Confirm an Operation With Numpad Enter

[Mr. Doodlezz]

Hey all,

Is there any way to recognise/use the enter key on the numeric keypad as a »regular« enter key? I can't get it mapped as I don't even know where I would set it under the shortcuts. But I would find it incredibly more intuitive this way than having to reach across half the keyboard afterwards to confirm (or alternatively use the mouse to find the appropriate button to confirm) after entering values in a transform process. 

I noticed this especially during the cropping process with the cropping tool in Photo. I would like to confirm the process, but the numeric keypad enter key is not assigned at all and only gets the error tone.

Can someone point me in the right direction on how to set this up, if that's even possible?
And if not: well, why hasn't that been an option for a long time? I couldn't be the only one who was bothered by this, could I? 😅

Cheers!

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Mr. Doodlezz said:

how to set this up, if that's even possible?

The Apply button only reacts to the Return key.

On Mac you could remap the NumPad Enter to Return by using Karabiner: karabiner-elements.pqrs.org
But that's a global change, even though you can save Karabiner "profiles" and switch them as you see fit. 

(Working exclusively with MacBooks since 15 years, I've actually done the opposite when Apple discontinued the PowerBook G4 type of keyboard which featured a sort of slightly "extended" keyboard layout: my Enter key is now mapped to the Right Option key, i.e. the same postion as it used to be on PowerBooks. Can't do without…)

1 hour ago, Mr. Doodlezz said:

why hasn't that been an option for a long time? I couldn't be the only one who was bothered by this, could I?

These Apply buttons are – like a lot of Affinity UI elements – a p.i.t.a.…

[Mr. Doodlezz]

On 1/31/2023 at 4:54 PM, loukash said:

The Apply button only reacts to the Return key.

On Mac you could remap the NumPad Enter to Return by using Karabiner: karabiner-elements.pqrs.org
But that's a global change, even though you can save Karabiner "profiles" and switch them as you see fit. 

(Working exclusively with MacBooks since 15 years, I've actually done the opposite when Apple discontinued the PowerBook G4 type of keyboard which featured a sort of slightly "extended" keyboard layout: my Enter key is now mapped to the Right Option key, i.e. the same postion as it used to be on PowerBooks. Can't do without…)

These Apply buttons are – like a lot of Affinity UI elements – a p.i.t.a.…

But shouldn't it be a simple task to perform a search and replace operation across all codes, adding the numpad enter key as a second alternative – or better still, leaving it up to users to decide which universal key can be used instead? After all, this is also possible with X other operations, tools and functions to set up yourself.

I'm sure it won't be that easy, but still … hm.

[fde101]

The two keys are distinct on the Mac, and many apps do treat them differently.

In many word processors, for example, the return key breaks a paragraph, while the enter key inserts a line break within a paragraph (ex. if you have a bulleted paragraph, it goes to the next line without adding a new bullet).

In the FileMaker Pro database, the return key adds a paragraph within a text field, while the enter key commits changes to the record being created/edited.

I don't think that globally remapping that key across all applications is a good idea, but I do agree that for entering numeric values in fields such as in the transform panel, it would be good to accept that as committing the values.

If you do not use it for anything else within the Affinity products, you could use a macro utility such as Keyboard Maestro and set up a macro that applies just to the apps of interest, which triggers upon pressing the enter key and sends return to the app instead.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, fde101 said:

you could use a macro utility such as Keyboard Maestro and set up a macro that applies just to the apps of interest, which triggers upon pressing the enter key and sends return to the app instead

That won't always work as expected. Been there tried that, particularly with the dreaded [ ] keys not present on many a keyboard layout. Didn't work.