Collection of questions about keyboard reference

small correction: Of course Home, End etc. are available twice. D'oh... Forget about 4., please!

Adding some more to this collection (sorry, it's getting large...)
If approved, I don't mind making the updates myself, but I'd like someone to check if I didn't misunderstand first.

11. --------------
This document describes the default keyboard and mouse shortcuts of Inkscape, corresponding to the share/keys/default.xml file in Inkscape distribution. Most (but not all) of these keys are configurable by the user; see the default.xml file for details on how to do that.

- This could be the place to mention the new shortcut editor, instead of the xml file.

12. ---------------
Scaling is uniform around the center, so that the size increment applies to the larger of the two dimensions.

- What does this mean? Dimensions of what?

13. ---------------
Each key press or wheel click selects the nearest unselected node or deselects the farthest selected node.

- A 'wheel click' (=middle button click) doesn't work, but a 'wheel move' / turn, or similar...

14. ---------------
This restricts movement to the directions of the node's handles, their continuations and perpendiculars (total 8 snaps).

The default angle step is 15 degrees. This also snaps to the handle's original angle, its continuation and perpendiculars.

- What's the difference between a handle's direction and the direction of its continuation?
Does this mean the direction opposite to the handle or its "counter direction"? I understand 'continuation' to mean elongation in the direction of the handle, not the opposite direction (which is how it works). Maybe make this clearer by replacing 'continuation' by 'counter direction'?

15. ---------------
mouse drag+Space drop a copy (in Move nodes (mouse) section)

When dragging nodes with mouse, each Space leaves a copy of the selected object.
You can press and hold Space while dragging for a nice "trail."

- Doesn't work for me when editing paths. Delete? Or should this actually work?

16. ---------------
If mouse is over a node, that node becomes the axis of scaling; otherwise it scales around geometric center of selected nodes.

If mouse is over a node, that node becomes the axis of rotation; otherwise it rotates around geometric center of selected nodes.

axis -> center?

17. ---------------
 Alt +Del delete segment between two non-endpoint nodes

- For me, Del alone works, Alt+Del does nothing. Not sure why non-endpoint?

18. ---------------
This adds new node(s) in the middle(s) of selected segment(s), so it requires that more than two adjacent nodes be selected.

- This works great with only two adjacent nodes.

19. ---------------
Ctrl +mouse drag act temporarily switching to shrink mode
Shift + Ctrl +mouse drag act temporarily switching to grow mode

- This sounds strange to me. Maybe 'temporarily switch to shrink mode'?

20. ---------------
set the measure base to the cursor

- seems to only apply to the angle, not to distances (wouldn't make a lot of sense, too)
maybe 'set cursor position to be at 0°' or 'set base of angle measurement to cursor position' ?

21. ---------------
This restricts rectangle so its height/width ratio is a whole number.

This restricts ellipse so its height/width ratio is a whole number.

- 1: or :1 , not whole number. + inverse, + golden ratio ;)
Maybe: This restricts width/height ratio or its inverse to a whole number or the golden ratio. ?
Appears several times in document.

22. ---------------
If a path is selected, Shift+clicking anywhere starts a new subpath instead of a new independent path.

- maybe better Shift+Drag (Shift+click works, too, but isn't mentioned above)
Info about click with Pencil tool is missing entirely (create lines), could be added.

23. ---------------
finish current line

cancel current line

erase last segment of current line

draw a calligraphic line

- as 'line' usually refers to straight lines, could this be better called 'path'?

24. ---------------
Enter, right click, or double left click finish the current line, discarding the last unfinished (red) segment.

- Double click doesn't discard the last unfinished segment for me. line -> path ?

25. ---------------
Clicking on a text object selects it; cursor is placed near the click point.

- Only selects. Double-click is needed to edit with cursor placed near double-click point.

26. ---------------
All these commands cancel current text selection, if any. Use them with Shift to extend selection instead.

- Also makes selection smaller, if used with already selected text. extend -> extend / reduce?

27. ---------------
Dragging the handle in the lower right corner of the selected flowed text changes width/height of the frame.

- There's also a handle that does the same in the upper left corner. The corner rounding handle is not mentioned.

28. ---------------
unflow text from frame

This cuts the flowed text's link to the shape/path, producing a single-line regular text object.

- also works on flow text in its own frame, not only with flow text in shapes/paths

29. ---------------
open gradient editor

Double clicking a gradient handle opens the Gradient Editor with that gradient and the clicked handle chosen in the stops list.

- not sure what this is supposed to do. If gradient tool is used, the toolbar adapts to selected stop. Nothing else is opened.

