Should it be Possible to Tab Between Fields in the Fields Panel

[Hangman]

It is not possible to tab between fields in the Fields Panel. Hitting the Tab key moves focus to the text frame, if selected, or does nothing if no text frame is selected.

Bearing in mind that adding or editing text fields in the Fields Panel doesn't add the Field to a text frame, should the default behaviour not mirror that of other panels where hitting the Tab key takes you to the next editable text field in the respective panel?

Currently, you also have to click any editable text entry box twice in the Fields Panel to make it editable, once to select it and a second time to edit it.

Expected Behaviour

• Double-click a Field Label to add it to a text frame - which it does.
• Single-click a Field text entry box to give it focus allowing for edits or additions to be made - currently requires two clicks
• Tab or Shift-Tab to select the next/previous Field Panel text entry box allowing for edits or additions to be made - currently not possible

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Hangman said:

should the default behaviour not mirror that of other panels where hitting the Tab key takes you to the next editable text field in the respective panel?

In fact, on MacOS there was a massive regression in Affinity v2 turning many input fields non-tab-able which were tab-able in v1. It also affects input fields in the context toolbar or in the Preferences/Settings panels.

This should be a bug report, not necessarily an "Affinity on Desktop Question".  

[Hangman]

16 minutes ago, loukash said:

In fact, on MacOS there was a massive regression in Affinity v2 turning many input fields non-tab-able which were tab-able in v1. It also affects input fields in the context toolbar or in the Preferences/Settings panels.

Thanks for the feedback... I really initially asked the question here because (to me) the Fields Panel is slightly different and I wanted to confirm the 'by design' behaviour before raising this as a bug, i.e., should the text entry fields in the Fields Panel actually be tabbable based on the requirement of having to click them twice to edit them...

With regard to other input fields, generally, I'm finding tabbing in the context toolbar works as expected though it makes a big difference simply disabling 'Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls' in the Keyboard Shortcuts Settings... Do you have a few examples where this isn't working for you?

Looking at the Preferences/Settings there are actually very few areas where there are tabbable fields but some of those that 'should be' suffer from a long-standing bug where hitting the tab key simply moves the cursor so it sits after the first number, so e.g., if the field shows 123.456 and you click in the field then hit tab, the cursor ends up after the number 1.

This issue also affects many other fields when you want to manually edit them, e.g., the Transform Panel. If you click at the end of any value, say after the 6 in 123.456 with a view to using the backspace key to change the value to 123.457, the first time you do this it equally moves the cursor so it then appears after the 1...

[loukash]

38 minutes ago, Hangman said:

(to me) the Fields Panel is slightly different

Simply for accessibility reasons, every input field anywhere in the UI should be "tabable", no matter what.
When it's non-tabable "by design", then this "design" is simply wrong, be it "by decision" or "by bug".

51 minutes ago, Hangman said:

I'm finding tabbing in the context toolbar works as expected though it makes a big difference simply disabling 'Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls' in the Keyboard Shortcuts Settings

Aaaah! Thanks, now I understand the difference between v1 and v2.  
I have "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" always on.
So I just noticed that in v2 context toolbar, there are apparently some "ghost objects" e.g. between the Crop tool input fields, meaning with the accessibility mode "on" (fn-ctrl-F7), I then need to press the Tab key twice to get focus of the 2nd field.
Alright, so that "fixes" the issue for now.

Still, given that there's nothing usable between those two Crop input fields that could be modified when tabbing to it, I still consider this a regressive bug.
Also, while it's possible to tab to pop-up menus in the context toolbar (e.g. Overlay in the Crop tool), there's no way to activate and modify them via keyboard. Again a massive accessibility issue.

1 hour ago, Hangman said:

Looking at the Preferences/Settings there are actually very few areas where there are tabbable fields

I had particularly User Interface → Decimal Places in mind. They were tabable in v1, not so in v2. Occasionally I need to change their values from 6 to less, due to other (related?) input field bugs elsewhere in the UI. Changing all 10 while having to point and click is a p.i.t.a.

1 hour ago, Hangman said:

This issue also affects many other fields when you want to manually edit them, e.g., the Transform Panel. If you click at the end of any value, say after the 6 in 123.456 with a view to using the backspace key to change the value to 123.457, the first time you do this it equally moves the cursor so it then appears after the 1...

Hm… I'm not sure I understand what you mean. The Transform panel seems to be the one which usually works for me pretty well. I can tab back and forth between the six fields, I can option–Enter to change the focus from the field bounds to the field content, then I can tab out after changing the value.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, loukash said:

I had particularly User Interface → Decimal Places in mind. They were tabable in v1, not so in v2. Occasionally I need to change their values from 6 to less, due to other (related?) input field bugs elsewhere in the UI. Changing all 10 while having to point and click is a p.i.t.a.

For that you should be able to use the scroll wheel hover pointer over field method to change the values if you have a mouse with a scroll wheel. It also works with the Option or Shift key to change the increment/decrement amount, so much less of a PITA than clicking & typing.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

For that you should be able to use the scroll wheel hover pointer over field method

Are you talking about Settings → User Interface → Decimal Places? That doesn't work with trackpad scrolling or modifiers whatsoever, and never did.

[R C-R]

10 minutes ago, loukash said:

Are you talking about Settings → User Interface → Decimal Places? That doesn't work with trackpad scrolling or modifiers whatsoever, and never did.

Yes, I am talking about  Settings → User Interface → Decimal Places. It works with a mouse scroll wheel or equivalent (like the scroll ring on my Kensington trackball) but I do not use a trackpad. So I just tested with my seldom used Apple Magic Trackpad 2 & you are right. It does not work with that device.

So I guess there is no exact equivalent for the scroll wheel function on trackpads?

[loukash]

Just now, R C-R said:

It works with a mouse scroll wheel or equivalent

Voluntarily, I haven't used a mouse with scroll wheel literally in decades…  (I think we've talked about that just recently in another thread about pen tablets)

[R C-R]

29 minutes ago, loukash said:

Voluntarily, I haven't used a mouse with scroll wheel literally in decades… 

Much like I have avoided using trackpads as much as possible because I find them too difficult to use, apparently due to some weird physiological quirk that makes it difficult for them to sense my finger positions accurately. In an Apple Store I demonstrated the problem to a 'Genius' & even when they held my finger to show me how the gestures should work they finally had to agree that for me it was not working as designed.

To a thankfully much lesser extent, I have the same problem with my iPhone & iPad.

[Old Bruce]

2 minutes ago, R C-R said:

... I have avoided using trackpads as much as possible because I find them too difficult to use, apparently due to some weird physiological quirk that makes it difficult for them to sense my finger positions accurately. ...

I think my sister has the same problem. A plus, or minus, of this quirk is that fingerprint readers might not work for you.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I think my sister has the same problem. A plus, or minus, of this quirk is that fingerprint readers might not work for you.

Anything that depends on touch sensitivity is potentially hard for me to use, but thankfully, the fingerprint reader on my old iPad used to unlock it usually works fine.