other programs, such as mc. Anyone has any opinion - why vim is different? Thanks

TomJ

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Keyboard shortcuts in android applications
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2020, 06:19:14 am »
Quote from: Zarhan
Quote from: vldmr
Well, the list of shortcuts for firefox in the first message of this thread does include ctrl-t, with disclaimer that this gets you new tab as well.

Yes, but what if I don't want to create a new tab...

As a workaround I guess I could create a new tab, type my URL in, navigate to previous tab (Q with Saka by default), and close it with ctrl+w.

Shift-tab a few times works in Chrome.