programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
One of the quickest ways to increase your productivity on the computer is to go commando: stop using the mouse. When you stop relying on the mouse for everything, you're forced to learn the keyboard shortcuts. Jeremy Miller calls this the first step to coding faster. I agree.
Keyboard shortcuts are almost always more efficient than using the mouse to point and click your way around the computer – but you'll never learn them if you keep leaning on your trusty mouse to do all the work. Stop for a moment, resist taking the easy way out with the mouse, and force yourself to learn at least one new keyboard shortcut per day. Yes, it's a tiny bit of extra work. But it will pay off down the road: you'll spend less time mousing around, and more time getting things done.
I'm not anti-mouse by any means. I remember when mice were new; I'd never want to go back to the bad old days of keyboard-only interfaces. But most people I've observed using the computer these days rely almost exclusively on the mouse, to the detriment of their overall computer experience. Here are a few examples of how even the simplest keyboard shortcuts can make your daily routine easier:
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Most applications have tons of useful keyboard shortcuts; you just have to put down your mouse long enough to discover a few of them. It's a shame more applications don't go out of their way to make keyboard shortcuts more discoverable. At the very least, I'd like to see Office 2007 type behavior where, as you press the keyboard accelerator key, all the possible keyboard shortcuts "light up".
Unfortunately, navigating through websites is nearly impossible without a mouse, due to the highly mouse-centric nature of HTML. I've given up on trying. But it is possible, if you're a die-hard. Unless you enjoy pressing the tab key umpteen million times, you'll definitely want to check out Jon Galloway's mouseless computing recommendations, wherein he conquers the HTML keyboard challenge.
For best computing results, try to use your mouse and your keyboard to the fullest. But to do that, you've got to actively wean yourself off the mouse. Try going commando every now and then. It will be awkward and painful at first. You'll be sorely tempted to switch back to your old faithful mouse to get things done. Resist this urge! I guarantee whatever you're trying to do is possible – and ultimately quicker – if you persist with the keyboard.
As a touch typist I avoid anything that would make me hit two keys simultaneously unless one of them is shift. Using unfamiliar combinations of two or even three keys fast and frequently is asking for finger joint problems or RSI later in life. (I do use ctrl-X, ctrl-C and ctrl-V, though.)
I am also not in any case going to clutter up my brain with dozens of cryptic key sequences for every combination of application and operating system I use.
I very much liked the GOLD key (hit GOLD and the next key is magic) from VAX and VT-220 days and have customised emacs so that the keypad-minus key behaves similarly for some common functions.
Thanks to those posting about the use of normal keys such as / or ' in Firefox - those I may well start using.
I exclusively text-edit with Vim, and use ViEmu in VS2005. I have gvim.exe mapped to CTRL+ALT+V if I need to do some "heavy editing" on the current file in the IDE. I also use the Dvorak keyboard layout with some modifications.
I switched to both about 3 years ago and it was really painful, but the benefits have far outweighed the initial discomfort.
LukeB on March 28, 2007 9:42 AMJeff,
In Windows Explorer, there is no keyboard shortcut for New Folder
Alt+F, W, F? Or use the right-click equivalent menu (ctrl+f10) key.
Not sure what you slaved ctrl-f10 with, but on a default layout it's equivalent to an alt press. Unless that's what you meant. (I usually use the context-menu key for that, keeps mousing and keyboarding mentally in tune.
Plus alt-F, W fails if some other bull%# adds a shortcut with w to the context menu for any files. Ugh.
Foxyshadis on March 28, 2007 9:45 AMWhat I've noticed is that it's the context switch (taking my hand off the keyboard to grab the mouse or vice-versa) that's expensive. So my tendency is to minimize the context switches.
For example, I've memorized all the MSDEV shortcuts so I never use the mouse while I'm coding (the VC6-VS2005 transition for me was quite painful; now I know the default keyboard shortcuts for both !).
Similarly, when I'm browsing, my hand's already on the mouse, so I like to have sites I visit regularly on the toolbar.
Dvorak keyboardist here, too. Taught myself to type on it 15 years ago, when I reached the limits of hunt-and-peck, so I can't compare it to QWERTY.
Mac OS offers a Dvorak keyboard layout with command keys in the QWERTY locations (e.g. undo-cut-copy-paste in the bottom-left corner of the keyboard), but that would make it more work to discover and memorize shortcuts in new programs. In Dvorak, these four shortcuts are all on the right hand, so I think it encourages keeping both hand on the keyboard and learning more shortcuts, especially text-editing navigation.
The MacBook's two-finger drag scrolling on the trackpad is also great for reducing dragging and clicking, in both vertical-scrolling text windows and free-scrolling graphic windows (and over the iTunes volume slider!). When I have a mouse plugged in on the desktop, I still often use the trackpad for certain operations. I'd like to see a desktop keyboard with a trackpad built into the wrist rest.
