Keyboard shortcut restrictions

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I have noticed that Drafts for some reasons does not accept certain keyboard shortcuts. Which are:

  • F13, F14, F15. My most used keys because they are not linked to any system functions, wether with or without FN. And because they are positioned between the main keyboard and the number pad with a little space between the blocks they are easy to reach even without looking. Why can’t they get linked to actions?

  • Shortcuts already in use can’t be linked to other actions. For example, I am very often applying tags from a fixed pool. Therefore using the tag list action is more convenient for me than Tag Entry—which can be sluggish with tag suggestions—and I’d like to link cmd+t to the action. Does not work. Even when I change the shortcut for Tag Entry in the macOS preferences so that cmd+t is not in use anymore it does not work. This is not standard behaviour for macOS apps. Why?

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I will create a ticket to look at the F13/14/15 issue and see if that can be addressed. I do not currently have a keyboard handy with those keys, but will see what I can come up with.

As for the reserved keys, this is intentional and both a cross-platform functionality issue (where you cannot re-assign shortcuts at the system level on iOS) and a convenience feature to be better able to inform users of potential conflicts when configuring shortcuts.

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The cross-platform functionality issue is understandable although another enervating example for the restrictions of the mobile platforms swapping over to macOS.

Since keyboard shortcuts are synced too it would be possible though to allow re-keying actions/functions on the macOS version of Drafts and use them on the iOS/iPadOS version too, wouldn’t it? But then a mobile user would need a Mac to fully customize their mobile Drafts, I can see why that would not make everybody happy.

As for the “convenience feature to be better able to inform users of potential conflicts when configuring shortcuts”—I get your point here too. But the price for this convenience is losing another convenience, which is freely to remap keyboard shortcuts. Which is a standard on macOS for a reason. Well…