30. ---------------
This adds new stop(s) in the middle(s) of selected segment(s), so it requires that more than two adjacent handles be selected.

- also adds stops when only one or two stops are selected. Can't select a segment, only stops. handles -> stops.

31. ---------------
set eraser width to 1 / 100

- 1 / 100 could be misunderstood as fraction. / -> or. 1 / 100 appears several times in document.

32. ---------------
fill from each point same as initial point

- below, it says similar, not same, referring to neighbours, not point itself. Which is correct?

Again, sorry for the sheer amount of this, jazzynico. There's no hurry.

Regards,
 Maren

Or would you prefer this as merge request, and pick what you like?

Forget about 25, too. Behaviour is different between using text tool directly and using select tool... oops.

Work in progress.
Some questions have easy answers, some not, unfortunately, and others can be changed into bug reports.
I'm currently working in a single text file so that I can insert my comments easily. The result will be copied here when finished.

Thanks for the brainstorming session ;)

Thank you, jazzynico :) There's no hurry - I don't even have regular web access until the end of next week.

==== 1. Encoding ====
Q. What am I supposed to do with unicode symbols that appear on German PgUp/PgDown keys? (arrows) -> html entity? Or just enter them?

A. Why not using the key's full name? "Bild auf" and "Bild ab" seem good to me.
A. That said, the up and down arrows should work directly (UTF-8 characters). As long as the page is UTF-8 encoded, it should work as expected.

==== 2. Encoding ====
Q. How do I mark unbreakable spaces in the above abbreviation in poedit? Html entity ( )?

A. You can write an unbreakable space in an other application (with Libre Office Writer, use Shift+Ctrl+Space) and copy the character to the translation (works well in poedit).
A. That's what I use for the French translation, and it works like a charm.

==== 3. Keyboard layout ====
Q. How should I mark keys that do not work for me (bug? Linux?) / in German version / with some keyboard settings (dead keys)?
Q. Should we add a note that depending on the keyboard some shortcuts may not work, but that most of them can be set in the shortcut editor?

A. Handling shortcuts with different keyboards is very complicated. German and French keyboards are not that for from the US qwerty one. At least we use Latin characters...
A. Yes, adding a note it a very good idea.

Q. I made a list of those I encountered up to now:
Q. ` for previous zoom: dead key
Q. Del for delete guide: doesn't do anything
Q. Shift +\ for toggling guides: need to press AltGr, too, to get the backslash, doesn't work
Q. Ctrl+F11 for toggling toolbars/fullscreen: doesn't do anything
Q. Alt+D for cloning: opens the File menu (Datei)
Q. Alt+B for creating bitmap copy: opens Edit menu (Bearbeiten)
Q. Ctrl+^ (XOR): dead key
Q. Alt+( or ): same as Alt+Shift+( or ), because I need to press Shift to get the parenthesis

A. One solution could be to provide a different default shortcut file for each language or layout (or at least for those that need different shortcuts). But it would sure be quite complex to manage if there are too many keys files, and thus I'm not sure it's a very good idea...
A. Another possibility, maybe easier to implement and manage, could be to use custom keys files (inkscape/keys/default.xml -or a different file- in the user's config folder) with the required changes only. The layout could be selected in the shortcut preferences page directly.
A. To be investigated...

==== 4. Intro ====
Q. Suggestions (English original first, then my notes)
Q. Unless noted otherwise, keypad keys (such as arrows, Home, End, +, -, digits) are supposed to work the same as corresponding regular keys. If you have a new shortcut idea, please contact the developers (by writing to the <a href=\"http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel\">devel mailing list</a> or by <a href=\"https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape\">submitting an RFE</a>).
Q. Home, End, arrows,... are only available once on my keyboard. There are no 'corresponding regular keys'. I think this might be supposed to only refer to numpad keys?

A. Not sure. These keys have a keypad and a "normal" version. And according to https://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/plain/gdk/gdkkeysyms.h., they can be considered differently when it comes to handle key events.

Q. Will need update when mailing lists are moved ;)

A. Of course

Q. Is the abbreviation RFE known to everyone? Could be replaced by feature request.

A. Yes, indeed.

==== 5. Controls bar ====
Q. Controls bar. Should this be 'Tool controls bar'?

A. That's how it's called in the documentation, so yes "Tool controls bar" is better.

==== 6. Canvas > Guides, grids, snapping ====
"toggle guides and snapping to guides"
"When you create a new guide by dragging off the ruler, guide visibility and snapping are turned on."

Q. Doesn't appear to be correct (anymore?). If guide snapping was turned off, it is not activated by this. Snapping in general is not activated when creating a new guide. Only guides are made visible. This seems to be completely independent from snapping settings.