The other quick way to increase your productivity on the computer is "Think about what you're doing, before actually doing it".
I prefer to use my (few) precious brain-cycles to think about the code I'll be writing in the next hours, and find a way to "write less code" instead of "writing code more quickly". I use some shortcuts for the actions I perform more often (no more than 10, I think), and my mouse for everything else.
Honestly I've seen system administrators and developers "going commando", and eventually they all seem under a schizophrenia attack :-)
By the way... if someone decided that the mouse was a good idea, maybe it's because learning dozens of shortcuts was slowing users down...
filini on March 28, 2007 11:41 AM"Another obstruction to productivity just as big as ONLY using a mouse is a qwerty keyboard"
It took me about 3 weeks before I was sufficiently competent in dvorak. Now I'm faster (although I never did time tests and it was quite awhile before I got really fast) and there's much less finger and hand movement.
You don't have to get a new keyboard:
http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/dvorcaps.pdf
You can teach yourself:
http://www.mit.edu/people/jcb/Dvorak/dvorak-course
Dvorak Background:
http://www.dvorak-keyboard.com/
This is one of the reasons I love Vista*: the new Start menu is like this new super-shortcut / command-line thing. If I want to launch the Windows SDK documentation, for example, I hit the windows key, type sdk, and then enter (don't wait for the search results, it figures it out automatically and just launches the first result). Want Firefox? Windows key, type F, then enter.
The quicklaunch area is much more awesome now too, since you can use Windows key + a number to launch shortcuts. So if I have a link to Wikipedia as the 4th quicklaunch item I just hit Win+4 and I'm there.
* Full disclosure: Remember, I work for Microsoft
Rick Brewster on March 28, 2007 12:09 PMas i said on the shahine.com site in regards to browser url input, i didn't know about the alt-d shortcut, but hitting F6 does the same thing (focuses and highlights the location bar) in ie and firefox.
also, you can not only do ctrl-enter for .com websites, but also shift-enter for .net and ctrl-shift-enter for .org. this only seems to work with firefox and not ie though. :(
cowgod on March 28, 2007 12:18 PMThe debunking of Dvorak consists of bean-counters asserting that the cost of re-training people will never be recouped by a marginal (about 2%) speed gain. It ignores the undeniable fact that QWERTY requires a lot more finger travel, thus probably more hand strain, thus quite possibly more injury. (Note that I explicitly went from what is proven to what seems probable there -- I have no hard evidence that QWERTY causes more injuries than Dvorak; Dvorak haytuhs don't have any hard evidence that it doesn't.)
If the debunkers have any concern for typists' comfort, their articles don't show it. Me, I care about my comfort, and am very glad to have learned Dvorak for that reason.
I couldn't agree more. I luv using keyboard shortcuts and seeing people's reaction when I use one and I get a "How'd you do that?!". However, I dislike the fact that my laptop doesn't have a windows key on it for using windows shortcuts like ctrl-l, ctrl-e etc.
Tim on March 28, 2007 12:24 PMGreat post, Jeff.
I wanted to point your readers to an excellent interface related to this idead. Can you resist the urge??
Seth Root on March 28, 2007 12:38 PMYeah, I don't count Alt-menu shortcuts as "real" shortcuts - they're long, and they can be stolen like Foxyshadis says.
Why not Ctrl-N? It isn't used for anything else in Explorer.
Ben Hollis on March 28, 2007 12:47 PMI think it's a great idea to use shortcuts, or at least use the keyboard and mouse *together*.
Heh, I didn't even realize that I was learning new shortcuts for my Start Menu:
(Windows Key) (P) (M) (N)
Opens Start Menu, goes to all programs, goes to misc, then starts Nero Burning ROM.
I've even started using the keyboard to navigate Explorer too, with the same idea as the Start Menu.
Russ on March 28, 2007 1:17 PM"Go to the Washing Mutual Bank website: www.wamu.com
Do you by default end up in the login form elements? NO
Number of TABs to get to the username: 19"
I literally will type "user{TAB}" to place the focus in the correct field in these cases (using aforementioned FF option).
DudeNumber4 on March 28, 2007 1:46 PMThis is the first article I have read here that is just flat out wrong. In addition to the links given above, I would add:
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/Mouse_vs._keyboard/index.html
If you still think that the keyboard is faster than the mouse, do as the linked article suggests and "time yourself".
"One final problem: you'll eventually lose your qwerty skills which is inconvenient when you're forced to use someone else's machine."
XP allows you to place a layout switching icon on the taskbar. I set this option on all my relative's machines (they don't mind the icon and each newly opened application defaults to qwerty if you want).
