[Koha] Operating koha without the need for mouse

[Owen Leonard]

> > It will be a greate help if the koha menu items, dialog boxes and
> > other controls are provided with shotcut keys to enable them to be
> > quickly selected by pressing the control keys, avoiding the need for
> > using mouse and repeated tab keys.
> > This feature is especially useful in circulation module.
>
> Was developped in the States.
> Problem of that is translation. It adds <span></span> inside Words. and
> this is not managed by Kartouche.

Not entirely correct... The NPL templates use HTML's accesskey attribute to
handle keyboard shortcuts. These work very well in an organization that is
fairly browser-homogeneous and entirely English-speaking.

There has been some discussion of whether accesskey assignments could be
made in a way to remain language-neutral. For example, Alt-R makes sense
for an English-speaker to access Returns, but doesn't if you speak Polish.

One solution would be to make accesskey's configurable. I don't see why
that couldn't be done fairly easily.

The issue of <span> inside words comes from the fact that in the NPL
template the accesskey value is highlighted in the left-hand navigation
menu by
styling a single letter with an underline. You can see what I mean in the
Liblime Demo, which uses the NPL template: http://koha.liblime.com/. Note
the 'Returns' link, and the 'Issue to' and 'Quick Search' labels.

This kind of onscreen clue would probably be impossible in any
user-configurable accesskey scheme. It might be a viable alternative to
offer a tooltip hint, though.

This is definitely a subject that needs to be discussed as we move forward
in Koha, as fast and efficient keyboard interaction is necessary for any
busy librarian!

  -- Owen
  
-- 
Web Developer
Nelsonville Public Library
http://www.athenscounty.lib.oh.us