Upgrade StorageAccessibility: Keyboard issue with Word opening Zotero's Add/Edit Citation dialog
This is an accessibility issue
Windows 11
Microsoft Word
Zotero: 6.0.26
Persona:
A user with arthritis is unable to use a mouse. The user relies on using the keyboard to navigate.
Summary:
In Microsoft Word, after opening the Add/Edit Citation dialog, the keyboard focus is not put into the dialog box so the user can navigate it via keyboard keys.
User task description:
The user is using Microsoft Word which has Zotero integrated in it. They have added an in-text citation in their report. They would like to edit the citation. They position the keyboard focus in the citation structure. Then press Alt + Y1, to move the keyboard focus to the Zotero tab in the MS Word upper ribbon. Then they press Y1 to move to the edit option and open Zotero's Add/Edit Citation dialog. Although the dialog appears on the screen, the keyboard focus is not placed on a control type in it, as is expected. The keyboard focus remains on the text area in the Word document.
Windows 11
Microsoft Word
Zotero: 6.0.26
Persona:
A user with arthritis is unable to use a mouse. The user relies on using the keyboard to navigate.
Summary:
In Microsoft Word, after opening the Add/Edit Citation dialog, the keyboard focus is not put into the dialog box so the user can navigate it via keyboard keys.
User task description:
The user is using Microsoft Word which has Zotero integrated in it. They have added an in-text citation in their report. They would like to edit the citation. They position the keyboard focus in the citation structure. Then press Alt + Y1, to move the keyboard focus to the Zotero tab in the MS Word upper ribbon. Then they press Y1 to move to the edit option and open Zotero's Add/Edit Citation dialog. Although the dialog appears on the screen, the keyboard focus is not placed on a control type in it, as is expected. The keyboard focus remains on the text area in the Word document.
I'm on the beta (but I don't think this has changed) and am not seeing that: cursor is always in the quick citation bar after I use add/edit citation via keyboard, both for editing and for adding a new citation.
As a sidenote, you can assign a dedicated keyboard shortcut to add/edit citation directly which will make this a lot more convenient to use: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage#keyboard_commands
Thanks for the idea about dedicated keyboard shortcut. That should save some time when folks have lots of edits to to. I've tried the shortcut instructions on the page provided. The blog post that is linked to on the page is quite old, March 2012. I couldn't get it to work.
But here's a draft of a version for Microsoft Word version 16 on Windows that I did get working. It's only listing keyboard commands and no explanation.
In Microsoft Word, I started in the document
Alt + f , then t, c for customize ribbon
Then tab
Then alt t to open Customize Keyboard
alt c for categories
m until macros
tab to Macros list box
down to ZoteroAddEditCitation
tab out of the list box.
Explore the remaining control types with tab.
Notice the Save Changes in, combo box. The shortcut key can be saved in the actual file or a template associated with the file.
When ready, alt + n to Press new shortcut key, edit combo
Tab to Assign button. Enter
Then tab to the close button.
That's a bug, but the classic dialog doesn't get a ton of attention, so I wouldn't rely on it getting fixed (though it might). Note that you can still get to the dialog using alt+tab.
The Quick Format option is designed for keyboard use, though, so would in most scenarios be a good bit faster.