"If QWERTY really is so much more uncomfortable and injury-prone than Dvorak, why does almost nobody use it?"
Doesn't this go w/o saying? 99.99% of the world's keyboards are qwerty, and when any person undertakes the task of learning to type, they know nothing of dvorak. Once qwerty is learned, it's very difficult to switch.
Can you disprove the fact (not saying you can't) that the original layout was designed with the idea to discourage fast typing so that the mechanical arms wouldn't get hung up? Or that there is much less hand/finger movement using dvorak? That was enough to make me switch when (I thought) I had carpal tunnel...
I once wrote a Browser Helper Object (BHO) for Internet Explorer 6 called KeyboardAccess. It does the link enumeration thing (like the Firefox addons mentioned here before in the comments) with almost all click-able elements in a web page and it works very fast.
When I switched to Firefox I pretty much stopped developing KeyboardAccess, but you can take a look if you're interested:
http://keyboardaccess.sourceforge.net/
Enjoy.
p.s.
It should work on Internet Explorer 7, and it's open source so if you have any suggestions, be sure to implement them too :)
Launchy is the sh*t! I rarely use the mouse to start any program. It's the best thing I've used for many years.
P on March 29, 2007 3:11 AMHow about the Layout menu of the Organize drop down in Vista's file explorer? I wanted this in XP too but had no luck. I would love to be able to flip the Navigation Pane on and off with the keyboard.
This seems like such an obvious keyboard shortcut but I can't seem to find a way; has anyone else?
mhardy on March 29, 2007 3:25 AMHow about changing to Dvork Keyboard. It's likely to speed up productivity even more over mouse... once you get over the learning curve.
Mark Stair on March 29, 2007 5:00 AMI'm with mhardy. That would make that feature a lot more useful. I'm pretty happy to have found the Ctrl+N to open a new window in explorer.
TheGeoff on March 29, 2007 6:13 AMYou wouldn't make fun of someone who used a crutch to walk (or would you?)
I would make fun of a person who thought they where going to be a running back in the NFL if they needed a crutch to walk.
Are you an IT professional or are you a casual web surfer/blog troll?
I'm constantly tell people how to quickly find things in eclipse or with google desktop (ctrl-shift-R/T) or ctrl-ctrl and they actually refuse. It's seems some people like to click around in GUIs and make up fantasies about how somehow the extra time isn't important.
mike on March 29, 2007 6:20 AMthe windows key + r opens the run command window and can be your best friend for weening yourself from the mouse.
type the following in the run command window to open the following programs:
winword - opens ms word
excel - opens excel
www.website.com - opens website in default browser
mstsc - remote desktop
....and on and on.
there are tutorials for creating your own keywords for opening programs through the run command window.
i find using windows key + r to be a big timesaver.
JRock on March 29, 2007 7:52 AMI use a logitech vx revolution and i have many keyboard shortcuts programmed into it, such as alt+Tab is the second center click and ctrl+tab/ctrl+shift+tab is the zoom +/- button. i also have many others for specific applications. the mouse is pricey but honestly its made things incredibly convenient.
ive been yelled at by fellow programmers for being too "mouse-centric," as im new to the field. however i still use keyboard shortcuts like crazy. its just sometimes youre using the keyboard and sometimes youre using the mouse. so i think i have the best of both worlds.
navigate in Firefox by hitting "/" and then typing in the text of the link that you want to go to
theres also a setting in firefox 2.0 that when you start typing it starts searching for the first occurance. its not on by default though.
x's on March 29, 2007 9:34 AMI am a big fan of using the keyboard as much as possible. I have found that over the years I have formed "modes" in my brain for the different types of editors I use:
Mode # 1 - "Everyman" Editing:
This is my brain mode for when I am in a standard windows text box, a notepad window, or editing something on someone else's editor and I want to have the best chance of things just "working". No fancy, feelin' cool editing tricks here. Just get the job done and use the experience to remind you of how much nicer the other mode's are.. (This message typed in Mode # 1).
Mode # 2 - "Faux Emacs"
Ah, old school emacs. This is my favorite, because if you are trained right you can keep both hands on the keyboard for just about everything. No lifting your hand up to search for arrow keys or the home/end. Just keep those palms flat on the keyboard ergo-bench and type away. Emacs uses the CTRL and ALT keys as modifiers for all the basic editing commands, and has no qualms about, say, using Control-F to mean "move cursor forward" and Control-d to mean "delete character". There are some interesting conflicts that arise when you bring the default emacs commands to windows. The one that really freaks people out is when I have Page-Down mapped to Control-V. Heaven help the poor soul who tries to use my Visual Studio while its emacs profile is still engaged. They go to paste a bit of text and the *entire screen changes!* Heh heh... if I had a dime for every time a coworker yelped in dismay...
