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Shortcut for Advanced Display Filter

Nora Díaz

 I can't get my (custom) shortcut for the Advanced Display Filter to do anything. I've changed it to several things and still nothing. What am I missing? I have the Advanced Display Filter pinned and combined with my Fragment Matches window and was hoping this would be a quick, mouseless way to get to the filter when I need it (and to possibly create a couple of AutoHotkey macros).

 
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    Hi Nora,

    I also ran into this problem. You will have to go through the ribbon (Alt-VY). (This is not the only keyboard shortcut that appears not to work.)

    And once you get to the Advanced Display Filter window you have to use the mouse. Now that Studio has a ribbon, there are no window-specific "Alt" shortcut keys any more (as far as I can see). And you can't even close the window with a shortcut key.

    The Ctrl-G (Go To) window in the editor is a good example of the lack of "Alt" shortcut keys.

    In the Status section of the Go To window, pressing the Alt key actually displays shortcut keys in the window (underlined letters show up for the different status types), but the Alt key activates the ribbon instead, so that none of the shortcut keys can actually be used. For example, Alt-D should toggle the "Draft" status checkbox in the Go To window, but it instead opens the Add-Ins tab on the ribbon. The "Alt" shortcuts that show up in the Go To window may be a left-over from before the ribbon was installed.

    What does this have to do with your problem?

    The Studio UI is probably around a decade old, with several layers of "updates", such as the ribbon, patched on top. It is not accessible (i.e. keyboard-friendly) and it is not macro-friendly (i.e. able to reliably produce a desired result with a series of keystrokes). The keyboard shortcuts section of the Options is lengthy, but whenever I look in the list, hoping to find something that can solve a problem, I generally do not find it.

    Your problem is just another example of how outdated the Studio UI is.

    And if no one talks about the UI problems, SDL will continue to assume that no one cares, and continue adding new bells and whistles instead.

    Best regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services
  • 0 in reply to Bruce Campbell
    Thanks for confirming it's not only me, Bruce. I guess there's no point in the shortcut opening the Advanced Display Filter anyway if I still need to navigate it with the mouse.
  • 0 in reply to Nora Díaz
    Hi Nora,

    Here is an example of another Studio UI problem I am having.

    Thanks to Paul, I was able to set up nice, easy keyboard shortcuts for moving among the different Studio views (Editor, Files, Reports, etc.)

    I added five tab keys when I moved to Files view in order to move the focus from the left-hand pane to the right-hand pane where the file names are. That way I can easily perform an analysis, pre-translation, etc. with Dragon commands.

    I wanted to do something similar in Reports view. I often find that after I do an analysis and switch to Reports view, the most recent report is not displayed, so I have to use my mouse to go to the left-hand pane and select the proper report.

    So I tried to find a series of keystrokes that would automatically move the cursor up to the top of the list in the left-hand pane. That would display all of the report names in the right-hand pane, and I could then easily select the proper report with the arrow keys.

    The magic combination appeared to be two tab keys followed by a bunch of up arrow keys to make sure I am at the top of the list, followed by three tab keys to move the focus to the right-hand pane where the report names are.

    Except that this only appears to work occasionally. Sometimes it works as intended, sometimes the cursor ends up in a totally different window, or appears to just disappear into limbo. There does not appear to be any reliable way to switch to Reports view and then automatically move to the top of the list in the left-hand pane.

    Before I noticed that my macro was unreliable, I was congratulating myself, because I thought I would finally be able to collapse the left-hand pane and use the additional space for the editor window.

    But then I noticed that collapsing the left-hand pane causes other problems. First, the five tab keys that I use when moving to Files view no longer worked. If the left-hand pane is collapsed, I have to use two tab keys instead. Second, when I move to Reports view, there appears to be absolutely no way to move up to the top of the list when the left-hand pane is collapsed, which means there is no way to display the report names in the right-hand pane.

    So, in desperation I thought that maybe I could collapse the left-hand pane in Editor view and expand it again in Reports view? No, that is not possible. There are no shortcut keys to expand and collapse the left-hand pane.

    I don't think I should be running into problems like this to do simple things like making sure I am looking at the most recent report, or making sure the focus is on the file names in Files view so that I can run batch commands. Or making sure the cursor is in the current target segment when I move to Editor view.

    If anyone from SDL is reading this, it should give an idea of what is needed to make the Studio UI accessible to people who cannot use the mouse and rely only on voice commands, or people who are so comfortable and quick with the keyboard that they prefer not to use the mouse. Or the large group of people getting used to voice commands on their phones and tablets who are going to view Studio as clumsy and awkward to use.

    Best regards,
    Bruce
  • 0 in reply to Bruce Campbell
    And here is yet another example of problems with the Studio UI:

    I like to translate a block of text, do a spell check and verify on just those segments, and then select them, change their status to "Translation approved" and lock them. Locking them makes sure they do not show up in the next analysis of the file.

    I therefore decided to write a macro to select all the segments with a certain status, such as "Translated", "Translation approved", etc., so that I could then use another macro to change their status, followed by a third macro to lock or unlock them.

    Since there appears to be no way to directly select segments without using the mouse, I tried to find a workaround. The first workaround I found was "Ctrl-Home" to go to the top of the file, followed by the down arrow key to move from the file header label to the first segment and then "Ctrl-Shift-End" to "sort of" select all of the segments, followed by the up arrow key to move up from the file trailer label to the last segment.

    This workaround form of selecting segments works if you want to change their status, but it does not work for locking or unlocking the segments.

