[SOLVED] Keyboard shortcuts besides cursor keys for Application Menu?

kwizzz · 2025-01-08 16:39:01

My fingers don't like leaving the home row of my keyboard for the cursor keys or the mouse.

I would prefer something like jumping to the first, next, etc. menu entry starting with the typed letter, e.g.
Alt-F1 (usually opens the Applications Menu),
then typing a 'w' which would lead me to the first entry with a "w", which is in my case "Web Browser".

Or having menu entries with accelerator keys (like "Web &Browser" in order to type Alt-b).

Or at least allowing Ctrl-j and Ctrl-k for vi-moving up and down the list.

Is this possible or would this be a change request?

Last edited by kwizzz (2025-01-10 08:43:00)

ToZ · 2025-01-09 02:19:23

kwizzz wrote:

I would prefer something like jumping to the first, next, etc. menu entry starting with the typed letter, e.g.
Alt-F1 (usually opens the Applications Menu),
then typing a 'w' which would lead me to the first entry with a "w", which is in my case "Web Browser".

Both the whiskermenu and xfce4-appfinder support this functionality natively. Applicationsmenu does not.

Or having menu entries with accelerator keys (like "Web &Browser" in order to type Alt-b).

GTK removed custom accelerators early in the GTK3 lifecycle and the applicationsmenu doesn't have any alternative coded in.

Or at least allowing Ctrl-j and Ctrl-k for vi-moving up and down the list.

You could create keyboard shortcuts to run something like:

xdotool key Down

...or:

xdotool key Up

...and assign them to Ctrl-j/Ctrl-k. Keep in mind that these will be global and may affect other applications. As an alternative you could consider replacing Ctrl with Super as it doesn't have many default shortcuts in most Linux apps, but it means you need to change your use patterns.

Is this possible or would this be a change request?

Possibly, for the applicationsmenu, but this really is an edge case - the developers may choose not to pursue it.

kwizzz · 2025-01-09 14:50:56

Regarding allowing Ctrl-j and Ctrl-k for vi-moving up and down the list.

You could create keyboard shortcuts to run something like:
xdotool key Down
...or:
xdotool key Up
...and assign them to Ctrl-j/Ctrl-k. Keep in mind that these will be global and may affect other applications. As an alternative you could consider replacing Ctrl with Super as it doesn't have many default shortcuts in most Linux apps, but it means you need to change your use patterns.

That's what I tried, but it doesn't seem to work (Xfce 4.18 on openSUSE Leap 15.6)
.
Here's what I tried:

- Confirming that I understood the syntax correctly: I executed `xdotool key Up` in a terminal and showed me the most recent entry in history as expected
- I went to Keyboard > Application Shortcuts and added `xdotool key Up` and bound it to C-k; same with `xdotool key Down` to C-j
- Tried C-j (and also C-k) with Applications Menu -> no cursor movement
- Tried C-k in terminal -> just a blinking cursor, but nothing else
- Bound key up to Shift+k to rule out any other shortcuts -> did not work; shell cursor was shortly blinking when typing Shift-k
- tried xdotool with keyup and keydown -> still no success
- put xdotool into a shell script and used this script in Application Shortcuts menu -> no change

Looks like there is something else stopping me from doing this.

The only thing that works is setting a shortcut to rofi and have the open windows plus available applications listed there. It' not as beautiful, but it does the job.

k3dAR · 2025-01-09 20:30:43

Why not replace ApplicationMenu with WhiskerMenu?

kwizzz · 2025-01-09 21:31:36

k3dAR wrote:

Why not replace ApplicationMenu with WhiskerMenu?

That's what I actually did, but then I ran into the same issue with `xfce4-popup-windowmenu` to quickly move between open windows.
Now I am fooling around with rofi, as it would solve both Application Menu *plus* Window Menu shortcomings (but not looking Xfce-ish).

eriefisher · 2025-01-09 22:21:58

Another menu to consider is Jgmenu. It also has an xfce4-panel plugin.

kwizzz · 2025-01-10 08:42:37

eriefisher wrote:

Another menu to consider is Jgmenu. It also has an xfce4-panel plugin.

Nice. Never heard of that, thanks!

The great thing about rofi is that you can also use it to switch between open windows. So if I have rofi in combi mode, and I type in "firefox", it will show me open firefox windows first (if any), plus (below the window list) the option to execute firefox.

Guess, I better stick to rofi for now.

Thanks for all your support!

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#1 2025-01-08 16:39:01

[SOLVED] Keyboard shortcuts besides cursor keys for Application Menu?

#2 2025-01-09 02:19:23

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard shortcuts besides cursor keys for Application Menu?

#3 2025-01-09 14:50:56

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard shortcuts besides cursor keys for Application Menu?

#4 2025-01-09 20:30:43

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard shortcuts besides cursor keys for Application Menu?

#5 2025-01-09 21:31:36

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard shortcuts besides cursor keys for Application Menu?

#6 2025-01-09 22:21:58

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard shortcuts besides cursor keys for Application Menu?

#7 2025-01-10 08:42:37

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard shortcuts besides cursor keys for Application Menu?

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