I do have a somewhat hybrid set up for those apps that I can configure to use emacs key bindings - things like Shift + Control + F = Extend selection forward one char, Shift + Control + A = Extend selection to start of line, and Control + U = Page Up (took that from vi). I am actually more in tune with this "bastardized" hybrid than true emacs, but drop me in real emacs editor and I only start to choke when I have to remember those funky double-sequence commands like Control-X Control-S to save and the like. Or heaven help me if I need to remember how to manipulate kill regions or run a Meta-X search-for-string...
Mode # 3: "To The Pain" (g)VI(m)
Long ago I lived in worlds where sometimes emacs was not available. I bit the bullet and learned VI. It is just as powerful as emacs in its ability to let you keep those palms flat on the keyboard, but it does it in a different way. VI is a "mode-based" editor - meaning that you press a key ('i') and then everything you type until you hit the ESCAPE key is treated as text input. If you are not in 'insert' mode, then you're in 'command' mode, which is where you can move around ('ijkl') and enter "colon" commands like ':w ~/myfile.txt', ':wq' (write file then quit), or ':q!' (quit without saving, dammit).
After literally years, I eventually reached the point where I could effortlessly switch into "vi" mode and do quie well. These days, I am even able to do basic search and replace without having to look it up. Don't believe me? Check this out:
':1,$s/foobar/Snickers/g'
Looks like Sendmail control codes, or Perl gone right, eh? No sir, it is my version of "Replace every occurence of the word 'foobar' with 'Snickers' in the file. My mind tells me that this command is essentially broken down like this:
':1,$s/foobar' - this part tells vi to search for the string foobar anywhere from the 1st line of the file to the end of the file '$'.
'/Snickers/' - If you find a foobar, replace it with Snickers please...
'/g' - Oh, and do it globally for all matches you find. (Snickers really satisfies...).
It turns out that depending on which vi you are using you may not need the 'g' part at all.. and frankly if you use me as your canonical reference for how to break down the vi command above you should have your brain checked for lesions.
Well, anyway, that's my brain on editors after well over ten years of programming in Unix, Windows, and other seedy locales. Thank you for listening, and for the opportunity to expound at such great length. :)
-Michael (http://yevaud.blogspot.com)
PS - I accidentally posted this comment in response to a much older article linked by this post that described the common keyboard shortcuts, so forgive this repost.
PPS - My blog has this post as well if you want to read it with better formatting.
Michael Moore on March 29, 2007 11:49 AMAbout keyboard browsing: maybe you should try "Caret Browsing" (F7) from Firefox. Along with Tab/Shift-Tab and incremental search, it makes almost anything possible (erm.. except drag'n'drop?)
b100dian on March 30, 2007 3:23 AMTo get started in a mouse free world you can start with these ingredients:
- An application launcher, like Launchy or Google Desktop.
- WinKeys for global keyboard shortcuts.
- Total Commander. Never use lame Windows Explorer again. TC has keyboard shortcuts for everything. It pains me to watch people navigate with Windows Explorer.
- UltraMon if you use more than one monitor.
Cheers.
Diego on March 30, 2007 6:55 AMwow. didn't know anyone cared this much. I use the keyboard all the time. I'm doing it now in fact! Any boost in productivity gained by my skillful use of my non-dvorak keyboard is immediately squandered by people stopping by and talking to me about non-work matters. Stop IT!!!
spanky on March 30, 2007 10:56 AMHit-a-Hint is indeed *the* solution for mouseless browsing:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1341
I highly recommend it.
Wow how about this??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtmwQnUlEmc
use a webcam to track your hands to act like a mouse!
I've wanted this forever. its the best of both worlds. you dont waste time moving your hand off your keyboard to your mouse, and back.
beautiful
mt256 on March 31, 2007 7:21 AM@Therac-2
You're an idiot. I posted that link because it provokes thought, not because I want to replace the keyboard with mouse gestures.
In terms of UI dev, it's f'ing fantastic. Do you really think there isn't a market for high end interaction design?? Are you THAT committed to accessibility that you deny the chance for UI engineers to explore new spaces? Should a user be forever limited in the ways they are able to communicate with an application?
pshhh. i think not.
For anyone else, this is what we are talking about:
a href="http://www.dontclick.it/"http://www.dontclick.it//a
Heh... this is why I always get pwned in strategy games :)
Jasmine on April 6, 2007 3:41 AMAmen.
A while back I wrote a similar post about how keyboard shortcuts can help you save a considerable amount of time per day.
http://www.webdev101.com/tips/most-helpful-thing-i%e2%80%99ve-ever-learned/
Doug on April 9, 2007 5:13 AMHellalooyah!!
