A command I could really use
Ctl+Z works when you've done something inadvertently bad, but what about those rare occasions when you do something inadvertently good?
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Ctl+Z works when you've done something inadvertently bad, but what about those rare occasions when you do something inadvertently good?
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6 Comments
CTRL-Y !
In those rare occasions...Do it again! By pressing Ctrl+Y
Works in most applications.
I think Ctrl+Y just redoes and un-done command. But it doesn't duplicate the command if you hit it twice.
Yeah, perhaps I didn't explain what I "want," and I use the quotes because I'm not really sure if I actually want it that badly ... But anyway, what I meant to describe was an instructional sort of thing for those odd times when I hit a strange combination of keys and something interesting happens. For example, the other day, I was in InDesign. I hit a weird combination of keys, and suddenly a couple of objects snapped to the document grid rather than the guides. Of course, I could switch to a browser and Google something like "snap to document grid shortcut" and quickly discover that I'd hit Shift+Ctl+' ... which was nice, but not as nice as InDesign telling me what I did.
Great idea! I wish I had this a few times.
Good idea. I think this could be worked into the existing undo and redo menu items. In some applications they already say "Undo X" where X is the action just performed. If they said X *and* the key combination then it'd be perfect.
I like the way you think, Kevin. Being more explicit in the menu would definitely introduce more immediate pedagogy into the UI.
The more I think about it, the more I think that "What Did I Just Do?" is just the tip of the iceberg.
The original suggestion was strictly related to a happy accident initiated by the user, but you can imagine that many applications could actively encourage users to better utilize the existing functionality. So it's not only "What Did I Just Do?"; it's "How Should I Be Doing This?"
I know, I know. This is what Clippy did. We need to learn from Clippy, but we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Software can teach us to be more efficient without getting in the way, can't it? It's a simple matter of interaction design.
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