A. Confirmed. Probably true in the past (<0.47) when snapping was configured from the document preferences and not from the snapping bar.

==== 7. Canvas > Guides, grids, snapping ====
"toggle grids and snapping to grids."
"If you want to see the grids but not snap to them, use the global snapping toggle (% key)."

Q. Same as above.

A. Also confirmed.

==== 8. Object > Clipboard ====
"This applies the path effect of the copied path to the paths/shapes in current selection."

Q. Does not work for shapes, need to turn them to path first.

A. Confirmed. "shapes" should be removed from the text.
A. Or it can also be considered a bug... After all, why not convert the object to path automatically when pasting a path effect?
A. To be investigated (there might be a closed report asking for that kind of behavior...).

==== 9. Object > Bitmap ====
"This exports the selected object(s) (all other objects hidden) as PNG in the document's directory and imports it back."

Q. As linked image? Or embedded? (shortcut doesn't work for me - so I won't know ;) )

A. Embedded. But we've had bugs some times ago with that feature (IIRC the bitmap were linked to a temporary file, which caused loss of data).

==== 10. Selector > Move (mouse) and Pencil tool ====
Q. "This temporarily disables snapping to grid or guides when you are dragging with grid or guides on."
Q. 'This temporarily disables snapping when you are dragging with snapping activated' maybe - the functionality is not related to visibility of grid/guides

A. Confirmed. I wonder if we really need comments here?

==== 11. Intro ====
"This document describes the default keyboard and mouse shortcuts of Inkscape, corresponding to the share/keys/default.xml file in Inkscape distribution. Most (but not all) of these keys are configurable by the user; see the default.xml file for details on how to do that."

Q. This could be the place to mention the new shortcut editor, instead of the xml file.

A. Agreed.

==== 12. Selector > Scale (keyboard) and Node tool > Scale nodes ====
"Scaling is uniform around the center, so that the size increment applies to the larger of the two dimensions."

Q. What does this mean? Dimensions of what?

A. Of the selected object. If you scale an 200x400 rectangle with a zoom level of 100%, the pixel is added or removed from 400 (and half a pixel removed from 200). Maybe we could give an example to clarify the note?
A. Except that step is not 1px but 2px. To confirm there's no confusion with the < and > scaling commands, I changed the Scale by parameter (in Preferences>Behavior>Steps) to 1px, and Alt+> still scales by 2px.

==== 13. Node tool > Grow/shrink node selection ====
"Each key press or wheel click selects the nearest unselected node or deselects the farthest selected node."

Q. A 'wheel click' (=middle button click) doesn't work, but a 'wheel move' / turn, or similar...

A. Confirmed. "wheel click" should be replaced with "wheel turn".

==== 14. Node tool > Move nodes (mouse) and Node tool > Move node handle (mouse) ====
"This restricts movement to the directions of the node's handles, their continuations and perpendiculars (total 8 snaps)."
"The default angle step is 15 degrees. This also snaps to the handle's original angle, its continuation and perpendiculars."

Q. What's the difference between a handle's direction and the direction of its continuation?
Q. Does this mean the direction opposite to the handle or its "counter direction"? I understand 'continuation' to mean elongation in the direction of the handle, not the opposite direction (which is how it works). Maybe make this clearer by replacing 'continuation' by 'counter direction'?

A. Apparently yes, it means opposite direction.

==== 15. Node tool > Move nodes (mouse) ====
"mouse drag+Space drop a copy (in Move nodes (mouse) section)"
"When dragging nodes with mouse, each Space leaves a copy of the selected object."
"You can press and hold Space while dragging for a nice "trail.""

Q. Doesn't work for me when editing paths. Delete? Or should this actually work?

A. Probably a feature that used to work in the past. Bug? To be tested with 0.47 or older to be sure what removed it.

==== 16. Node tool > Scale nodes (>1 nodes selected) and Node tool > Rotate nodes (>1 nodes selected) ====
"If mouse is over a node, that node becomes the axis of scaling; otherwise it scales around geometric center of selected nodes."
"If mouse is over a node, that node becomes the axis of rotation; otherwise it rotates around geometric center of selected nodes."

Q. axis -> center?

A. No preference here.

==== 17. Node tool > Delete, create, duplicate ====
"Alt +Del delete segment between two non-endpoint nodes"

Q. For me, Del alone works, Alt+Del does nothing. Not sure why non-endpoint?

A. With Alt+Del, the path is cut in two parts. With Del, we still have one path. Works as expected on Xubuntu 15.04. If one of the nodes (or both) is an endpoint, there's no difference with the Del command.

