What do you think of the new Command Palette? Press Cmd + P on Mac or Ctrl + P on Windows/Linux to open it.

I’m excited about it mainly for new users to expose all of the features, but also we could now add more commands and features. One thing that’s held back adding some little convenience features is feeling like they all needed a default hotkey or the right menu placement, which is especially hard for things like “collapse by level”. So now I think we can add them to the Command Palette and come up with default hotkeys later, or even just leave them without a default hotkey or to be set by users in the Hotkey settings.

What other commands would you like? Some of my ideas:

  1. Collapse by level, like collapse level 3 and deeper. This has been requested a few times.
  2. Change current pane view mode
  3. Toggling filter options
  4. Switch to board by name
  • Jeff replied to this.

    Also what hotkey do you think it should be? Some apps have a Command Palette with Cmd/Ctrl + P (currently one of the global search hotkeys) and others use Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P (currently the only Project hotkey). @Jerud

      I’ve always liked ctrl+shift+F for “global search”. That’s a little tortured though, for a command that has no GUI button. I just realized that…

      Of all the hotkeys I’d like to have, the one I desperately want is one for “back”!!!

        Jerud one for “back

        I second this.

        I think “Global Search” should be called “Jump” and be ctrl-J (it’s already alt-J, don’t see the need for 2 shortcuts) and “Search” should be called “Find” and stay ctrl-F. Neither of them are what I think most people think of as “search” (which would be a list of multiple possible results a la Google). The text filter is more search-like but Filter is a better term given that there is so much more than text searching in the filter function.

        For “Search”, I would add a Search icon (magnifying glass) in the upper right app/tab toolbar area, assign it a hotkey (ctrl-S or ctrl-shift-S perhaps), and have it open a popup outline pane with the cursor in a default filter text box (with “hide complete” enabled), ready to filter by text input.

        A little bit of a tangent to the command palette discussion, but related. Re command palette key, I know a lot of apps use ctrl-P for the command palette. I always found it weird given ctrl-P is usually Print, but I don’t feel strongly about it. It is a kind of inconvenient to invoke on a keyboard with one ctrl key on the left. Ctrl-Space would be a possible alternative (as a complement to the Alt-Space command/search on Windows).

        • Jeff replied to this.

            Jay What do you think of the new Command Palette? Press Cmd + P on Mac or Ctrl + P on Windows/Linux to open it.

            It looks interesting, but my first impression is that I’m overwhelmed by the long list of commands, and that they don’t seem to be in an apparent order. I think it needs more sub-section labels to organize them. If Legend had its own menubar, all these commands would be grouped under various menus, standard ones like “File”, “Edit”, “View”, and custom ones, like “Pane”, “Outline”, or whatever.

            I guess this will replace the current “Hotkeys” popup? Probably it should have an entry in the Options menu, for discovery.

            I’d prefer if the shortcut to bring it up wasn’t command-P. That’s a nearly-universal shortcut for “print” on the Mac. It hijacks the browser’s print command - I’m surprised you can even do that on Firefox. Shift-command-P is “new private window”, which I actually use, but I guess I could change that to something else. It is “command pallette” in Sublime Text and VS Code, which I use, so probably that would be good for me.

            I’d also like a shortcut for “back” - and “forward” too! I can’t think of anything else right now.

            andrew I think “Global Search” should be called “Jump” and be ctrl-J (it’s already alt-J, don’t see the need for 2 shortcuts) and “Search” should be called “Find” and stay ctrl-F. Neither of them are what I think most people think of as “search”

            Please don’t remove shift-command-F for global search/find, I’ve been using it for 17 years! It’s the same in my other outliner, which has “find” (in page) and “super-find” (global), so I was happy to find that Legend works the same way. I don’t relate to “jump” very well, to me it’s “find”, which is another nearly-universal thing on the Mac.

                Jay Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P (currently the only Project hotkey

                The “only” hotkey? Isn’t Ctrl+Shift+6 a default secondary hotkey for this?

