I wish the poll:

What Skritter keyboard shortcuts do you use?
* None
* Just a couple
* Left-handed shortcuts
* Right-handed shortcuts
* Arrow keys

had another choice:
* What keyboard shortcuts?
or
* Don't know
because I don't know how to answer it.

The FAQ indicates these are the keyboard shortcuts:

Left arrow: back
Z or /: undo last stroke
X or .: erase
S, L, or up arrow: show
V, M, or down arrow: correct/incorrect
D or K: open and close word popup
Space, enter, or right arrow: next (For pinyin prompts, enter checks input first, then goes next.)
1-4 or 6-9: input grade and go next (For tone prompts, 1-5 and 6-0 input tones instead.)
A or ': play the pronunciation audio
Ctrl+Alt+F: toggle framerate display'

OK so it would seem I do use some, occasionally: left arrow for back, M for correct incorrect, Space, enter, or right arrow for next, 1-5 for tones.

I wish I knew and used them better.

Oh and while I'm at it I'll request two more: 'I' for the "Lookup more info" popup, and Esc to close that popup.

http://www.skritter.com/faq#shortcuts

I use the left-handed shortcuts plus the arrow keys. So in the poll I marked the left-handed shortcuts as I use them the most. Strange how hard it is to arrange people into a few simple groups :D

Thanks, Kai. I am planning to add more shortcuts, but I need to form a totally solid plan that meets everyone's needs, or we'll have backed ourselves into a corner with no shortcuts left.

I am trying to use the keyboard shortcuts to go faster through a pile of items to review, but I am having trouble.

I am using the "no typing" pronunciation review method previously discussed in this forum, where, when I am prompted for pinyin, I think of the pronunciation, then "show" the pronunciation, then mark it "got it" if I had it right. This is to avoid switching from pen to keyboard.

One thing that doesn't work is "8" to input grade and go next. "3" works fine, but I want to use only one side of the keyboard, and the only key that works to "show" is up arrow.

Also, there is an inconsistency: when I am prompted for a definition, if I press the up arrow, it shows the definition and the system considers I got the definition right. But when I am prompted for a pronunciation (or the writing or the tone), if I press the up arrow, I get the pronunciation (or the writing or the tone), but the system considers I got it wrong.

Anyway for speeding through reviews, I'd like to have a super simple and consistent way to
1. show answer with keyboard
2. mark myself wrong or right
3. move to the next
If would be nice if I had keys and a flow that work the same for all kinds of reviews (writing, pronunciation, tone, and definition).

OK, I guess I can do this sort of self-grading review just using the arrow keys: if I know the answer, I just cycle through ↑↓→ (show, correct, next) for each review, except that for definitions I just do ↑→ (show, next) since they are considered right by default.

I'd prefer if it was consistent and I just needed to do ↑→ (show, next), since I (fortunately) more commonly have it right than wrong.

The other inconsistency that I perceive in the flow (this doesn't specifically relate to the keyboard shortcuts) is that if I use the self-grading buttons 0-4, it gives a grade and moves next, but if I mark correct/incorrect it doesn't move next.

I'd prefer if correct/incorrect also moved next, so I could always use 2 steps for every kind of review:

↑→ (show, next) if I got it right
↑↓ (show, incorrect) if I got it wrong

or, if I enter the tone number

N→ (tone number N, next) if I got it right
N↓ (tone number N, incorrect) if I got it wrong

or, if I am writing using the pad

(scribble)→ (writing, next) if I got it right
(scribble)→ (writing, next) if I got it wrong (since the system notices when I got it wrong)
(scribble)↓ (writing, correct) if I consider I got it right, but the system thinks I got it wrong (since the system sometimes thinks I got it wrong, but just didn't recognize my writing)

Kai, I use the 'correct' button when Skritter hasn't recognised my strokes properly (or I'm being dozy), and wish to continue writing the character. So moving on to the next one wouldn't work for me.