==== 18. Node tool > Delete, create, duplicate ====
"This adds new node(s) in the middle(s) of selected segment(s), so it requires that more than two adjacent nodes be selected."

Q. This works great with only two adjacent nodes.

A. On Xubuntu 15.04, it works correctly with any segments of two adjacent nodes (including non-adjacent segments).

==== 19. Tweak tool > Operation ====
"Ctrl +mouse drag act temporarily switching to shrink mode"
"Shift + Ctrl +mouse drag act temporarily switching to grow mode"

Q. This sounds strange to me. Maybe 'temporarily switch to shrink mode'?

A. Yes.

==== 20. Measure tool ====
"set the measure base to the cursor"

Q. Seems to only apply to the angle, not to distances (wouldn't make a lot of sense, too)
Q. maybe 'set cursor position to be at 0°' or 'set base of angle measurement to cursor position' ?

A. "set base of angle measurement to cursor position" looks good.

==== 21. Rectangle tool > Draw and Ellipse tool > Draw ====
"This restricts rectangle so its height/width ratio is a whole number."
"This restricts ellipse so its height/width ratio is a whole number."

Q. - 1: or :1 , not whole number. + inverse, + golden ratio ;)
Q. Maybe: This restricts width/height ratio or its inverse to a whole number or the golden ratio. ?
Q. Appears several times in document.

A. Ok for "This restricts width/height ratio or its inverse to a whole number or the golden ratio."

==== 22. Pencil tool ====
"If a path is selected, Shift+clicking anywhere starts a new subpath instead of a new independent path."

Q. Maybe better Shift+Drag (Shift+click works, too, but isn't mentioned above)
Q. Info about click with Pencil tool is missing entirely (create lines), could be added.

A. Could be "Click -> start a straight line (finish with another click)."

==== 23. Pen (Bezier) tool > Cancel, Pen (Bezier) tool > Finish and Calligraphy tool ====
"finish current line", "cancel current line", "erase last segment of current line", "draw a calligraphic line"

Q. As 'line' usually refers to straight lines, could this be better called 'path'?

A. Yes, we're talking about paths here.

==== 24. Pen (Bezier) tool > Finish ====
"Enter, right click, or double left click finish the current line, discarding the last unfinished (red) segment."

Q. Double click doesn't discard the last unfinished segment for me. line -> path ?

A. Confirmed, and yes.

==== 25. Text tool > Select/create ====
"Clicking on a text object selects it; cursor is placed near the click point."

Q. Only selects. Double-click is needed to edit with cursor placed near double-click point.
Q. Forget about 25, too. Behaviour is different between using text tool directly and using select tool... oops.

A. 25 forgotten ;)

==== 26. Text tool > Navigate in text ====
"All these commands cancel current text selection, if any. Use them with Shift to extend selection instead."

Q. Also makes selection smaller, if used with already selected text. extend -> extend / reduce?

A. Yes, "Use them with Shift to extend or reduce selection instead."

==== 27. Text tool > Flowed text (internal frame) ====
"Dragging the handle in the lower right corner of the selected flowed text changes width/height of the frame."

Q. There's also a handle that does the same in the upper left corner. The corner rounding handle is not mentioned.

A. Yes, but the upper left handle is visible only after the frame has been resized once. When creating the frame, you can only access the lower right one.
A. I guess the change triggers something in the frame's attributes that gives it the handles of an normal rectangle. Could be considered as a minor UI bug.

==== 28. Text tool > Flowed text (external frame) ====
"This cuts the flowed text's link to the shape/path, producing a single-line regular text object."

Q. Also works on flow text in its own frame, not only with flow text in shapes/paths

A. Yes, but it seems to be less precise than Text>Convert to text (and with the trunk, the text moves quite far from the original position [probably a unit bug]).
A. Since Convert to text does additional things, I'd keep Shitf+Alt+W for external frames only.

==== 29. Gradient tool > Gradient editor====
"Double clicking a gradient handle opens the Gradient Editor with that gradient and the clicked handle chosen in the stops list."

Q. Not sure what this is supposed to do. If gradient tool is used, the toolbar adapts to selected stop. Nothing else is opened.

A. The gradient editor dialog no longer exists, and we now use the gradient tool's controls bar instead (along with the F&S dialog). So we can completely remove that part.

==== 30. Gradient tool > Create/delete intermediate stops ====
"This adds new stop(s) in the middle(s) of selected segment(s), so it requires that more than two adjacent handles be selected."

