nvaccess
Quicker switching of windows and applications
I am missing two following keyboard commands. The first command would show a list of the opened windows of the application in the foreground only and let me select the window of that application. Selecting the window from that list and pressing Enter would switch me to that window. The second command would show a list of running applications and let me choose the application I want to switch to, or, to be more precise, this would switch to the last active window within that application.
The problem
I am always frustrated when I have many windows of many applications opened and when I need to find a specific window. A typical example is when I have many Firefox windows and many File explorer windows opened.
Insporation
I am looking for something which is available on Mac and VoiceOver and its VO + F2, F2, and VO + F1, F1, keyboard commands.
Alternatives I've considered
Currently the only way to partially work around this issue is to employ multiple desktops, the feature introduced in Windows 10, each desktop containing only a single application. E.g., Having one desktop containing only the windows of Firefox, and having another desktop containing only the windows of File explorer. However, this is quite cumbersome, since you need to remember which desktop contains which application. Moreover, this does not let you to find the right desktop by typing the first letters of the title of needed application, nor it lets you to find the right window by typing the first letters of its title.
Note that neither Alt + Tab, nor Windows + Tab or Alt + Esc is what I am looking for, as this only lets you switch between all the windows of all the applications which might need a lot of key presses, which is what I want to evade in the first place
Also, Windows + number from 0 to 9 is not acceptable work around, since in this case, you have to remember the positions of the running applications in the taskbar. Not saying that you cannot jump to specific windows or applications by typing the first letters of their title.
Neither Win + T is acceptable, because the taskbar includes not just open applications but also the applications you pinned there, and does not let you to move the cursor by typing more than one letter of the application or window title. Apart from that, when pressing the Down or Up arrow on an application which has more than one window opened, it does not let you to select a specific window by typing the first letters of its title. Not saying that, to get to the list of opened windows of the foreground application, you first have to find the foreground application in the taskbar.
Additional context
This should work in all applications.
Hi, not to come across as sounding a bit annoyed, but isn’t this something you’ve raised a few hours before? If so, I think it would be helpful to close the earlier issue, as this one is a bit more detailed. As for the second suggestion, I recommend taking a look at SystrayList add-on. But even then, we must keep in mind that macOS and Windows work differently when it comes to task switching, internals, and procedure associated with it. Thanks.
From: Adam [email protected] Sent: Thursday, April 4, 2019 6:11 PM To: nvaccess/nvda [email protected] Cc: Subscribed [email protected] Subject: [nvaccess/nvda] Quicker switching of windows and applications (#9460)
I am missing two following keyboard commands. The first command would show a list of the opened windows of the application in the foreground only and let me select the window of that application. Selecting the window from that list and pressing Enter would switch me to that window. The second command would show a list of running applications and let me choose the application I want to switch to, or, to be more precise, this would switch to the last active window within that application.
The problem
I am always frustrated when I have many windows of many applications opened and when I need to find a specific window. A typical example is when I have many Firefox windows and many File explorer windows opened.
Insporation
I am looking for something which is available on Mac and VoiceOver and its VO + F2, F2, and VO + F1, F1, keyboard commands.
Alternatives I've considered
Currently the only way to partially work around this issue is to employ multiple desktops, the feature introduced in Windows 10, each desktop containing only a single application. E.g., Having one desktop containing only the windows of Firefox, and having another desktop containing only the windows of File explorer. However, this is quite cumbersome, since you need to remember which desktop contains which application. Moreover, this does not let you to find the right desktop by typing the first letters of the title of needed application, nor it lets you to find the right window by typing the first letters of its title.
Note that neither Alt + Tab, nor Windows + Tab or Alt + Esc is what I am looking for, as this only lets you switch between all the windows of all the applications which might need a lot of key presses, which is what I want to evade in the first place
Also, Windows + number from 0 to 9 is not acceptable work around, since in this case, you have to remember the positions of the running applications in the taskbar. Not saying that you cannot jump to specific windows or applications by typing the first letters of their title.
Neither Win + T is acceptable, because the taskbar includes not just open applications but also the applications you pinned there, and does not let you to move the cursor by typing more than one letter of the application or window title. Apart from that, when pressing the Down or Up arrow on an application which has more than one window opened, it does not let you to select a specific window by typing the first letters of its title. Not saying that, to get to the list of opened windows of the foreground application, you first have to find the foreground application in the taskbar.
Additional context
This should work in all applications.
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@adamsamec: If you pin the most important applications to the task bar, their position on it would be always firm. Ergo Win+1 to Win+9 should no longer be a problem.
I have pinned the following applications on the task bar: Windows Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird. And on the NUC, on which I'm working more with Notepad++, I put this one on position No. 4. Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla thunderbird aren't installed on the NUC. So therefore I don't have to think about the current number of these applications.
Your main suggestion is to select a window by pressing its title on a separate list to move the focus to it. As there are quite a lot of other methods to switch between windows (see #9453), I suggest to create only an NVDA add-on for it, if possible.
