How to use the keyboard in Flare? Seems to be weak!

[samjones6]

I am using Flare now, after being on Robohelp for many years.

Flare is a LOT slower to use. Examples:

OK button on dialogs does not have a hotkey.
esc does not cancel me out of dialogs
I can't seem to switch focus between the main panels via the kbd
Assigning conditionals to text and images can't be done with only the kbd (on robohelp it can)

Really kludgy to use the keyboard.


What to do?

[RamonS]

I agree with some of what you are stating, but when you look at most UI design guides they never propose to put accelerators on OK, Cancel, Yes, or No. I have no idea why (but may find some, just remind me if you are interested). Using Tab might help, but that is about as slow as switching to the mouse.

[Nita Beck]

Have you checked out the Flare Shortcuts document to learn about the documented keyboard shortcuts? Open Flare's Help system and scroll down to see the list of links to various guides, including one on keyboard shortcuts.

At least for Flare 6.1 and Flare 7, one can use Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab to move from UI element to UI element.

And, BTW, thanks! I just learned something.

[Nita Beck]

I can't seem to switch focus between the main panels via the kbd

In the doc I mentioned above, there are a lot of shortcuts to open/switch to various windows in the Flare UI. For example, to switch to the Project Organizer, use Ctrl+[. For the Content Explorer, use Ctrl+J. For the File List, use Ctrl+Shift+J. There are many shortcuts for switching focus, as far as I can see.

Assigning conditionals to text and images can't be done with only the kbd (on robohelp it can)

True enough. I couldn't readily find a shortcut for this.

[samjones6]

I can't seem to switch focus between the main panels via the kbd

In the doc I mentioned above, there are a lot of shortcuts to open/switch to various windows in the Flare UI. For example, to switch to the Project Organizer, use Ctrl+[. For the Content Explorer, use Ctrl+J. For the File List, use Ctrl+Shift+J. There are many shortcuts for switching focus, as far as I can see.

Those kbd shortcuts are on the menus.... I have em down!

The problem is that there appear to be no shortcuts for generic use. Examples:

- Some dialogs respect the esc key, some don't
- Some dialogs have correct z-order for controls, (for tabbing around), some don't
- The OK button lacks focus for the <enter> key
- There are no not keys for buttons on dialogs
- Even the hot keys that exist (like ctrl J) fail to put focus in a usable place. So I am forced to hit the hot key and then tab just so I can get to a topic in a topic list
- There is no generic hot key to switch from panel to panel (project organizer to file list to editor, e.g. ctrl-tab ...)
- There is no generic hot key for moving within the "tabs" of a dialog (like the page properties dialog)

Robohelp x5 has all the above down cold.

Can Flare?

[lacastle]

Time to submit a feature request! - https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[samjones6]

Time to submit a feature request! - https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

Good idea.
Thx!