KeyboardShortcutsOverlay
Rationale
In this section we'll briefly outline what the KSO is and why and how it could help to improve the current situation of keyboard shortcuts.
What is the Keyboard-Shortcuts Overlay?
Ubuntu introduced an interesting small goody in the Precise-cycle, namely a keyboard-shortcuts overlay. This can easily be triggered by holding the Super-Key a bit longer. It shows an overlay (i.e. semi-transparent window without window-decoration) that displays an overview over the most important keyboard shortcuts. This gives users quick access to something that is usually only for power-users and I think it could improve the workflow of Xubuntu users as well.
Keyboard Shortcuts in Xubuntu/Xfce (currently)
Currently keyboard shortcuts can easily be accessed in two settings-dialogs, window-manager settings > keyboard and keyboard-settings > applications. Personally I think it's a pity that these shortcuts are spread over two very different places, even if the type of shortcuts differ by category. It's just not very discoverable at first.
How this could be improved
Obviously one way of fixing this would be to create one place in the settings-manager where all keyboard-shortcuts can be accessed and edited. The Keyboard-Shortcut Overlay could help by providing an overview and theoretically it could contain links to the respective dialogs for editing an existing shortcut.
Implementation
This section will contain more practical stuff that concern the implementation of the KSO directly.
Technical Stuff
- How the keyboard-shortcuts can be queried via xfconf-query.
- How to create an overlay that has some transparency/alpha and now window-borders. Look at other applications.
- Fallback-mode for people without compositing, what could that look like?
Screenshots/Current look in Unity
Mockups for Xubuntu
TODO