# Instructions on right and feedback on "wrong" keyboard shortcut usage
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794
**Category:** UX
**Tags:** keyboard-shortcuts
**Created:** [7월 7, 2017, 7:40오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794 "2017-07-07T07:40:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sujan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Sujan)
#### Post date: [7월 7, 2017, 7:40오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/1 "2017-07-07T07:40:48Z")
I knew about the “Keyboard Shortcuts” modal for quite some time, but honestly didn’t know how they worked. Just now, when I investigated a bit further and read some specific instruction by another user, that I first have to j/k in a topic to go through the posts before I could use e and similar, I understood the concept behind it better.
Before I tried to combine the keys with alt, ctrl, shift in a random manner and didn’t get any further. Also just hitting e when focusing a post in a topic with the mouse - and nothing happened.
I think it would be need to
a) more information on usage to the Keyboard Shortcuts modal and
b) give feedback when you press e but have to j/k first:
> Select a post by using j/k first.
as a “[toast](https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/11998/what-is-a-toast-notification)” or some similar kind of notification shown temporarily to the user as feedback would be nice. Could also include a link to a more elaborate “How to use Keyboard Shortcuts” explanation.
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [7월 7, 2017, 8:04오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/2 "2017-07-07T08:04:24Z")
> [@Sujan](#):
>
> Also just hitting e when focusing a post in a topic with the mouse - and nothing happened.
I ❤ that idea. Shouldn’t be too hard to implement 😉
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### Author:  [@Sujan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Sujan)
#### Post date: [7월 7, 2017, 8:21오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/3 "2017-07-07T08:21:59Z")
In hindsight I know that just “hovering” above a post doesn’t “select” it (red border on the left). But back when I tried the shortcuts, I didn’t. (But maybe clicking could do the same as j/k and then e could work…)
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### Author:  [@Sujan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Sujan)
#### Post date: [7월 7, 2017, 10:43오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/4 "2017-07-07T10:43:09Z")
b) could also be used to give feedback like “You can’t edit this post.” when you use j/k to navigate to a post, press e and actually can’t edit that post.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [7월 7, 2017, 10:30오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/5 "2017-07-07T22:30:36Z")
Sure that is a good idea see if you can make it so!
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [8월 20, 2018, 2:44오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/8 "2018-08-20T14:44:32Z")
@nbianca can you take this? When the user press e and no post was focused using the keyboard, check if there’s a post under the cursor and open the composer on that post.
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [8월 31, 2018, 12:08오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/9 "2018-08-31T12:08:52Z")
This is now available 👏
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/6294](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/6294)
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [9월 6, 2018, 12:26오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/11 "2018-09-06T00:26:57Z")
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [9월 6, 2018, 12:27오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/12 "2018-09-06T00:27:34Z")
Reopening this per:
> [@Disabling problematic hotkeys](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disabling-problematic-hotkeys/96459/7):
>
> The feature is a bug. When routing an action to a post, we check: Do we have a post highlighted with via j k ? ok, use that Do is mouse cursor hovered on a post, ok use that. This is a recent change introduced via: The problem it was trying to solve is, "how do I know I can hit e and get it to do something?` The keyboard shortcuts talk about it here: The original “proposal here” was to pop some help, this is what gmail does: My call is that the solution of …
This needs a lot more though behind it. My position here is … you are opting for keyboard pain/love, learn to use the keyboard.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [9월 6, 2018, 12:32오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/13 "2018-09-06T00:32:52Z")
Well sort of.. the two fisted mouse + keyboard is pretty good too so I kinda disagree with you here on this one.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [9월 6, 2018, 12:41오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/14 "2018-09-06T00:41:07Z")
It is strongly surprising that a post that has no actual hover visual effect on it, as being selected, receives an action. If our posts turned light grey when you hovered with the mouse I would think this is more defensible but we would never do that.
Even gmail which **has** a hover effect does not allow you to “mute” a conversation unless you have it selected with `j` `k`.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [9월 6, 2018, 12:42오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/15 "2018-09-06T00:42:08Z")
That’s fair, then show a “no post selected” browser dialog or something simple.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [9월 6, 2018, 12:45오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/16 "2018-09-06T00:45:48Z")
Yes I brought this up here:
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-kind-of-notification-when-keyboard-shortcuts-do-something-off-screen/19423/2?u=sam](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-kind-of-notification-when-keyboard-shortcuts-do-something-off-screen/19423/2)
We need a new widget first imo, cause this is a soft, “oh no I need to close a modal now” kind of notification.
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### Author:  [@Sujan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Sujan)
#### Post date: [9월 8, 2018, 10:15오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instructions-on-right-and-feedback-on-wrong-keyboard-shortcut-usage/65794/17 "2018-09-08T10:15:05Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> My position here is … you are opting for keyboard pain/love, learn to use the keyboard.
My initial request was about the fact, that it says nowhere in the keyboard shortcuts page that you have to use [j]/[k] before being able to use [e]. I hit [e] in all combinations I could think of, but nothing happened.
So that’s what the initial feature request was: Surface that requirement, so I can learn about it somehow. Having something happen on pressing [e] was only one of two suggestions I made, the other was just adding the information to the keyboard shortcuts page.