There is a stand alone application with this feature in windows. Easy window switcher https://neosmart.net/EasySwitch/
Ok I understand now the real purpose. Thank you for details. I think an addon could make sense here, since as a local user i.e in corporate environvent, you are not allowed to install stand-alone applications by yourself.
Funny this, as several sighted people have the exact same issue at not knowing which bit of which visible window to click on for the version of an app they want to get to. Is this not why Microsoft are asking for feedback on changing the use of alt/tab and extending it? It is I think a limitation in Windows for all not something that a screenreader can in fact do very much about. Brian
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Hi, thanks for your suggestion, Larry. Easy Window Switcher is a useful utility, but it is still not what I am searching. As I've described, I am missing a command which would show a list of opened windows of the current application and, another one which would show a list of running applications. I think this should be part of NVDA rather than an Add-on, in a similar fashion as JAWSkey + F10 showing a list of all opened windows is also part of JAWS.
Joseph, as for your recommendation to use the systrayList add-on, that's useful too, however, this one shows all opened windows, as opposed to showing only the windows of the application currently in the foreground, so that is also still not what I exactly want..
Best regards
Another interim options would be to work with multiple desktops. In this way you could organize one application per desktop. This is verry efficient but it works only on Windows 10.
Von meinem iPhone gesendet
Am 10.04.2019 um 21:48 schrieb Adam [email protected]:
Hi, thanks for your suggestion, Larry. Easy Window Switcher is a useful utility, but it is still not what I am searching. As I've described, I am missing a command which would show a list of opened windows of the current application and, another one which would show a list of running applications. I think this should be part of NVDA rather than an Add-on, in a similar fashion as JAWSkey + F10 showing a list of all opened windows is also part of JAWS.
Joseph, as for your recommendation to use the systrayList add-on, that's useful too, however, this one shows all opened windows, as opposed to showing only the windows of the application currently in the foreground, so that is also still not what I exactly want..
Best regards
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@Adriani90: @adamsamec already wrote that this isn't a solution for him. Please see the issue description.
@adamsamec: Why don't you use the Windows-own Task Manager (CTRL+Shift+ESC) to switch between windows?
Hi @DrSooom,
Windows Task manager is close, but still not what I need. It doesn't let me choose between all the running apps, e.g., I cannot switch to File explorer using it. Also, it does not allow me to jump to an item by writing first letters of its name. And lastly, Ctrl + Shift + Esc is very unhandy shortcut. However, thanks for your suggestion.
On Windows 7 you are able to move the selection in the Windows Explorer to a folder or file by directly typing its name. It's the same behaviour for the lists in the Task Manager and also in some other Windows-own applications. But I'm not sure if these behaviours still exist in Windows 10-1809.
Hi,
Six years later...
A few things:
- There are add-ons available to perform some of what is being asked, including switching between windows in an easier way.
- In Windows 11, after moving to taskbar (Windows+T), you can press the first letter of an app to move focus to an app icon that starts with that letter. There is a setting to not group windows of the same app under one icon.
- Ideally, Task View (Windows+Tab) should support first letter navigation, something I think should be brought to Microsoft's attention.
Thanks.
I eventually developed an open-source application just for the purpose described in this issue. I've called it WinManager. WinManager is a utility which brings easier application and windows management to Microsoft Windows. WinManager enables efficient applications and windows switching and closing functionality that is optimized for the keyboard only and screen reader users. You will find the benefit of WinManager especially if you are running many applications and their open windows at the same time.
Features
- After pressing Windows + F12, or Windows + Shift + A, the user can invoke a list of currently running applications, ordered by the most recently used application first. Open windows for the selected application can be displayed using the Right arrow key and the Left arrow key moves back to the list of applications. Pressing Enter on application or window switches to it, pressing Delete closes it. Shift + Delete on application force quits the application.
- After pressing Windows + F11, or Windows + Shift + Q, the user can invoke a list of open windows only for the application in the foreground, ordered by the most recently used window first. Pressing Enter on window switches to it, pressing Delete closes it.
- Escape hides WinManager.
- To make the finding of the desired application or window faster, the list of applications or windows supports filter by typing feature, which means that whenever the list is focused, typing characters immediately filters the list, displaying only the applications or windows whose titles contain the typed characters. The filtering is not case sensitive. The filter can be reset and the original unfiltered list of applications or windows displayed back again by pressing Backspace.
More information and download
More information, examples of usage and download links can be found on the WinManager GitHub pages.
Hi, I see, thanks for this work. Would you like us to close this as we have a utility that does what this issue is talking about? Thanks.
I am closing it, though I still believe it would be better if NVDA provided this functionality instead so it works out of the box.
You can also submit a pull request with your solution directly to NVDA, so it can be integrated in core. Then it would work out of the box. Nevertheless, a third party application is not a reason to close NVDA issues. this remains a valid request as long as it is not in NVDA core, unless Microsoft provides this solution by default on any Windows installation.