Good job Doug! See my post above...
Everyone else. Super duper job as well. I wish I could work with people as smart as you. I work with a bunch of morons who actually touch their mices use two monitors! Eek! Gads! Imagine having to watch someone mouse over two screens. (I imagine heads exploding even as I type this on my keyboard (without the help of a stupid mouse))
On second thought, maybe I'll try and come up with a way of using two mice at the same time eliminate the need for the keyboard altogether. I do have a lazy eye, after all, so tracking them both should not present a problem. and you non-lazy eye suckers could probably get surgery to fix your problem/short-comings.
spanky on April 10, 2007 10:12 AMMouse-weary Mac users might like to try an application called Quicksilver
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
It's a graphical but keyboard driven application launcher and search tool -
it looks up applications, documents, address book entries and other things
(a bit like Spotlight) and then lets you build up sort of graphical 'commands'
like 'Open', 'copy to clipboard', 'email to' etc. Honestly, it pains
me to watch other Mac users still hunting for applications in folders they've
hung off the Dock.
One other tip - most Cocoa text widgets accept a subset of Emacs bindings:
Ctrl-D delete, Ctrl-E end of line, Ctrl-K kill to end of line, etc.
Here's the question of the day:
Is writing bad code faster better than writing little or no code at all?
I use firefox and the best way to surf IMO is the ' key.
It does the same as / or Ctrl+F but only for links.
So, you just press ' type some characters from the link you want to go and then Enter. You can even press F3 to repeat the last search (great for automatically pressing this "next" link).
Voila! You are on your next site with no effort (try it in the google results, it is amazing :) )
in firefox, if you type the apostrophe, the search as you type only searches through links.
wozza on July 10, 2007 5:28 AMCtrl-Shft-Escape
The best keyboard shortcut by far.
boelwda on October 29, 2007 12:54 PMdontclick.it is possibly one of the best looking yet worse UI I've come across.
1. It's fully flash.
2. Error rate of opening up unwanted links is extremely high.
3. Most of the links are forced in the content to fill up space.
4. Internal content conforms to "mystery meat" style of navigation. Your mouse opens something without you planning to. Outside of the navi-bars, you have no idea what it is you're opening or why. It's opening just because.
3. Works best as a standalone/demo and not as a UI.
4. Works best for maybe a Cola type product demo, delivered on CD-Rom.
As a designer, my opinion is that's not experimenting. That's taking well known usability no-nos and trying to work it into something it can never be.
Consider also that the site is fully vector with mostly basic shapes which makes the animation a joy to behold. However, in a real world scenario, with media and images added, that smoothness and snappy interface animation will suffer pretty badly even when viewed using broadband.
It ends up being gimmicky at best. A nice looking gimmick...and knowing the brain-dead way that the design advertising world operates (most big ad agencies wouldn't know UI from fish), it will probably win some kind of award for "most innovative UI". UI is expressed in millimeters and not broad sweeping kilometer-length strokes.
ounkeo on January 11, 2008 11:46 AMThe Firefox users in this blog don't seem familiar with the features of the app.
Enable Caret Browsing; an accessibility feature.
Parse the web page like an editable document using cursor keys. Similar to Opera's spatial navigation.
ibguru on January 17, 2008 4:05 AMQuick note: You can also use Shift+Enter (.net) and Control+Shift+Enter (.org) in addition to Ctrl+Enter. Oh, and Ctrl+L is my preferred way to get to the location bar because of its similarity to Ctrl+K for the search bar. :) Alt+D just seems out of place, but I guess whatever works.
Jake on January 21, 2008 7:38 AMThe Colemak keyboard layout ( http://colemak.com/ ) is slightly more efficient than Dvorak, and *much* easier for QWERTY-users to learn. And it puts ZXCV in the right place.
By the way, the anti-jam features of QWERTY aren't all about slowing the typist down—the other technique was to separate common digraphs so that the first hammer could get out of the way of the second quicker.
It's interesting that the main thing people here are mentioning about Vista is the search field in the Start menu, and no-one's yet mentioned that in Mac OS you can do the same thing by pressing Cmd+Space. (Except it appears in the opposite corner of the screen, as a certain snarky YouTube video reminds us.) And by the way you can press Cmd with a thumb without taking your fingers out of the typing position.
I think I'd like dontclick.it if it was presented as art, rather than as a practical experiment.
A few remarks on Vim:
Remap Caps Lock to CTRL. ^[ is Esc, ^H is Backspace, but easier to reach (not just in Vim, but also in bash and Cocoa (although in the latter it's occasionally overridden by website access keys—ugh!)), and in insert mode ^P can save typing when you're using long identifiers. A few other control-keys also come in handy, but I find ^[, ^H and ^P are the most important ones in insert mode. And in normal mode ^F and ^B scroll by a screenful.
