New hotkeys in Opera 9.5 (Kestrel): what and why?

Hooray, Kestrel is finally out. But remember that this is still an alpha version with many errors. It is best for you to test it by making a separate installation and a new directory. And if you decide to install-update, then you must make a backup copy of mail, as well as bookmarks, passwords, cookies, etc., if they are important to you.

Among other things, this version should be more convenient to use right from the moment of installation. It is not surprising that we are talking about non-obvious keyboard shortcuts, for a description of which you previously had to consult the documentation to find out how to return the browser to its normal state after accidentally pressing the wrong key. Yes, it did. And quite often. Our beta testers are well aware that experienced users will miss some of the hot one-button commands: 1/2 for switching tabs and z / x for navigation. Therefore, we also thought about how to enable these effective hotkeys in the bottom-up compatible mode (bundling an additional file of the “classic” keyboard settings will bring us problems in the future). You can find the new switch for activating these hotkeys in the Tools> Options ...> Advanced> Hotkeys menu.

And now about what changes we made and why. A full official list of differences in hotkey combinations is available here. Here is a list of reasons.

• Some abbreviated keyboard commands have been modified or added for better cross-browser compatibility.
• All single-letter and single-digit hotkeys have been removed. These keyboard shortcuts are very effective, but at the same time they cause problems for many users. For most of them, alternatives are available. In addition, they can be used again via Settings.
• All combinations of the Shift + letter and Shift + digit type have been changed or deleted for the same reasons.
• All combinations of the Alt + letter type have been changed or deleted. These hot keys are incompatible with many Opera localizations, because Alt + letters are used to access the main menu. The exception is the combination of Alt + P and the new Alt + D , which are available for historical reasons. Although, it is preferable to use alternatives for the actions they perform.
• All Ctrl + Alt + letter type combinations have been changed or deleted. The Windows User Interface Guide reserves these keyboard shortcuts for various system purposes and for an alternative input method on some keyboards.
• Hotkeys for rarely used actions have been removed, including two sets of hotkeys that were not shown in the normal user interface: Ctrl + Shift + number - to control panels and hotkeys on the site.
• Duplicated and therefore unnecessary hot keys have been removed. Those combinations that were necessary for compliance with the manual for the operating system, have become specific to this operating system.