                Some Quick added thoughts:

                • Why not use Ctrl+G for “Global Search”? I’m pretty sure it’s currently available and it works well with the name.
                • I also like @andrew suggestion for “Jump” since that is what you actually do if you click an item in the global search results. It also sounds more appropriate since it goes to any document not just the current Pane or current Doc. That’s more “jumpy”. But it is also “Global”.
                • There are some general inconsistencies in wording that should be tidied up to make things overall smoother. There is Global Search, then Jump to, and then the RMB has a command for Highlight in all Panes with hotkey: Alt+G. These are all the same action. I therefore propose:
                  EITHER
                  – Global Search –> “Jump To” (Ctrl+J)
                  – RMB Highlight in all Panes –> Jump-to in all Panes (Alt+J)
                  OR
                  – Global Search –> no change (Ctrl+G)
                  – RMB Highlight in all Panes –> GoTo in all Panes (Alt+G) – didn’t it used to be called this?
                • I disagree with using space for really any hotkey; space is too popular with other apps’ global shortcuts and there would probably be much overlap.
                • Agree with @andrew that I prefer the term “Find” for the “find on page” one-at-a-time tool

                And stuff about the actual Command Palette:

                • The Command Palette opens up at a limited height. Why doesn’t it take the full vertical screen? There’s lots of contents to show.
                • Agree with @Jeff about grouping the list up (use the same organization as in the Settings)
                • Also agree this should supplant the current hotkey help list NOT be in addition (sloppy)…in fact, why doesn’t it just use that existing window to start with? That already slides in from the side nicely (Pane-agnostic), is full-height, is organized, and is scrollable. It also does a better job staying out of the working area so it can be left open for playing around or as a learning aid. I think it’s better all-around – just needs the ‘search’ box added.
                • Oh and also, what’s wrong with using the current “Hotkey help” hotkey, Ctrl+/ ?
                • BTW Why the hell is there a hotkey (Ctrl+?) for “Getting Started”!? Someone actually needs that?
                • The Palette should dismiss when “clicking away”. Currently it only seems to go away by pressing Esc, and I can open multiple instances if I change pane-focus and press Ctrl+P again. Two presses of Ctrl+P should toggle it closed, it should have an “X” to dismiss, and should only be able to open one instance at a time. Note most of these would be fixed by just using the original “Hotkeys Help” slide-in.
                • I can’t actually read the commands in my Palette because the text color is the same as the ‘button’ behind it in Light theme. This color appears to be hardcoded, since I couldn’t find a CSS element that controlled either the background or text. I reset my custom theme to default to test this; legible in Dark but not Light. These background- and text- colors should be controlled by the .popup___ set of CSS elements for better themeing options.
                • Jeff replied to this.

                    Jerud Why not use Ctrl+G for “Global Search”? I’m pretty sure it’s currently available and it works well with the name.

                    On the Mac, command-G (ctrl-G on Windows) is standardized to mean “Find Again”, aka “Find Next”. Shift-command-G is “Find Previous”. It should be the same in Legend. I would expect command-G to do the same thing as pressing the down-arrow in the Find box in Legend, i.e., go to the next matching item.

                    When using Legend in a browser - including Safari, Chrome, and Firefox - it takes over the browser’s native “Find”*, command-F (I also agree it should be called “find” rather than “search”.) That’s good, because you want it to be restricted to the pane you’re in. But it doesn’t take over command(-shift)-G, and the browser’s “find next/previous” is still active. Instead of Legend going to the next matching item as expected, the browser’s find function is activated, and it goes to the next item with whatever the last thing you searched for in your browser is, possibly in a different pane. That actually seems like a bug.

                    I’d ask for there to be a shortcut added for find next/previous, and that it be command(-shift)-G by default.

                    I still prefer the existing “Global Search” name, or maybe “Global Find”, with command-shift-F. I want to do a search/find. After that, I might “jump”, or not, depending what I find.

                    * I just noticed that if you press command-F, once Legend’s “find” box is open, pressing command-F again brings up the browser’s find, so that both are active at the same time. Legend should probably continue to listen for command-F all the time.

                      6 days later

                      I worked on this some more on a 17 hour flight back to Singapore, and saved this page as a PDF to reference offline, but that cut off half of the text 😤 so I wasn’t able to address all of this feedback yet. But I did alphabetize the list and add more commands (go back, set pane view mode, collapse by level) in the latest update. I’ll read through this thread some more and reply/change things soon!

                      All of these new commands do not have a default hotkey. What do you think they should be? Hotkeys for all the view modes and collapse by level might be hard to find. We could also possibly add chorded hotkeys, where you’d press one hotkey for “change view mode” and then another hotkey for the mode. So as a (bad) example Ctrl + Shift + . followed by 3 could collapse to level 3. Would that make sense?

                      @Jay I hate it when I think I’m being smart and planning ahead, but then get screwed anyway. UGH!

                      Been thinking about all this for a bit and have settled on the following re: hotkeys and command palette.

                      • I don’t like Ctrl+P for the command palette, nor for Global Search. It makes little intuitive sense (yes P is in “palette” but that isn’t the word I’m thinking of when looking for hotkeys).
                      • I think Ctrl+? (the current hotkey to show hotkey-help) should be used. All the current panel needs is to have search added, and it would be superior to the palette as it is now, which feels tacked-on.
                      • I’ve been using Ctrl+Shift+F for global search since this thread started and am fine with it, at least as a default assignment. Having a 3-key hotkey and no GUI button seems incongruous with the command’s apparent popularity – unless it’s just a vocal few that use it?
                      • Jay replied to this.

                        I would love for the Legend command palette to be truly global (hotkey bound at OS-level).

                        So, if I’m browsing a website or app and see a snippet I want to save, I’d love to be able to:

                        1. Copy the text I’ve highlighted (Cmd + C)
                        2. Then use a global hotkey (say, Cmd + Shift + Space) since that’s similar to the Spotlight ‘command palette’ (Cmd+Space) and
                        3. Have it popup the Legend app to the forefront with the command palette in view.
                        4. So, I could type “new” and select ‘new item’ and paste whatever I wanted to save from the site.

                        Ideally, I’d love for there to be enough intelligence in the system to determine that there is something on the clipboard when I open the palette and maybe give me a ‘new item’ popup with the ‘item text’ populated from the clipboard.

                        • Jay replied to this.

                          ahp There is already a global hotkey for the New Item menu (in the poorly named Desktop section of settings), but I do like this idea! I wonder what else we could do with a global hotkey for opening the command palette… And pre-filling the clipboard is interesting…

                              Jerud The latest update removes the old Hotkeys help, adds Ctrl+? as a hotkey for command palette, and adds a search button to the sidebar/top bar.

                              And the command palette is now centered on screen rather than being inside a pane. I could try it at a larger height. I thought that might be overwhelming with so many options, but it’s worth a try!

                                  Jay There is already a global hotkey for the New Item menu (in the poorly named Desktop section of settings)

                                  Is it possible to make the “new item” dialog pop up by itself? Today this keystroke actually switches to Legend and then opens the dialog, which is why I never bother to use it: I could almost as easily alt+tab to Legend and not have to use the dialog.

                                  Clipboard auto-fill sounds cool. There’s probably a few other neat ways to expand this feature in general.

                                  Jay And the command palette is now centered on screen rather than being inside a pane. I could try it at a larger height.
                                  I like it centered, and don’t see any advantage to making it less-than-full-height; the more I can see the less I have to scroll (nice when using keyboard). I consider the current height a minimum for usability.

                                  It also seems like the box could stand to be a bit wider; look at “prefix task”

                                  This applies equally to the Global Search (which is now, apparently, the same box). Chopping the items at one line seems ok to me – the way the lines used to “jump” on mouseover due to text wrapping was distracting.

                                  BTW I like the “float in from top” animation these boxes appear with!

                                  Re: Global Search and Command Palette being the same box:

                                  • If you open one first, you can’t then open the other without closing first (using hotkeys). You can switch between them by clicking the icon.
                                  • Being able to switch between the two is interesting…but not super helpful and may not be worth the potential confusion (especially since the box has no “title” making its purpose clear). Seems like keeping the two boxes entirely separate would be clearer.
                                  • The “>” icon that represents the Command Palette isn’t an ideal choice. > is already overused in the Legend UI and especially in this location it looks like an “expander”. Even a “?” icon would be better here (and would at least reflect the hotkey).
                                  • I generally don’t see value in these using the same box. If they need to be the same from a programming perspective…then maybe just don’t make that visually apparent and don’t let us switch between them – so it feels like two boxes?

                                  The hotkeys aren’t organized quite the same way in Settings as they are in the Palette, and actually the organization of both is rather “coarse”. I could put more thought into this but some initial suggestions are:

                                  • “Navigation” (moving cursor or focus, applies to panes, boards, items - anywhere)
                                  • “Boards” (Add Pane,
                                  • “Panes” (Filters, views, expand/collapse)
                                  • “Items” (prefixes, move command, indent/unindent)
                                  • “Formatting” (bold, italic, etc. – or maybe just put with Items)
                                  • “Views” (set view to ___, zoom)
                                  • “Global” (Overview, Palette, Global Search, Undo/Redo )
                                  • “Specialty” (Email, calendar commands)

                                  What if the hotkeys were actually edited right in the Palette, instead of Settings? That might be more work up front but easier to maintain? Certainly easier as a user.

                                  I suggest “Filter” should be called “Edit Filter” for clarity

                                  The Grouping names are also a bit light and easy to miss, but that may just be my theme choices.

                                  Collapse to level X – happy to see that added! Seems to work fine at first blush but I’ll have to dream up some hotkeys and really try it out.

                                        Jerud

                                        Why not use Ctrl+G for “Global Search”? I’m pretty sure it’s currently available and it works well with the name.

                                        To me Ctrl+G is not as intuitive when I want to search I always think of “Search or Find” , and F is the typical one used in many apps. You could always customize that for your own purpose on the shortcut customization.

                                        I think “Global Search” should be called “Jump"

                                        Please let’s not call Global Search “Jump” . It might make sense for the time when we still have different documents and you are “jumping ” between documents. But for the long run, the abstraction model is a single database, so Search or Find are more indicative rather than Jumping IMHO

                                        Is it possible to make the “new item” dialog pop up by itself?

                                        I second this too… I use Legend full screen in a different desktop than I am usually working on, and the current behavior not only shifts me from app but also shifts me from desktop so it makes more work to go back, and having only a small popup come up type whatever you need without abandoning the current desktop / app would be really useful.

                                            Jorge To me Ctrl+G is not as intuitive when I want to search I always think of “Search or Find”

                                            I’m using ctrl+shift+F right now. I mostly use this command to look for items I’ve lost via a sloppy click or accidental keystroke. Once I do find them my preferred next action would be to open in a popup pane so I can move or otherwise deal with that item – but popup panes are too crippled right now (can’t invoke Alt+M within them, as just one example) go generally I’m opening in a new Pane. All this means I tend to think of this as a “finding” function hence my hotkey choice. I only proposed Ctrl+G because it seemed that others are using this as a “go to” and it only has two buttons which makes it a better default. Again: this is especially because there is no GUI way to invoke the command.

                                            Jorge Please let’s not call Global Search “Jump” . It might make sense for the time when we still have different documents and you are “jumping ” between documents

                                            Jay was pretty clear that the database change is mostly for the app’s internal workings and won’t impact what users see in the GUI. The Document metaphor will still exist, it’ll just mean something different internally – so if “jump” makes sense today it will continue to make sense in the future.

                                            Really, I don’t much care what these are called; I’m just looking for consistency between the command names, button names, RMB menu, hotkey, etc. I see consistency as being very important to Legend for usability, learning curve, adoption, and – at the very least – making it easier on us when we’re trying to discuss it 😇

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