The modes are easier to deal with if you get into the habit of hitting Esc (or ^[ ) whenever you stop typing. Then whenever you don't remember what mode you're in, assume it's normal mode. (If you forgot to press ^[, you'll insert some garbage which you can get rid of with ^H—much less problematic than the opposite mistake.) And don't always use 'i'. Learn IaAoOcCsS as well. And maybe gi and gI. I've even had occasion to use 'r'.
Don't rely on hjkl to get around. (Colemak is good here, as it puts them out of the way. Ignore what the Colemak FAQ says about Vim.) For long movements, cursor keys (including hjkl) are slower than the mouse, even if you don't notice. Learn to use fFtT; for horizontal movement (I even find comma useful, although I gather that's unusual), and /?nN{} for vertical movement. Learn *#%() too. I find 'hlsearch' handy during a search, but it's distracting when I'm done searching, so I've :nmapped \\ to :nohlsearchCR.
I'd say learn to use marks, but they require too much thinking ahead.
Sam on February 4, 2008 6:02 AMI agree, and here's a little anecdote supporting it.
I once worked on a big-arsed mainframe, and we wanted to find all users running scripted workflows. Have you used mainframe terminals? You know, green screens TAB keys. NO GUI!!
Well this bloke's name came up as pumping through a huge number of transactions. We assumed it must mean he's running a script. And you know where this is heading don't you. He had a big pile of paper, and a good old fashioned keyboard.
No mouse clicks in sight.
Rod T on February 26, 2008 6:42 AMI believe the Apple study to be extremely dated; it was written in 1989 and even references the Lisa. At the time, keyboard shortcuts were different than today such as the WordPerfect shortcuts that were indeed quite complex and challenging to remember unless you used it all the time.
With the advent of the menu (which was still not universal in 1989), keyboard shortcuts also have visual feedback when used for menu items which helps reinforce the keyboard usage. There are certainly applications that are more efficient through the keyboard, some through the mouse, and some through both.
Saying the mouse is faster than the keyboard is somewhat akin to saying the average age in a country is 40 and then assuming there are no deviations and therefore everyone is 40. There are far too many variables to make that broad of a statement.
Ryan on March 6, 2008 10:43 AMYou can use vi keybinding on firefox. No more mousing around. :) Download vimoperator at http://www.vimoperator.mozdev.org. Current version supports only firefox 2.
It really is faster to use the keyboard shortcuts. It does feel nice to move the pointer around the page sometimes, especially after typing for a long time. http://www.whatisgoingonblog.com
What is going on, blog on July 29, 2008 8:49 AMIn Firefox, there is a useful shortcut that helps browsing without the mouse: ' (single-quote).
When you press the single-quote key, Firefox lets you incremental search for some text in the links only.
It is similar to find-as-you-search using the / (forward-slash) character, but only finds matches in links.
Vimperator's been out for Firefox 3 for quite a while now, you should give it a shot.
Patr on October 31, 2008 3:55 AM=~n
b on November 16, 2008 7:56 AMAs an avid mouse hater, this is a bit of a duh moment.
If you're going to put down the mouse, you might as well make it easier on yourself and switch to a window manager that is keyboard-friendly. For our Mac friends this might be impossible, for windows users it's hard but not un-heard of (when I was stuck on a windows box I replaced the shell with blackbox), and for linux users its stupidly simple.
My favorite so far is xmonad, there are others such as stumpwm and ratpoison.
The benefits are incredible. No more sorting through windows trying to find where you put something. You know you opened that window and it should be immediately infront of you when you need it. All information in all visible windows are -- VISIBLE! Beautiful, full-screened, and no fussy animations, borders, or decorations.
Be warned though, some tiling window managers are terrible at dealing with modal windows (ie: pop-up dialogs).
In combination with a good text editor (emacs, vim, take your pick) and FF + vimperator (or emacs keybindings if you're so inclined) and you'll never have to touch the mouse ever again.
Become a touch typist and have a multi-head set up and you'll be whizzing. I've had moments where the interface to the computer melted away and I was manipulating systems and coding at the speed of thought. The mechanics should be removed as much as possible -- this is afterall, an intellectual job and not a manual one.
Looking forward to a mouseless world.
j_king on November 19, 2008 9:46 AMAnother vote for the Firefox addon Vimperator here. I can go flying through websites faster than people can understand what's going on, as it's designed to be very vim-like.
Izkata on January 17, 2009 8:48 AMProgrammers could also learn touch-typing, but this wouldn't help them get their job done any faster.
