Zotero 7: Esc focuses tab bar

warwickmm

Hitting Esc when viewing a PDF focuses the tab bar.

1. Open a PDF.
2. Hit Esc.
3. The left and right arrow keys now switches tabs.

This is using version 7.0.0-beta.58+2665090aa (64-bit) on Linux.

poettli

Same on macOS. Hitting esc put the focus on the tab (a blue border is visible around the tab).

dstillman

Yes, that’s by design. You can now quickly move into and out of the reader while navigating tabs via the keyboard. Previously focus got stuck in the reader.

dstillman

Ah, OK, you didn't explain what the actual problem is, as you did in the other thread:

https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/454619/#Comment_454619

We'll fix it to not focus the tab bar when using Esc to close popups, etc.

warwickmm

Hmm...I use Esc for may things in the reader (dismissing the search dialog, dismissing an annotation popup, etc). If Esc now focuses the tab bar, that would be quite disruptive for me (and I presume some others as well).

I typically use Ctrl+tab to navigate between tabs. That doesn't prevent me from use the arrow keys or page up/down to navigate the PDF. However, the new behavior does, as it requires one to click inside the PDF before the arrow keys or page up/down to work.

Perhaps I'm missing something here? How does one get focus back in the reader after hitting Esc?

warwickmm

Oops, I hit post just after your new comment arrived. Yes, I should have explained it better here. Sorry for the confusion.

dstillman

How does one get focus back in the reader after hitting Esc?

Press Enter. But see above re: popups/etc.

warwickmm

Thanks. Can I ask what this new behavior enables? I think in the past, one could use Ctrl+tab, or Ctrl+PgUp/PgDn, or Ctrl+number to switch tabs and still use the keyboard in the reader without having to explicitly switch focus between the two. I don't think I've encountered a case where the focus got "stuck" in the reader.

dstillman

It lets normal, visible keyboard focus work properly.

Before, you could Shift-Tab to the tab bar from the library view, use left/right arrow keys to move between tabs, and press Enter or Tab to move focus to the reader content or toolbar, and keyboard focus would be stuck there, without the ability to Shift-Tab back to the tab bar, including the open-tabs menu and sync button. That's obviously a bug.

[Your favorite tab-switching key combo] still works fine and auto-focuses the reader content. This is useful if you 1) don't use those, 2) want to access the open-tabs menu or sync button, 3) want to move between tabs without selecting them (Cmd/Ctrl-left/right), 4) want tab titles read to you in your screen reader, or 5) just expect to be able to go back to the library view the way you came.

warwickmm

Thank you for the explanation, that makes sense.

It lets normal, visible keyboard focus work properly.

poettli hinted at this as well regarding a blue border, but for me there's no indication that the tab bar is focused, which makes it a little confusing. Perhaps this is an issue with my setup (dark mode on Linux with Cinnamon DE)?

Reader has focus:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u7554954/p6hx5cw3zirza36ddd0v.png

Tab bar has focus:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u7554954/p2316u3qaivtvnp1463o.png

poettli

Perhaps this is an issue with my setup (dark mode on Linux with Cinnamon DE)?

It is the same with the light color scheme on Ubuntu with GNOME.

dstillman

We've reverted this change in beta 60. Now, Esc will always focus the reader itself, and we've made Shift-Tab work properly to take you back to the toolbar and tab bar from the content pane. (There are a few bugs with keyboard navigation in the reader that we still need to fix.)

warwickmm

Thank you!