Improve shortcut for toggle sidebar

mchisolm0

The current shortcut, CMD+CTRL+S, is better than the old one as noted in this closed suggestion, but I would prefer a more accessible CMD+S.

Possible Solutions

Solution 1

Change the default keyboard shortcut to CMD+S and change "Save Webpage" to CMD+CTRL+S
Pro: Likely the easiest/fastest solution for the team to implement
Con: Changes any user workflow reliant on "Save Webpage"

Solution 2

Add customizable keyboard shortcuts
Pros: Also adds a new feature and keeps existing workflows functioning
Cons: Takes more time for the team to implement and an additional feature to maintain

In solution 1, the user would simply use the keyboard shortcut in the same way the current shortcut is use; press CMD+CTRL+S to toggle the sidebar. This is the same as the Arc browser.

In solution 2, the user would be able to change the keyboard shortcuts from their default values. This is how I get the feature working in Zen browser.

jcf

This would be a significant deviation from a lot of other apps where <kbd>Cmd+s</kbd> means save and <kbd>Cmd-Ctrl-s</kbd> toggles a sidebar.

Safari, Chrome, Mail, and many others adopt this convention. My vote would be for consistent defaults throughout my operating system.

Anyone wanting to remap these shortcuts can do so on their own machines using their OS or programs like BetterTouchTool.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp2271/mac

Yannick

Hey @mchisolm0 ,

I agree with @jcf .
However, please continue to share your opinions with us!

mchisolm0

Hi all,
I do understand it would be a significant deviation; I am in no way meaning to suggest the team must do that, just wanting to share a pain point I have as a user to prompt discussion.

I have tried the MacOS system level change before. I just tried it again to verify it does not currently work.

You also have to rebind CMD+S for save so "Save Page..." (with the dots) is a different keyboard shortcut. Completely achievable, and I did that.
Once I have rebound the menu item "Show Sidebar" to CMD+S, it only works one time because closing it is actually the menu item "Hide Sidebar". You cannot have two app keyboard shortcuts with the same binding to different menu items.

Could we instead change this request to "Change the menu item wording to 'Toggle Sidebar'" and combine these two menu items?

Or you could keep the other two and add "Toggle Sidebar" as a menu item?
Edit: Clarified a typo from "...wording the..." to "...wording to..."

eirk

mchisolm0 You also have to rebind CMD+S for save so "Save Page..."

Not sure it's necessary. I was able to bind a menu item to cmd-s without having to bind Save Page...

mchisolm0 You cannot have two app keyboard shortcuts with the same binding to different menu items.

This isn't the case for me. I was able to bind both Hide Sidebar and Show Sidebar to cmd-s and it works properly.

What macos version are you on? maybe different versions have slight differences in this behavior.

I'm on 15.3.0

mchisolm0

Okay, thank you for your patience. Apparently the I added Show Sidebar one to "All Applications" rather than Orion specifically. Maybe that was the problem?

Regardless, now that I have assigned Hide Sidebar and Show Sidebar to cmd-s, it works properly.

eirk Not sure it's necessary. I was able to bind a menu item to cmd-s without having to bind Save Page...

The problem was that I only had one of the two bound, so in the other state it would still cause cmd-s to trigger Save Page....

Final thoughts:

When we are saying cmd-s is it usually shown cmd+s? I just wanted to bring this up in case someone finds this later and is using it to troubleshoot.
Do I need to close this thread or anything?

eirk

mchisolm0
Oh, didn't know that. seems like "All Applications" was indeed the issue

Nice to know that you resolved your issue!

also:

cmd-s, cmd+s, backticks, capitalization, no difference really. I just happen to write the shortcuts that way
no, it's already been marked as "nofix" which is considered done

mchisolm0

I just came to a situation where it seems that Google Docs (specifically Google Slides) prevents me from using the cmd-s shortcut unless I click back over to the sidebar. Is that something I can fix in Orion or otherwise?

Yannick

mchisolm0 Have you applied the adjustments proposed above, or is this happening with a new profile, for example?

mchisolm0

Yannick Thank you for the replay. I just verified

the proposed changes to get cmd-s working for both Hide and Show sidebar are applied and reliably working and
The behavior of Google Docs preventing me from using cmd-s happens on both profiles I have.

To reproduce:

On Mac, create application shortcuts "Show Sidebar" and "Hide Sidebar" to cmd-s (MacOS system settings)
Open Orion
Press cmd-s a few times to verify it opens/closes the sidebar as expected
Navigate to a Google Doc or Google Slides (I when to drive.google.com and opened one of my files)
Press cmd-s and the sidebar will not respond
Click out of the Google Doc (into the sidebar), and now cmd-s works as expected
Click back into the Google Doc, and cmd-s stops working again.

I am happy to copy this into a new report if that is prefered.

eirk

mchisolm0 yeah, make a separate post for this issue

Yannick

Well, as we discussed, I think it's a bad idea to change habits by modifying a shortcut like this one. I was hoping the proposed solutions would work for you, but I'm afraid you'll have to get used to using a longer shortcut, sorry 🙁

mchisolm0

Thank you for your kindness. I apologize for the lack of clarity. By my last post on March 1, I was not requesting any further help. I am thinking the problem is actually in how Google Docs handles shortcuts, not Orion. I am happy with the solution you helped me find, I just wanted to document the trouble with Google Docs in case someone else finds this post.