While I agree that sheer speed of code entry isn't the mark of a good engineer, don't think that the reverse is true: that a good engineer can't be improved by learning to enter code faster. I took touch typing in high school because none of the other classes offered at the same time were interesting, and it turned out to have the greatest impact on my software career.
Sure, I had gotten to the point of two-finger-per-hand-hunt-and-peck-without-looking by that time (and had to unlearn it), but I still hit the wrong keys often and had to stop and reorient myself sometimes. But with touch typing my speed increased greatly, and my ability to put thought to screen shot up.
That doesn't increase the value of what I put on the screen, as you said, but it means I have that much more time to evaluate what I've done and make it better. You'll also be more likely to write clear comments that you'll find useful when you can type prose faster.
David Harkness on January 18, 2009 1:02 AMJeremy Miller calls this the first step to coding faster.
Who gives a rats about coding faster? - I play Sonic the Hedgehog fast, I don't try breaking the record books when producing code, even less so when producing good code.
goatslayer on January 19, 2009 2:53 AMI have gone a step further, every program that I use are choosen because of how easy their are to use with keyboard, vim for file editing, opera for browsing, ratpoison for window managing, and so on... and specially with linux it is quit easy to manage the file with the shell. sad that windows make use of the keyboard so hard.
Augusto Hack on February 6, 2009 4:17 AMI have gone a step further, every program that I use are choosen because of how easy their are to use with keyboard, vim for file editing, opera for browsing, ratpoison for window managing, and so on... and specially with linux it is quit easy to manage the file with the shell. sad that windows make use of the keyboard so hard.
Augusto Hack on February 6, 2009 4:18 AMActually, when you're using Firefox there is a way to go mouseless. First enable the search as you type feature. Then install the Conkeror addon for firefox. Now you're all ready to go.
bg on May 7, 2009 4:22 AM">> In Windows Explorer, there is no keyboard shortcut for New Folder
>Alt+F, W, F? Or use the right-click equivalent menu (ctrl+f10) key.
Not sure what you slaved ctrl-f10 with, but on a default layout it's equivalent to an alt press. Unless that's what you meant."
Right-click equivalent is Shift+F10, not Ctrl+F10
cthrek on June 1, 2009 4:36 AM"Further, productivity is not measured in speed of "coding". Unless you're a monkey implementing pre-designed features without any creativity, speed of entering lines of code is the least factor for your productivity."
I'm sorry, I have to disagree here. Everyone is different. I think in words, not in images or sounds. The most efficient mediums to express my particular creative thoughts are an IDE, notepad, email, chat etc. I can be extremely productive and do great things if I can get those thoughts down and out. Pausing to use a mouse or pick up a pen disrupts my thought process. It's too easy to be distracted at that point, I've lost my focus. While I'm mousing towards a button, I'll notice I've got new email or I'll hear a side conversation, and that genius idea fighting to get out has just disappeared into the ether. To me at least, using the mouse is like an artist stopping a masterpiece to go to the back and find the right shade of green. Forget productivity, what if the whole vision is lost in that time?
Steve Jackson on February 6, 2010 10:03 PMMy favourite shortcut by far is alt+tab to quickly switch between windows. You can navigate to any open window by holding alt and pressing tab the required amount of times but the nicest thing about it is that alt plus tab once will bring you back to the last window in focus.
For example I'm working in editplus on a website and I have the page open in my browser to view the changes. Press alt+tab I'm at the webpage, alt+tab again I'm back in editplus.
I just wish there was someway to set it so that it either worked for all open windows or tabs within a single window, like firefox or editplus.
I know in firefox I can ctrl+tab through my open tabs and in editplus I can use F12 to toggle back and forward through the last tab in focus, but I am so used to hitting alt+tab that I do it constantly when I mean to switch application tabs not active windows.
Aaron Bassett on February 6, 2010 10:03 PMWhen it comes to web surfing I'll go the opposite route. Try to use your mouse only, but use it effectively. Use FireFox and download the All-In-One-Gestures add-on and start using mouse gestures instead of pressing those navigation buttons.
Kent Larsson on February 6, 2010 10:03 PMEver fat finger your copy/paste and wind up copying nothing? One of the best "mouse" things I did was get the Microsoft Trackball (gasp/ people still use those?!) and configure the small outer buttons to copy and paste, skip this navigation stuff. It's made working with code insanely easier.
That said, I'm all for more keyboarding between the virtual desktop hot keys, Qliner hotkeys and Launchy to fire off applications, and the hotkeys within applications themselves, I think I give people eye twitches when they watch me work. 8^D
Sean Patterson on February 6, 2010 10:03 PMIn our C++ class, one student suggested No-Mouse-Fridays (the teacher is cool like that). We were about to do it, except changing files in VC++ 6.0 doesn't work.
