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Ask HN: The Missing Key to Mastering the Keyboard

1 points by nerdfiles ↗ HN
Why isn't there a keyboard shortcut that takes one directly to the viewport of a web browser?

Think about this. Surely, this is anecdotal evidence, but think about this: when I have to use the Mouse, this breaks my Flow. I have fully modded my OS X laptop such that I never need to touch the mouse except for the occasion that I am unable to scroll (vimium or D-pad and just about any arrangement of special keys).

Maybe this is a grave oversight or blunder on my part. I'll take it. But if I had a generic procedure for accessing the viewport with my keyboard, my productivity would increase tenfold.

Generally speaking, it is _interesting_ that this problem should exist at all for _web browsers_.

9 comments

[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 32.1 ms ] thread
dchest
Tab?
nerdfiles
Not sure if you're trolling me, but you can see that your response does not answer the question. And given that you likely used a web browser to provide your response, it might have been effortless to confirm that your answer does not answer the question.
dchest
I'm not trolling, maybe I didn't understand your question. The shortcut to go to viewport from the address entry bar is Tab, at least in Chrome. Maybe I don't understand what you mean by "viewport"?
nerdfiles
We have the same understanding of "viewport." It's my mistake. I should have been clearer by "generic procedure."

Your method works on Windows. (And _possibly_ when Chrome is in fullscreen mode.) But your method does not work on OS X. I'm not sure about *nix.

dchest
I still don't get it, sorry :-) From where to where do you exactly want the keyboard focus to go?
nerdfiles
Sometimes Tab works, sometimes it doesn't, in the way you've suggested. Again, I must be missing something/blunder on my part. It's sporadic when it works. For instance, on OS X, one can "Change the way Tab movies focus".

The "viewport" being the container of the Web page (or the container of your current DOM "window"), underneath your address bar or bookmarks. Basically, the Web page itself. I'm using the term "viewport" since, ideally, I don't truly want to Tab into the Web page itself because this assumes I want some element in the page, like a link. I'm prefer to be able to Tab to the "viewport" (Web page) and simply scroll, say, or use vimium commands. But more often than not, when I Tab from the address bar, I get either the bookmarks bar or the apps bar (Chrome). Firefox gives me similar behavior.

For the most part, I'm trying to determine if this is a limitation of OS X or a limitation of each particular browser.

dchest
Aha, I get it now! Thanks for explanation. I now realize that this also annoys me a bit -- when I've scrolled a page and then do Ctrl+L (or Cmd+L), then press Tab, it scrolls the page up to focus on the first focusable element on the page.
DanBC
I'm using Chrome on OSX (snow leopard).

I hit [tab] - focus switches through a bunch of links and eventually to the text entry box.

EDIT: Chrome manually sized, and is not full screen.

nerdfiles
It could possibly be a plugin that has taken my natural behavior of Tab.

Darn. If it is, I've wasted your time. But then again, it's quite frustrating if it could be a plugin or something confugured in about://flags.

For instance, if I change the way Tab movies on OS X (snow leopard), it will toggle between jumping to bookmarks or to apps (which sit on the same row as the address bar). Sometimes if I Shift+Tab from the address bar, it will go to the last link on a web page.