Byzanti, ok, in fact I could use "3" (got it) instead of "↓" (correct). I think "correct" and "got it" are synonymous, except "correct" is usually in a toggle with "incorrect", while "got it", like the other numeric grading keys, also moves next. Systematically using a grading button also solves my problem of the inconsistency of the state after I press "show" for definitions vs. the other reviews.

The only problem is it's a bit of a stretch for me to use the arrow keys on the left and "3", let alone "1".

I have to use the arrow keys because to do "show", only the arrow key works in pronunciation mode, since "s" is interpreted as part of the pronunciation.

(I'm sorry if all this sounds a bit picky... I'm trying to find a way for me and maybe others to have as fast and effortless a flow as possible -- but I do already manage pretty well with the system as it is.)

Just to chime in, I agree with Kai that'd be nice if the status after using the "show" button (up arrow) was consistently right or wrong across all the reviews. When I'm trying to blast through reviews I keep having to go back and redo the grading because the required sequence of steps to mark right and wrong keep changing.

I thought I made it so that happened with show on reading prompts, but I guess not. I'll see about fixing that soon. I don't want to have default-correct-after-show for writing and tone prompts, though.

I'll also try to fix 6-9 to go to the next prompt like grading with 1-4 do.

Kai, I'm testing, and looking at the code, and it seems like the 6-9 keys are working identically to the 1-4 keys in this respect. Can you confirm that you see a difference, and if so, in what browser and OS?

I've fixed the reading show correctness in development.

the 6-9 keys don't work identically to 1-4 when I am prompted for pronunciation.
http://screencast.com/t/eltKkyDzv
If I haven't entered anything for the pronunciation, 1-4 work as self-grading, but 6-9 do nothing. This is the same under Chrome and Internet Explorer, Win 7.

Another problem, pretty minor, is that in some cases (when Flash doesn't completely have the focus?) the left / right arrow keys don't just move to the previous / next item, they also scroll the page to the left / right. This happens both under IE and Chrome.

A harder problem is that keys 1-4 or 6-9 have different meanings according to context: in most cases they are self-grading buttons, but sometimes they are tone marks instead. This forces the user to think a bit, and thus slows him down a little. One solution would be to use the unused row of letters for self-grading: q,w,e,r and u,i,o,p for forgot, so-so, got it, and too easy.

That would use up a lot of keyboard real estate, but another advantage of using number keys only for tone marks would be to avoid visual/mental confusion between self-grading and tones. In this picture,
http://screencast.com/t/Y2zVSvUAuZJ
is the character second tone, or did I grade it "so-so"? I know the answer, but using numbers for two different things confuses me a bit.

Ha I'm also a bit confused by colors having two different meanings: red is 1st tone, yellow 2nd, green 3d, blue 4th.
(By the way the FAQ might mention which color is what tone.
http://www.skritter.com/faq#tone_color_choices
Also Nathan Dummit's name is misspelled.)

So Skritter uses two ways, color and number, to suggest that the first tone is "wrong", second "so-so", third tone "good", and blue "super easy". I find that quite confusing, which is too bad, because I need all the help I can get with tones! Maybe you shouldn't use colors for right and wrong, or different shades of purple or something, dunno.

Ho ho sorry that was longer than I expected but I hope it can be of help.

Ah, I see--that makes more sense now. I've fixed the 6-9 grading on an empty reading prompt. Also fixed Dummitt's name. I'll work on preventing the default scroll on left/right.

I have other plans for those "unused" rows of letters, since we need a bunch more keyboard shortcuts added. Also, Q isn't really unused, as I had to alias it to A to make that work on French keyboards. I suppose it's possible to reclaim it.

We decided that if people want to turn on tone colors, then they are asking for things to be more colorful in ways that might be confusing. We can't go around not using primary colors in Skritter, and we don't want to create standards proliferation with respect to tone colors, so the confusion will just have to be there.

Tough problems to solve now that we've worked ourselves into corners! Thanks for your feedback, Kai.