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Work flow problem: Keyboard Shortcuts
  Rank: Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 15/12/2012(UTC) Posts: 14  Location: Kentucky Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
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I would prefer to use SMath Studio instead of Mathcad for many reasons (dynamic assistance, snippets, seems to be more stable). It is a great program and I am very grateful to the developer and the community. However, there is a very basic problem that needs to be fixed before I will be able to quit my Mathcad habit completely: keyboard shortcuts. The lack of good keyboard shortcuts makes it take too much time to do the most basic of things in SMath. I'll try to describe this in more detail below. In Mathcad, when I have finished typing a math expression, there are several ways to get out of it. I can press the Up or Down key, I can press Tab (twice), and I can press Enter, and I can also use the HOME and then Left and End and then Right keys to get out of the expression as well. Using these different keys I can move the red target cursor in any direction I wish from the inside of a math expression. The only way I have discovered to get out of a math expression in SMath is to press the Enter key. This moves the cursor DOWN. However, many times (such as in the attached document) I want to type my math from left to right- NOT top to bottom. The only ways I have found to do this are to either A. press enter TWICE (if you press Enter only once then hit the Right arrow key, the cursor will jump back into the expression; this is VERY annoying on its own!), then hit RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT and then UP UP UP, or B. remove my hand from the keyboard and click where I want the next mathematical expression. This behavior is INFURIATING. I know it is a small thing, but it makes me not want to use the program at all. Another example of the lack of keyboard shortcuts is assigning units to mathematical results. In Mathcad, when I want to assign a new unit from the inside of a math expression, all I have to do is press Tab, and type the unit. In SMath, the only way I've found to do this is to press End, then Left arrow. I'm sure there are a few others as well. I'll come back and add them later.
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 Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 30/03/2011(UTC)
Posts: 393
Was thanked: 132 time(s) in 113 post(s)
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I agree that SMath could make it easier to enter/edit equations. The navigation keystroke to enter expressions from left to right would be very useful. As for entering units what I do is pressing ctrl+cursor to get to the unit part, shift+cursor to select it, and finally press ' or ctrl+w Edit: Never thought of this way showed in the image to write expressions from left to right. For every new expression press enter followed by as many spaces as needed to be misaligned vertically and then arrange all blocks with the align horizontally tool. Edited by user 22 March 2013 16:08:47(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified kilele attached the following image(s):
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Rank: Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 15/12/2012(UTC) Posts: 14 Location: Kentucky Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
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Ugh. See, all of the solutions to workflow in Smath are so kludgey!
This simply has to be fixed. It's so incredibly unintuitive as it stands right now. People like me will just get frustrated and quit.
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