Problematic keyboard shortcuts on german keyboard layout

🐛Bugs
#1

I would like to suggest some additions to the german keyboard shortcuts as described here: http://help.dynalist.io/article/91-keyboard-shortcut-reference#other-keyboard-layouts.

Already fixed keyboard shortcuts: (listed for completeness)

  • Zoom in: [Ctrl]+[]] is already fixed to [Alt]+[Right].
  • Zoom out: [Ctrl]+[[] is already fixed to [Alt]+[Left].

Problematic keyboard shortcuts:

  • Toogle help: [Ctrl]+[/] works, but as key combination [Ctrl]+[#], maybe it shoud be declared as such.
  • Toogle help: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[/] works, but as key combination [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[#], maybe it shoud be declared as such.
  • Zoom in previous item: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[]] does not work. I suggest [Alt]+[Up] instead, to be consitent with ‘Zoom in’ and ‘Zoom out’.
  • Zoom in next item: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[[] does not work. I suggest [Alt]+[Down] instead., to be consistent with ‘Zoom in’ and ‘Zoom out’.
  • Format as code: [Ctrl]+[backtick] does not work. I suggest [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[´] instead, as [Shift]+[´] produces the backtick, to be consistent with the respective markdown character.
  • Clear color label: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[backtick] does not work. I suggest [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[^] instead, as the [^] key is right next to the [1] key.

Working keyboard shortcuts I suggest to change or add:

  • Clear heading: [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[0] works, but I would suggest using [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[^], to be consistent with ‘Clear color label’.

For reference, here are the problematic symbols that are not reachable on the german keyboard without a modifier key: `=[];’/

Edit:
I found, the problematic symbols do infact have a direct equivalent (a key with the same virtual key code):
[backtick] = [ö], [=] = [+], [[] = [ß], []] = [´], [\] = [^], [;] = [ü], ['] = [ä], [/] = [#]

I.e. all keyboard shortcuts are actually usable, if you know what keys to press instead. However, my suggestion to alter the above shortcuts for the german keyboard layout, still stands.

Edit 2:
Ad Clear heading: [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[0] is the exact key combination that produces the closing curly brace }, making it impossible to type the aforementioned. Yet another reason to change this keyboard shortcut for the german keyboard layout.

#2

Hi @Lukas,

Thanks for the detailed, insightful list!

We’re going to revamp and unify our shortcuts, and we’ll definitely take into account what you mentioned here. When first designing things, I admit we’re not knowledgeable of other keyboard layouts, which led to a lot of inconveniences for our users who used German/French/Polish keyboard layouts, and I’m really sorry about that.

Sigh, that’s one thing we’re not able to do, as it’s impossible to detect which keyboard layout the user is using as a web page. Maybe only when the user selects the German keyboard layout option?

#3

I can’t change the keyboard shortcut for “Add note” (shift+return), which is already occupied on my system globally to open a launch bar.

#4

I believe that has nothing to do with the German keyboard layout…

Which system are you using? It’s weird since that doesn’t sound like a default thing for Windows/Mac/Linux.

#5

I remember one of the ...+[Enter] keyboard shortcuts could not be remapped at all. It just would not allow any key combination to be entered. Could be this one … not sure since I am not a pro user atm.

#6

Enter can be part of a shortcut, it’s just that “Add note” is not among the shortcuts you can customize for now.

#7

Well I do use Win10 with a (hardware) German keyboard layout and a neo software emulation on top. I could reconfigure the the launchbar to not use Shift-Enter, but I rather would like to change the shortcuts in dynalist.

#8

Sorry for the late reply!

We could try to make that customizable. Won’t change the default though, unfortunately.

#9

Same issue is for other keyboards - work in the web browser as the browser controls the keyboard mapping (via the OS). But for the Windows beta application, you seem to use the “keyboard” setting in your own app as the source for mapping. This gives a lot of issues - please do not re-map the keyboard, use what is default in the OS (use the correct API for getting keyboard layout - not language as many run US setup with native (e.g. Norwegian) keyboard. Then let the user to sort out the cumbersome shortcuts - you probably will provide default mappings for the big countries, but for the others keep the default and let the user change.

#10

Hi Lars, I believe we’ve talked through email. This is resolved now, right?

#11

Hi,

I’m using a German Keyboard and Alt+Right / Alt+Left to zoom in and out used to work for a while but it stopped working for me recently.
Now Alt+Right does nothing and Alt+Left goes to the previous page if Dynalist is used in a browser.
I’m primarily using Ubuntu and tested this in both the app and webbrowser. Also tested on Windows 7 in firefox and chrome.

Can you look into this maybe?

#12

Is it possible that you accidentally customized it? It’s unlikely that it would work and suddenly stop working.

Do you remember when was the last time it used to be working? And any chance you installed some other software that could take over those key combinations?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

#13

I don’t think I can customize it because I don’t have a pro account atm.
Haven’t installed any new software that could take over those key combinations either. The exact same key combinations are working in WorkFlowy for me.

It’s about a month since it last worked. At that time I wasn’t using Dynalist that much so I didn’t keep track of it like I should have :confused:

EDIT: I just downloaded the linux desktop app again. The appimage on the website is version 1.0.2 and in this version, the shortcuts are still working! Then it automatically updated to version 1.0.47 and the shortcuts stopped working :frowning:

“Fixed” it temporarily by preventing updates. Set ~/.config/Dynalist/dynalist to read-only.

#14

Sorry about that, and about the late reply!

This should be fixed in the next update which will be next week.

The reason why it worked in 1.0.2 but not 1.0.47 is that we broke it at some point, so an earlier version worked but the latest version didn’t. Next update should fix all this! :slight_smile: