My OperaWhy did Ctrl+Shift+N change in 7.5
Thursday, March 18, 2004 12:59:23 PM
...because we wanted to create a consistent set of shortcuts that works well in SDI mode as well as MDI mode. SDI mode ('prefer separate windows') is how browsers like Mozilla and MSIE work: if you open a new page with Ctrl+N or by Shift-clicking a link, you get a new window with all the chrome like toolbars and menus attached.
In MDI mode ('prefer pages inside windows'), new pages typically are child windows of the main application window. MDI has been the traditional way of windowing in Windows, and it works well for many people. With the addition of a 'page bar' and auto-maximizing new pages (since Opera 4), the old complaints about MDI being confusing have become much less relevant. But people who come to Opera from MSIE might prefer to go on using SDI. And people who use Opera on Mac computers are usually even more used to SDI, as MDI is totally alien to Mac. So SDI is the default setting for Opera 7.5 for Mac, and something had to be done.
The new shortcuts are meant to make switching between SDI and MDI less painful. You have shortcuts in both modes to create new pages and a new windows, and they always work 'as expected':
- Ctrl+N will create a new page or a new window (depending on your SDI/MDI choice)
- Ctrl+Shift+N always creates a new page
- Ctrl+Alt+N always creates a new window
- Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N creates a duplicate page/window (depending on your SDI/MDI choice) in the background
- Ctrl+W (and Ctrl+F4) will close the current page *
- Ctrl+Shift+W (and Alt+F4) will close the current window
- Ctrl+Alt+W will close all open pages *
- Ctrl+Alt+Shift+W will close all ope page except the active page
* In SDI mode, closing the last page will also close the window. And the page bar will not appear when there is only one page in the window, so SDI users can get the power of multiple pages in a window (like with Firefox and Safari) if they want.
There is some duplication now, this is a bit of a compromise. But you can change the shortcuts quite easily in the prefs, if you don't need all of them.
In MDI mode ('prefer pages inside windows'), new pages typically are child windows of the main application window. MDI has been the traditional way of windowing in Windows, and it works well for many people. With the addition of a 'page bar' and auto-maximizing new pages (since Opera 4), the old complaints about MDI being confusing have become much less relevant. But people who come to Opera from MSIE might prefer to go on using SDI. And people who use Opera on Mac computers are usually even more used to SDI, as MDI is totally alien to Mac. So SDI is the default setting for Opera 7.5 for Mac, and something had to be done.
The new shortcuts are meant to make switching between SDI and MDI less painful. You have shortcuts in both modes to create new pages and a new windows, and they always work 'as expected':
- Ctrl+N will create a new page or a new window (depending on your SDI/MDI choice)
- Ctrl+Shift+N always creates a new page
- Ctrl+Alt+N always creates a new window
- Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N creates a duplicate page/window (depending on your SDI/MDI choice) in the background
- Ctrl+W (and Ctrl+F4) will close the current page *
- Ctrl+Shift+W (and Alt+F4) will close the current window
- Ctrl+Alt+W will close all open pages *
- Ctrl+Alt+Shift+W will close all ope page except the active page
* In SDI mode, closing the last page will also close the window. And the page bar will not appear when there is only one page in the window, so SDI users can get the power of multiple pages in a window (like with Firefox and Safari) if they want.
There is some duplication now, this is a bit of a compromise. But you can change the shortcuts quite easily in the prefs, if you don't need all of them.
