Dev:Ref/Requests/User Interface/Function keys

This page is for discussing Blender program documentation, that is, the stuff that comes up locally when you want Help in Blender.

FUNCTION KEY DESCRIPTIONS

The function keys are not described well in the documentation, in that no mention is made of the four different modes of actions they have. I think the following minor changes would help to simplify using the function keys, particularly for new users.

The four classes of function keys are:

---

File operations:

    Are brought up in a blender "window" (frame), related to the disk files
    and can be closed at any time with the ESC key.

Windowtype selection:

    Correspond to the Window type menu button items, swap in the desired
    window in place of the window under the mouse and can only be changed
    back to the previous window by explicitly choosing a new window type
    (that is, ESC key does nothing).

Buttons window selectors:

    Have no effect if there is no Button window visible; if Buttons window is
    present, changes it's contents to set of buttons chosen or, in some
    cases, toggles between several sets of related buttons with repeated
    pressing. Unlike File and Windowtype function keys, the window under the
    mouse is not effected, only the Buttons window, if present. [I think this
    is appropriate, but this behavior is simply different and should be
    differentiated in the on-line documentation as such.]

Render-related function buttons:

    Can be applied over any window, show/hide either an operating-system
    window or selected clipping zone (depending on choice made in Render
    buttons) and apply the specified rendering function.

Here are my suggestions for the Hot-Key and MouseAction Reference (and possibly elsewhere). This organization will make it easy to see that all windows brought up with a File: function key can be canceled with ESC; that Buttons: keys change nothing but the Buttons window; that WindowType: keys correspond to the Window Type button menu items, and must be changed explicitly (although it would be nice to have ESC back out of an incorrect selection to the previous window...); etc.

The order of the modifier keys is arbitrary, but I find it useful to cite them in left-to-right order on the keyboard. [This may be mooted by different keyboard layouts...]

A curious oversight is that in the Window types menu buttons, the function keys to call each type of window are missing. This is odd because nearly all other Blender menus have key equivalents and, of course, it is a good way to learn key shortcuts as well.

F1 File: Open
Shift F1 File: Library Data Select
Shift F2 File: Save file
Shift F2 File: Export DXF
Ctr F2 File: Save/export VRMLv1 format
F3 File: Save image
Ctr F3 File: Dump 3d view
Shift Ctr F3 File: Dump screen
F4 Buttons: Logic Window (may change)
Shift F4 File: Object manager Data Select
F5 Buttons: Materials
Shift F5 Windowtype: 3D
F6 Buttons: Textures
Shift F6 Windowtype: IPO
F7 Buttons: Object/Physics
Shift F7 Windowtype: Buttons
F8 Buttons: World
Shift F8 Windowtype: Video Sequencer
F9 Buttons: Editing
Shift F9 Windowtype: Outliner
Shift Alt F9 Windowtype: Outliner
F10 Buttons: Render/Anim/Sound
Shift F10 Windowtype: UV Image Editor
F11 Render: Toggle Render Window
Shift F11 Windowtype: Text Editor
Ctr F11 Render: Replay last animation
F12 Render: Current Scene
Ctr F12 Render: Animation
Shift Ctr F12 Windowtype: NLA Editor
Shift F12 Windowtype: Action Editor