Current situation: ========== Tab navigation must be done via mouse (or to me unknown shortcuts) Suggestion: ======== Add "typical" tab control shortcuts: - Ctrl+F4 = close current tab. - Ctrl+tab = move to next tab. (simple impl. as in firefox, not the "sophisticated one from the window manager ) - Ctrl+shift+tab = move to previouse tab. (simple impl. as in firefox, not the "sophisticated one from the window manager ) Reason: ===== - Improve UX - External consistency: Be consistent with the handling in other applications, that support tabs.
Open the File/Document menu so see the keybindings. Ctrl+W closes the current tab, Ctrl+PageUp/PageDown switches between tabs. Furthermore, changing those would actually break consistency with Thunar and xfce4-terminal.
Note that the file ~/.config/Mousepad/accels.scm contains the current keybind configuration. Simply uncomment and edit the lines while Mousepad is not running.
Thank you for the accels.scm hint. I'd like to expand the view of this enhancement request to Thunar and xfce4-terminal as well. Below you can see a list a tab-navigation shortcuts for the respective applications. Shortcut listing: ================= 1) Closing tab Terminal: Shift+Ctrl+w = Close tab Mousepad: Ctrl+w = Close tab Thunar: Ctrl+w = Close tab Thunar: Shift+Ctrl+w = Close all instances 2) New tab Terminal: Shift+Ctrl+T = New tab Mousepad: Ctrl+N = New tab Thunar: Ctrl+T = New tab 3) Switch tab Terminal: Ctrl+PgUp = Switch tab Terminal: Shift+Ctrl+PgUp = <nothing> Terminal: Shift+Ctrl+PgDwn = <nothing> Mousepad: Ctrl+PgUp = Switch tab Thunar: Ctrl+PgUp = Switch tab Argument: ========== 1) - There is no consistency between Terminal and the others. - I think the fact that the "close tabs" shortcut in terminal will close all instances of thunar is a "dangerous" inconsistency. 2) - There is no real consistency given. - The Ctrl+N is consistent to other text editors. I wouldn't claim on that. But I think it's worth think of adding an extra Ctrl+T shortcut as well. - Playing around with xfce4-terminal, I don't understand why `shift` is added as one of the accelerators. 3) - All apps work consistently among each other. - Terminal goes inconsistent to itself: Other tab actions take shift, only navigation is without shift. - ( Shift+Ctrl+PgUp should move the tab around (does not work on my system...bug?). I feel it makes sense differentiating "navigation" and "moving around" by shift. Things to consider for Ctrl+PgUp/Dwn: ====================================== - For this shortcut the right hand is needed. The right hand often sits on the mouse. Therefore it takes more time to change a tab. - Regarding mobile devices (notebooks), PgUp/Dwn buttons often have inconvenient positions or sometimes are only available through an FN-key. Which complicates the shortcut. - Left hand is very close to "Ctrl" and "Tab". Activating this shortcut is rather fast. - As far as I checked, I could not find an interference with the suggested shortcuts within the applications. Suggestion: ======== 4) Make shortcut usage for tabs consistent among apps. 5) Adapt Ctrl+tab,Ctrl+shift+tab,Ctrl+T,Ctrl+F4 as shortcuts Reason: 4) Consistency increases user experience. 5.1) I assume many people use Firefox tab-browsing much more havily, that mousepad/thunar/terminal tabbing. Therefore, I'd suggest adapting Firefox' settings. 5.2) Increasing navigation speed for tab change (see "Things to consider")
As this request affects several applications, I suggest to use the Xfce mailing list for a discussion. https://mail.xfce.org/mailman/listinfo/xfce4-dev
Closing for now. If the developers have agreed to go with the suggested changes, we can reopen the report.