Keyboard navigation and searching in 'Settings'

Feature requests
1

Use case or problem

When in ‘Settings’ I do not want to use the mouse. I can enter the settings section, with keyboard shortcut, then I also want to navigate and search without having to use the mouse.

Currently I have to navigate with my mouse and when searching I have to select the ‘search’, or ‘Filter’ box in the page, before I can start typing.

Proposed solution

By having keyboard navigation to move through the Settings items and having the Search / Filter box active by default, I can navigate and just start typing when I search for something on the page, without having to take my hands away from the keyboard. For example in the ‘Hotkeys’ page, or when browsing the community plugings, themes, …

Thanks!

Rolf

14 Likes
2

Hi :slightly_smiling_face: What is happening with this feature request? I just started using obsidian, and this was one of the first things I noticed. And I am opening settings many times a day so this would be a great improvement. I cannot see any reason why for example the “Search community plugins…” text field is not focused by default when you click “Browse community plugins”. It is almost the only action that makes sense on that page to type something into that search bar. So why do we then have to mouse click on it first?

1 Like
3

Try the Hotkey Helper and Settings Search plugins; Hotkey Helper autofocuses the search boxes (and also highlights keyboard conflicts), and Settings Search lets you search all settings for all plugins and jump to anything, with keyboard nav between search results, enter to jump to the selected setting. (Granted, there’s no further keyboard action from there.)

3 Likes
4

Thanks, this looks promising! However I am not able to get the “Settings Search” to work yet. See this issue: How to use keyboard navigation? · Issue #15 · javalent/settings-search · GitHub

1 Like
5

I agree. Having the same issue when trying this out. At least the search option reduces some clicking.

6

Hey, Devs, can we get some love here? Obsidian needs to be friendlier to keyboard-only navigation. Many of us don’t want to touch a mouse if we can help it! This can’t just be solved with plugins, can it??

2 Likes