Discourse provides many keyboard shortcuts.
You can see the list by typing ?.
Do you use keyboard shortcuts?
I use most of them
I use several of them
I don’t use them, but I want to
I don’t use them, and I don’t care
Wait, there are keyboard shortcuts?
0voters
I try to learn and use keyboard shortcuts in many software, but the learning curve and laziness often hinder my will to do so.
Also, I tend to forget I’m trying to learn them
One thing in Discourse that prevents me from learning shortcuts is that the shortcut isn’t shown on the elements’ title attributes. I understand why the attribute wouldn’t mention the corresponding shortcut.
In Photoshop, I learned them over time by using the mouse to reveal the shortcuts by hovering buttons or showing elements in the menu bar, but I can’t in Discourse, since they only show up when we press ?.
@martin some interesting tidbits in here given the conversation we were having recently about the shortcut for the “coming soon™” search feature in the admin area.
Haha, seeing this topic made me laugh. I have a gaming site, and I was just about to start brainstorming a system where users can play games using shortcut keys and earn points.
I don’t use them even though I would not mind. It’s great for user experience.
Currently, the shortcuts are not highlighted in specific ways, I find it challenging to think about them. I don’t see myself typing ? to learn.
I like the idea of a helper that can help you to remind you if you missed a shortcut, for example:
Implementing in Discourse could be an option you opt in for.
Then, context-wise, after some tries, you would see different notifications (with a don’t show again toggle)
It could be:
Toast notifications
Tooltip at specific place
Small indicator that reveals the shortcut on hover
etc.
Another idea is similar to what the Developer Toolbar does.
It shows visually all the available plugin outlets. Why not do the same for shortcuts when possible? Crude and simplified example with an AI generated artifact:
I think gamification is the way to learn shortcuts. I would not mind a plugin that does that, or even with a practice mode where you could learn step by step (similar to the discobot), and with achievements to keep you motivated.
