[Design] [Interim Proposal] What does Cmd/Ctrl - N do?

[Mimi Yin]

Read this on the wiki: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/ 
CmdCtrlN

THIS ISSUE AT HAND

A long time ago in the 0.6, we asked Alec if we could have a context- 
sensitive Cmd/Ctrl - N keyboard shortcut, hooked up to a different  
menu item in each App area.

+ Cmd/Ctrl - N = New Note in the All App area
+ Cmd/Ctrl - N = New Message in the Mail App area
+ Cmd/Ctrl - N = New Task in the Task App area
+ Cmd/Ctrl - N = New Event in the Calendar App area

Why we asked for this feature: To make it so that the most common  
keyboard shortcut for creating new items (Cmd/Ctrl - N) would work in  
a context-sensitive manner and create new items that matched your  
current App area.

The downside of this approach: We were making it 1 step harder for  
users to create New Notes, which makes sense from a GTD perspective:  
Make it dead simple for users to dump ideas out of their head,  
especially when they're in the middle of something else. In other  
words, make it easy for people to get stuff down without worrying  
about where it belongs, something we've been calling Quick Item Entry  
for some time on the Design team.

By making Cmd/Ctrl - N context-sensitive, we're forcing the user to  
change context in order to dump information out of their brain: 1st  
move to the All App area, then jot something down quickly. (Given how  
long it takes to change App areas, this is even more of a barrier in  
Chandler than it is in other PIMs)

Why the "downside" ultimately didn't matter: Hard-wiring Cmd/Ctrl - N  
to New Note wouldn't really meet the bar for "hassle-free quick item  
entry". As it was, we would need to switch App areas for you and plop  
you into the All App area, every time you hit Cmd/Ctrl - N. It was 1  
step better than forcing the user to do it themselves, but it would  
still make for a pretty jarring experience. The user would only have  
to experience the beach-ball 2-3 times before they learned to give up  
on the whole "Quick Item Entry" idea.

Using Cmd/Ctrl - N, which has such a universally understood use as a  
way to implement GTD-Quick Item Entry is probably inappropriate.  
Users expect Cmd/Ctrl - N to plop a new item in whatever view they're  
in. It would be a real drag if you kept trying to do Cmd/Ctrl - N and  
got moved (slowly) to the All App area every single time. It's such a  
common keyboard shortcut that I'm sure many people have already made  
the mistake, to their dismay, many times in 0.6. (For calendar, it's  
less of a problem, because it's easier for people to just create  
events right on the calendar canvas.)

To truly fulfill the spirit of GTD Quick Item Entry, we need to  
implement a way for users to create new generic "Note" items without  
forcing a context switch on them. Something more like this: http:// 
wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Projects/JottingNewItemsWorkflow

Ultimately however, making Cmd/Ctrl - N context sensitive turned out  
to be a hard thing to do. Or at least, not dead simple, so it didn't  
make it into 0.6.

===

WHAT WE HAVE TODAY

+ New Note = Cmd/Ctrl - N
+ New Message = Cmd/Ctrl - M
+ New Task = No shortcut
+ New Event = No shortcut

===

INTERIM SOLUTION FOR ALPHA2

We're now revisiting this issue in 0.7 because of some related bugs  
JohnA is working on. We've gone ahead with a strawperson  
implementation for alpha2, with the understanding that we might need  
to revisit this for the final 0.7 release.

Under the File>>New item menu item, we have:
+ New item = Cmd/Ctrl - N (creates a New Item that matches the Kind  
of your current App area)
-----------------------------------
+ Note
+ Message
+ Task
+ Event

===

OTHER SOLUTIONS WE CONSIDERED

1. (This is what Entourage does - see screenshot below)
Under the File>>New item menu item, we have:
+ New <INSERT KIND OF CURRENT APP AREA> = Cmd/Ctrl - N (e.g. New  
task, if your in the Task App area)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
-----------------
+ Note
+ Message
+ Task
+ Event
Why we didn't go with this design: The repetition in the menu list  
might be confusing.

2. Under the File>>New item menu item, we have:
+ New Event = Cmd/Ctrl - N (e.g. if you're in the Calendar App area)
-------------------------------------(divider line)
+ Note
+ Message
+ Task

+ New Task = Cmd/Ctrl - N (e.g. if you're in the Task App area)
-------------------------------------(divider line)
+ Note
+ Message
+ Event
Why we didn't go with this design: We thought the revolving menu  
items would screw up some people's spatial memory

===

Q Are there alternatives we haven't considered?


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