Q. Also adds stops when only one or two stops are selected. Can't select a segment, only stops. handles -> stops.

A. You can add stops to the selection with Shift+Click. That said, if you have 2 or more stops selected, it adds stops in the middle of the segments, but it also works with one stop. In that case, the new stop is added in the middle of the segment that starts with the selected node.
A. What about "This adds new stop(s) in the middle(s) of selected segment(s) or, if only one stop is selected, in the middle of the segment that starts with the selected stop."?

==== 31. Eraser, Spray and Tweak tools ====
"set eraser width to 1 / 100"

Q. 1 / 100 could be misunderstood as fraction. / -> or. 1 / 100 appears several times in document.

A. "set eraser width to its minimum or maximum"?

==== 32. Paint bucket ====
"fill from each point same as initial point"

Q. Below, it says similar, not same, referring to neighbours, not point itself. Which is correct?

A. Since a threshold is always applied (except when set to 0), similar is correct.

Wow :) Thanks!

Should I update the English (and German) version with the unambiguous changes? What about the rest?

==== 1. Encoding ====
Q. What am I supposed to do with unicode symbols that appear on German PgUp/PgDown keys? (arrows) -> html entity? Or just enter them?

A. Why not using the key's full name? "Bild auf" and "Bild ab" seem good to me.

- I feared they might break the layout because of their length - and I've never seen them printed on a keyboard, but yes, of course those will work, too :)

==== 16. Node tool > Scale nodes (>1 nodes selected) and Node tool > Rotate nodes (>1 nodes selected) ====
"If mouse is over a node, that node becomes the axis of scaling; otherwise it scales around geometric center of selected nodes."
"If mouse is over a node, that node becomes the axis of rotation; otherwise it rotates around geometric center of selected nodes."

Q. axis -> center?

A. No preference here.

- I didn't make the jump from 2D to 3D... It feels a little like sticking a needle into the monitor ;) - voodoo...

==== 17. Node tool > Delete, create, duplicate ====
"Alt +Del delete segment between two non-endpoint nodes"

Q. For me, Del alone works, Alt+Del does nothing. Not sure why non-endpoint?

A. With Alt+Del, the path is cut in two parts. With Del, we still have one path. Works as expected on Xubuntu 15.04. If one of the nodes (or both) is an endpoint, there's no difference with the Del command.

- I tried setting the window manager key to 'None' (was 'Super' before), and switched keyboard layout to US, but for me Alt+Del still just doesn't do anything... I'm on Linux Mint 17.2 Xfce Edition - based on 14.04... Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?

==== 24. Pen (Bezier) tool > Finish ====
"Enter, right click, or double left click finish the current line, discarding the last unfinished (red) segment."

Q. Double click doesn't discard the last unfinished segment for me. line -> path ?

A. Confirmed, and yes.

- But is this a bug or a feature? (I'd assume people might actually use this to finish their paths...) Should the double-click just be moved to the text about the right-click to finish a path, as an additional shortcut? Or would this need further investigation?

==== 30. Gradient tool > Create/delete intermediate stops ====
"This adds new stop(s) in the middle(s) of selected segment(s), so it requires that more than two adjacent handles be selected."

Q. Also adds stops when only one or two stops are selected. Can't select a segment, only stops. handles -> stops.

A. You can add stops to the selection with Shift+Click. That said, if you have 2 or more stops selected, it adds stops in the middle of the segments, but it also works with one stop. In that case, the new stop is added in the middle of the segment that starts with the selected node.
A. What about "This adds new stop(s) in the middle(s) of selected segment(s) or, if only one stop is selected, in the middle of the segment that starts with the selected stop."?

- I'd prefer: "This adds new stop(s) in the middle(s) between adjacent, selected stops or, if only one stop is selected, in the middle of the segment that starts with the selected stop."
(just because one cannot click on a segment to select it. One needs to select the stops for this to work)

Thanks again :)

Kind regards,
 Maren

==== 15. Node tool > Move nodes (mouse) ====
"mouse drag+Space drop a copy (in Move nodes (mouse) section)"
"When dragging nodes with mouse, each Space leaves a copy of the selected object."
"You can press and hold Space while dragging for a nice "trail.""

Q. Doesn't work for me when editing paths. Delete? Or should this actually work?

A. Probably a feature that used to work in the past. Bug? To be tested with 0.47 or older to be sure what removed it.

- I just stumbled about this:

http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.48.1,
"Known issues: Stamping in node tool doesn't work"

==== 17. Node tool > Delete, create, duplicate ====
"Alt +Del delete segment between two non-endpoint nodes"
....
<snip>
....
 Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?

Argh - it's Alt+Backspace, not Alt+Del... Is it the same for you?

Thanks Nico - at a first glance it looks very complete - seems this 'solved my problem' :)

Thanks jazzynico, that solved my question.