From the Obsidian v0.14.11 release notes:
Hotkeys will no longer trigger multiple times when you hold down the hotkey.
This change is a regression. It is not desirable for all commands. Consider a hotkey for “Move line up” or “Move line down”. You’d certainly want the line to continue to move up or down while you hold down the hotkey.
Can you think of any other example command where you’d want it to repeat? Or is this just a request for those two commands?
I absolutely can, as soon as I open Settings > Hotkeys, without even scrolling down.
Some of the first commands on my list are from the “Advanced Tables” plugin.
“Advanced Tables: Delete Column”
“Advanced Tables: Insert column before current”
“Advanced Tables: Move column left”
The first quickly puts me in mind of Obsidian’s built-in “Delete paragraph” command that I frequently use.
There are many editing operations built-in and third-party where you’d want key repeat.
but you can still keep your fingers on the modifiers and just press the last key repeatedly.
How many paragraphs you have to delete and how manu columns you need to add or delete that you need to have the hotkey running. You also loose accuracy.
Do you have access to insider builds?
I have the insider build at work and this change was instantly as difficult to work with as the key repeat bug that was hot fixed. That absurd pushback about how it’s still possible to press the key as many times as you need—and have it be more accurate—could be made equally about the Backspace key all on its own.
People expect key repeat in editing functions.
Moving or deleting a line 10 times, moving your caret 10 spaces, deleting a character 10 times, then undoing one if you go one over, is faster than inputting the command 10 separate times. Does that really need to be said?
Thanks. So I wonder, if the request could be generalized to something like this: Maybe there should be a separate class of hotkeys classed as “editing”. (Maybe there already is. I’ve never looked at the API.)
And any plug-in authors could register a command in that class. And that class would include separate settings for repeatability. Because certainly most commands should not repeat. Especially file operations.
(For the record, I’m very glad no commands repeat. But I understand how this would be important to people who like it.)
@Gem From your posts, I am not convinced you actually tried it.
Regardless, we’ll wait until this is out to get some feedback from the community.
One thing that can be helpful in certain scenarios is to make a macro. For example, if I have a list with about 150 lines that I regularly want to move certain lines to the top of, I can just hit a hotkey and it will repeat my hotkey for swap line up ~200 times. In documents where there are headings and/or other content at the top, the macro can also just swap the line down X times to place the line right at the top of the list.
I don’t think this is a solution, but wanted to mention it. I too, have a habit of fairly regularly just holding down my hotkeys for both of the line swapping commands.
Thanks.
@rigmarole I agree, certainly an enable_key_repeat setting per hotkey would be good. In my original post I just figured that a global option would be the smallest request to make.
@WhiteNoise From your posts—“I am not convinced you’ve really tried it even though you clearly said so and feedback on an app would be an inane thing to lie on”, and “I am not convinced people who have been demanding key repeat for longer than digital text and the undo button have even existed, in the form of repeat levels on typewriters, knew what they were missing out with accuracy”—I am not convinced you are worth talking to.
@I-d-as Appreciate the suggestion. Certainly if this isn’t addressed I’ll be using something like Keyboard Maestro on my Mac to circumvent it.
Just want to thank the devs for fixing this in v0.14.13.
Per the discussion above, there may still be some plugins that want to decide their own hotkey repeat.
But FWIW, line move and line delete were the only built-it ones for me. I made a mental note to log any time I reached for hotkey repeat and was foiled between last build and this one; no other uses came up.