Also, I found it helpful to create a quick "run" program with custom commands, much like the new one in the start bar of Vista. I tap scroll lock (because I can't tell that it does anything anyway) and up pops the dialog. I type it in and move probably 30% faster on a long session.
Perhaps Linux can help eliminate the "Windows syndrome" and lead to a better GUI system... One can only hope.
Cameron B on February 6, 2010 10:03 PMJeff, your assertion that filling in a form on a website with the keyboard is usually correct. Of course, there are far too many websites where the tab ordering is screwed up.
Enter First name
tab
Enter last name
tab
Enter email
tab
notice the email has gone into the password tab and your last name is now the first line of your address,
Shift-tab, shift-tab
Re-enter everything slowly to make sure that you're entering the right stuff. Or, just use the mouse for that too.
Generally though, everybody who uses a computer should be learning the shortcuts for the most common commands in their most common applications. Developers in VS shouldn't be using the mouse to step through the debugger. Although, it is faster in VS to double-click the variable you're interested in and then drag it into the watch window, rather than highlighting the watch window and carefully typing it in making sure the case and everything's the same. And then, if you expand the watch and find a member 10 levels in, just drag and drop it to a new cell in the window to get VS to enter all of the dereferencing and brackets.
Basically, learn shortcuts and use them whether they're keyboard or mouse shortcuts.
jon on February 6, 2010 10:03 PMI don't agree that learning "a shortcut every day" will help increase productivity. I think one should learn the most important shortcuts, like CTRL+C and CTRL+V etc.
My brain can't handle CTRL+P+F, F12+D, or any other shortcuts that are specific to a product etc. and are not *universal*.
My only other point here is that if you are designing an application that takes in data from 1 or more set or forms, there should be keyboard shortcuts to move from screen to screen and to make filling up the forms possible without a mouse. Data driven applications are fastest when no mouse involved.
The superiority of the Dvorak keyboard is a myth that was debunked long ago. QWERTY was never designed to slow people down. There's never been any demonstrable evidence (i.e. by an RCT) that Dvorak is a better layout. Most of the so-called field success of Dvorak - and there is precious little - tends to be because the testees never learned properly how to type on a QWERTY.
Off-topic, I just saw this...
Steve Riley: "If a programmer is creating several hundred new lines of code each day this is generally way too much."
This is a joke, right?
Aaron G on February 6, 2010 10:03 PM"The debunking of Dvorak consists of bean-counters asserting that the cost of re-training people will never be recouped by a marginal (about 2%) speed gain. It ignores the undeniable fact that QWERTY requires a lot more finger travel, thus probably more hand strain, thus quite possibly more injury. (Note that I explicitly went from what is proven to what seems probable there -- I have no hard evidence that QWERTY causes more injuries than Dvorak; Dvorak haytuhs don't have any hard evidence that it doesn't.)"
That's patently absurd. I don't even know where to begin - perhaps with your ad-hominem referring to respected economists as "bean counters", or by people who haven't drunk the Kool-Aid as "haytuhs". If you want your profession to be respected then perhaps you should start by respecting others'.
You even admit that you don't have evidence of these injury rates, so how can you say in the same paragraph that it's "undeniable"? It's completely deniable! My fingers and hands don't "travel" at all on my QWERTY keyboard (except using the home/end/pgup/pgdown/arrow keys but a Dvorak won't help me there). I think one would have to use the hunt-and-peck method in order for that to be true.
All we have to go by is your personal testimonial. It's your word against mine, and your word against the market's. If QWERTY really is so much more uncomfortable and injury-prone than Dvorak, why does almost nobody use it? I really hope your reason isn't "because everyone else is ignorant". Whether it's Dvorak keyboards, Mac OS, Beta or LaserDisc video, it's always the same thing: a lot of posturing and subjective statements without any evidence.
What was your typing speed on QWERTY? Were you ever really trained on it? Did you ever injure yourself on it? Do you know anybody else who was injured, who then switched to Dvorak and reported being fine? Is it not remotely possible that the improvement in "comfort" is psychological?
Aaron G on February 6, 2010 10:03 PMThis seems like the right place to ask a question that’s been on my mind for a while: How do I switch between remote desktop (mstsc) windows when they’re in full screen mode using the keyboard?
Stephen Turton on February 6, 2010 10:03 PMI happily browse the web most of the time without touching a mouse, using Hit-A-Hint and SurfKeys. The only thing SurfKeys lacks is the ability to change focus between frames for scrolling, but you can fake that with Hit-A-Hint. Highly recommended!
Anon on February 6, 2010 10:03 PMThe comments to this entry are closed.
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