    I finally ended up using the workaround above, but added statements to the macro that would move the mouse cursor to the left edge of the editor window (where the segment numbers are) and simulate a click, thereby properly selecting the segments so that they turn yellow. This meant, of course, that I had to write another macro to set the proper location for the mouse click, as the location will change if I adjust the window.

    Was this finally a solution?

    No, it does not work in all situations. In particular, it does not work if any of the file header or trailer labels above and below the segments are selected. That is why I used a down arrow key after moving to the top of the file and an up arrow key at the bottom of the file. I wanted to make sure the file header and trailer labels were not selected.

    But if I am editing more than one file, then there are potentially two or more header labels at the top of the editor window and potentially two or more trailer labels at the bottom of the editor window.

    I wrote another macro to adjust the selection by excluding a certain number of header or trailer labels, but since you generally have to use the mouse to figure out how many of these labels you have at the top and bottom, it is not completely satisfactory.

    But as far as I can see, there is no way to handle a simple situation like this properly without manually using the mouse. Automating it so that it works in all situations appears to be impossible.

    In summary, Studio essentially forces you to use the mouse for something as simple as selecting a group of segments and locking them.

    Best regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services
  • 0 in reply to Bruce Campbell

    Unknown said:
    And if no one talks about the UI problems, SDL will continue to assume that no one cares, and continue adding new bells and whistles instead.

    Hi Bruce,

    Couldn't be further from the truth, but prioritising work based on all the criteria that needs to be considered is not easy and somethings need to take a backseat until they fit in with other plans to avoid wasted effort when we could be doing something more productive.

    However, please keep sharing this stuff as it's all really useful for us, but don't think you have to do it because we don't care!!  Might not seem like it sometimes, but we do.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub

  • 0 in reply to Paul
    Hi Paul,

    Thanks for your reply. I understand that SDL has to set its priorities in terms of its own productivity. SDL's view of productivity, however, might differ from mine.

    My productivity depends on my ability to use Studio efficiently, and using Studio efficiently depends greatly on the user interface.

    Just imagine that someone was selling the most advanced program possible. The core programs were lightning fast and extremely well thought out and efficient. But the user interface only allowed you to type one character a second.

    This is, of course, exaggerated, but from my point of view every time the Studio UI drags my attention away from my core activity of translation or prevents me from using other translation tools efficiently (such as Dragon), it interferes with the quality of the final product.

    I want to be able to maintain my flow of thought without interruption. The Studio live preview, for example, can take seconds to update a segment. I cannot maintain a steady flow of thought and dictation if I have to pause for seconds between each segment and focus my attention the Studio preview window to see whether it is finally ready again, so Studio preview is useless to me.

    I even find the delay when confirming a segment to be distracting, as I have to focus on Studio as it churns away checking for matches in the TM.

    That is why I tend to read the source text in Adobe reader and dictate one segment after another into Word. There are no pauses, no Studio distractions, I can fully use all of the capabilities offered by Dragon. I don't even have to look at Word while dictating, as I can rely on Dragon and Word to work together reliably and catch everything I say.

    I use Studio to pre-translate files periodically during translation, and the concordance as a terminology reference tool. After dictating a small batch of text, I use Dragon macros to copy it into the proper segments in Studio.

    So, from my point of view, I am happy with Studio's core functions at the moment. It is the slow, unwieldy and distracting Studio UI that is holding me back.

    I used to code professionally many years ago, so I doubt that the SDL programmers are using coding editors that require them to use the mouse every few seconds. And I doubt the editors create any perceptible pauses that might interrupt the coders' flow of thought or make them wait while they are deeply engrossed in coding. That would, of course, have a big effect on productivity.

    In my view, SDL should create an interface that treats Studio users as similarly capable professionals.

    Just my two cents.

    Best regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services
  • 0 in reply to Bruce Campbell
    Hi Bruce,

    You don't need to convince me,,, although you'd be surprised how many users I come across who do prefer to use the mouse. Probably the best place for you to make your case is here:

    community.sdl.com/.../

    Maybe you'll get a lot of support for your views... maybe you won't. But at least we'll know and it might help the prioritisation if we find the vast majority of of our users support this too.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub

  • 0 in reply to Paul

    Hi Paul,

    I just read everyone's contributions, and agree that the UI is pretty terrible in terms of keyboard shortcut (or AHK) accessibility, and could really use a lot of work, but to get back to Nora's original question: why doesn't that darned Advanced Display Filter shortcut work? I have tried 10 different key combinations and nothing does anything. It's completely dead. And as other people have mentioned elsewhere in these forms, this isn't the only KBS that is completely dead.

    Can you please have someone from development make an inventory of all of the dead keyboard shortcuts and do something about it? It's a real bummer having to constantly use my mouse for everything. All I want to do is select a term in the source or target box and quickly show all segments that contain it. Every single keyboard shortcut works perfectly in CafeTran. Just sayin' … ;-)

    Michael
  • 0 in reply to Michael Beijer

    So assuming that the Advanced Display Filter KBS is dead (and will probably stay that way for a while), I went looking for a KBS to use the regular Display Filter, which led me to an old post of my own (), where  Jerzy Czopik suggested using CTRL+F6. And guess what (yes, you guessed it), THIS ONE IS DEAD TOO. Do any of them work?
  • 0 in reply to Michael Beijer
    Hi ,

    Ctrl+F6 works for me... but the Advanced Filter does not. The former is a shortcut set by Studio and the latter requires a custom shortcut as it's not defined. The bug is that custom shortcuts don't work and this is logged as LTB-900. I don't have timescales on this fix yet.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub