Command Palette: Global command shortcut conflicts with existing shortcut

[t-hamano]

Description

On Rich Text, there is a shortcut that converts the selected text into a link, but it conflicts with the global menu shortcut (command center) because they have the exact same key combination.

Executing this shortcut will bring up the link control and command menu. The link control is covered by a more front-facing command menu overlay. The cursor is focused on the link control and cannot be erased without clicking the command menu overlay with the mouse.

Update: I may have been validating in the wrong environment or on a different branch. To be precise, the command palette appears for a moment and then the link add popover appears. I have updated the screencast as well.

I think the key combinations for the command menu shortcuts should be changed.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

Execute the following shortcut on a paragraph block, for example.

• Windows: Ctrl + k
• Mac: ⌘ + K

Screenshots, screen recording, code snippet

c2af9271e04c13c5fc2b0960e15cfcb2.mp4

Environment info

No response

Please confirm that you have searched existing issues in the repo.

Yes

Please confirm that you have tested with all plugins deactivated except Gutenberg.

Yes

[ndiego]

@t-hamano do you think we can list this as a bug? Feels buggy to me

[t-hamano]

do you think we can list this as a bug? Feels buggy to me

Yes, I too think it is a bug. It seems to me that the only way to keep the existing add link shortcut working is to change the command center key combination.

@youknowriad
If you have a better solution, please let us know.

[youknowriad]

I think this issue might be a duplicate because I remember that this was mentioned before. Basically, the ultimate goal is to make the link modal part of the command center somehow.

[t-hamano]

However, in WordPress 6.3, I think we need some approach to solve this problem. Do you have any suggestions on how to do this?

[youknowriad]

I'm not sure that's something we can fix properly in time for 6.3. The potential solution I have is to actually make a command to create links that is only available when a RichText is selected, combined with a suggestion I heard from @richtabor where commands could render something instead of triggering something. It is a bit involved though.

[stokesman]

The command center has not be released in core correct? Would the proper fix not be to change the shortcut to one that doesn't conflict?

If anyone can point me to one, I'd love read up on some of discussion that was had on choosing the shortcut. I thought I'd seen it somewhere (and even thought I'd seen someone mention this conflict ahead of time). I'm not finding it now.

EDIT: from the original PR:

…when a RichText is selected, it's not triggered because of the existing link shortcut.

#49330 (comment)

That seems preferable to how it is now but less so than a separate shortcut because of confusion like #51182.

[stokesman]

Let's discuss the pros/cons of using a separate shortcut in the context of this upcoming release.

Pros:

• Doesn’t degrade the experience of using the existing shortcut for adding links
• The Command Center shortcut works regardless of caret placement, avoiding confusion mentioned in Command center: keyboard shortcut inconsistent #51182

Cons:

• 🦗 🦗 🦗

Okay, a bit cheeky on the cons but I'm hoping to prompt someone to assist here. I suspect that ye Automatticians believe the current shortcut is the obvious choice due to your slack (and likely docusaurus) habituation.

For a broad audience I would have to guess they won't have such preconceptions so why pick one with a conflict? Some alternatives:

• ⌘+/ We have slash inserter, how about slash-it-all 🦾
• ⌘+Shift+P I bet you know it but that’s probably no reason to favor it
• ⌘+Alt+K How GitHub aliases their Command Palette so the Markdown add link shortcut isn't conflicted.

That last example also points to the way we could alias the shortcut once a command-based add-link like what Riad speculated about #51737 (comment) manifests and is equally effective as the current UX.

[youknowriad]

⌘+AltK How GitHub aliases their Command Palette so the Markdown add link shortcut isn't conflicted.

I've been unable to trigger the GitHub command palette when the comment text box is focused (either with the original or aliased shortcut).

---

For what it's worth, I don't have a strong opinion on the shortcut. The main "con" of an alternative shortcut is the fact that cmd+k is kind of widely used in the web today. That said, I can be onboard with two shortcuts to trigger the command center. Cmd+k being there for folks that are used to it elsewhere with the caveat that it doesn't work right now in RichText.

cc @richtabor @jasmussen @jameskoster

[richtabor]

For a broad audience I would have to guess they won't have such preconceptions so why pick one with a conflict?

It'd be neat if you could assign alternate shortcuts (in the future).

[richtabor]

This is what I'm seeing on trunk; I think it's acceptable.

CleanShot.2023-06-27.at.18.01.14.mp4

[t-hamano]

I may have been validating in the wrong environment or on a different branch. To be precise, the command palette appears for a moment and then the link add popover appears. I have updated the description and screencast. I am sorry for the confusion 🙇

[joedolson]

@richtabor We do have an open issue for assigning custom shortcuts: #3218

It would be great to see that move forward. It's had a lot of work put into it already, just needs some dev commitment. Allowing users to customize shortcuts would make problems like this much more manageable.

[stokesman]

Thanks Riad 🙇

I've been unable to trigger the GitHub command palette when the comment text box is focused

Works for me on Chrome/macOS, maybe it's buggy elsewhere. It's in their docs.

---

This is what I'm seeing on trunk; I think it's acceptable.

Rich, thank you, though I am left wondering if you considered the whole enchilada here. Let's say your intention is to launch the command palette. Won't it be frustrating when it doesn't work from the rich text area?

---

I hope this is a better distillation:

	Benefit	Tradeoff*
Current Shortcut	A portion of the audience gets to use their accustomed shortcut although it can feel flaky.	The shortcut can feel flaky for the whole audience.
Candidate Shortcut	The shortcut always works for the whole audience.	A portion of the audience won't get to use their accustomed shortcut.

*We may suppose that either tradeoff can be eliminated in a later release with #51737 (comment). This may prove true but otherwise which tradeoff would we rather be stuck with?

[draganescu]

I love the Command Palette, yet the implementation of the global keyboard shortcut seems to be somewhat disorienting. With a seemingly global shortcut that isn't entirely 'global,' I found myself on a bit of a wild goose chase when first attempting to test it out. The shortcut constantly opened link UI, which led me to the Gutenberg experiments page and subsequently to Github, believing I am doing something wrong, all the while keeping me oblivious to the need to deselect the text based block.

In my view, a feature as robust as the Command Palette should be launched smoothly and intuitively. This shortcut confusion feels as if there is more broken.

Riad has already pointed out that CMD+k doesn't operate as expected when the comment box is in focus. At least on Safari OSX, we're seeing the link format for markdown instead. However, the commenting experience on a GH issue or PR is modal, a separate experience mindset, while our default block is a paragraph, and most blocks include text. Furthermore, the current state of block deselection leaves something to be desired. So I think the example does not apply.

What do you think of a temporary change of plan? Let's hunt down an available keyboard shortcut, assign it to the Command Palette, and revisit Rich's idea of linking text via the command palette later. Once we're ready, we can update it to use CMD+k. Surely, communicating a shortcut update wouldn't be the most challenging task we've faced. We're not dealing with an age-old command like undo or redo, but rather a fairly recent innovation. Command palettes themselves are a relatively novel concept in the tech world, so I doubt we'd lose users over a temporary change in shortcut.

[t-hamano]

Perhaps this is not what was intended, but I have found that executing this shortcut twice on rich text can launch the command palette.

When the shortcut is executed the first time, the Command Palette flashes for a moment and the link UI opens. Since the focus has shifted to the link UI, the second shortcut would be able to activate the command palette.

However, I personally think it makes more sense to change the shortcut key, since this behavior seems unnatural.

077b45ed7695e7dc0741ae802392e9f2.mp4

[stokesman]

Let's hunt down an available keyboard shortcut, assign it to the Command Palette

I'm favoring forward slash and made the PR as such. I'm totally willing to change that but here’s what I think weighs in favor of it.

• It goes well with the slash inserter shortcut
• It has some precedence in that Figma and Docusaurus (and maybe others) use it for their command/search palettes

[richtabor]

Perhaps this is not what was intended, but I have found that executing this shortcut twice on rich text can launch the command palette.

I don't think the common use case would be to highlight text, then attempt to trigger the command palette (to do something else). They're not commonly related actions.

As an alternative, can we have CMD+K only attempt to make a link, if there is text indeed highlighted? Then there wouldn't be a conflict with CMD+K opening the command palette.

I didn't realize CMD+K worked without selecting text first—seems more a bug than a feature.

[t-hamano]

As an alternative, can we have CMD+K only attempt to make a link, if there is text indeed highlighted? Then there wouldn't be a conflict with CMD+K opening the command palette.

I think there may be use cases where you want to insert a link even when the text is not highlighted. For example, if you use the link UI when text is not highlighted, you can insert linked text.

965e0048b75df1aee4bc86640ef17eba.mp4

[richtabor]

For example, if you use the link UI when text is not highlighted, you can insert linked text.

I still don't think that's a common practice at all.

[stokesman]

I still don't think that's a common practice at all.

Sure, I'd bet that's correct yet that doesn't mean it’s a bug. The create link shortcut has worked like that since before the block editor was even around.

Additionally, trying to deconflict the shortcut as suggested would leave conflicts in corner cases like someone having text selected either without intent (low dexterity/accidents) or because the selection isn't cleared after applying other formats.

[stokesman]

I still don't think changing the command is good idea.

The feature is designed to be globally accessible by a keyboard shortcut. The current shortcut fails to fulfill the design. Another shortcut can fulfill the design and be just as easy to utilize. How is changing to it not a good idea?

Bear in mind nothing precludes using CMD+K at a later date.

[draganescu]

Hello, I wanted to add my understanding of the aspects here too for visibility:

• It is late for the change to land in 6.3, there is no debate here. The change is small indeed, but that could be argued about a zillion potential last moment changes. Let's wait it out until we're clear on what to do. It is a bug but, it is not a big bad bug, it's a small annoying bug. It is also an UX bug, not an implementation bug so the solution should have UX arguments - I mean having a PR is not enough.
• The argument that Cmd+K is popular is really flawed - Google docs has "Ctrl+`" - not to mention all the other examples @stokesman offered. Actually it seems to me Cmd+K is a fancy thing among OSX users moving around in very specific web areas, myself included. Cmd+K does not do anything in GMail, Facebook etc. where the huge swaths of people are. In most text based apps (e.g. online MSWord) it adds links.
• Most apps which use Cmd+K for global search are not having the user in a text editing context. They're usually in pre-interaction context, no editing happening. Trying to go around this leads to things like Webflow's behavior: if the context is editing Cmd+K has an inconsistent behavior you need to learn - if text is selected it's made into a link, if no text is selected but text editing is going on Cmd+K does nothing, however, if no editig is going on Cmd+K opens global search. Squarespace does not have Cmd+K in design mode at all, Cmd+K adds links.
• The argument that / is "hard to find" is very peculiar in its selectiveness. If a user has to write an email is @ easy to find? What if they have to type a web address or type in an email "this/that same". What I mean is that keyboard shortcuts are a feature for people who use the software so much that they want to save the cognitive effort of finding and clicking/pressing buttons by employing mnemonic actions that are perceived as being "faster" because of less context switching. If you are in this position as a user learning that WordPress defines Cmd+. or Cmd+/ or Cmd+K or Cmd+P is the same. Once you learned it it's there.
• I think we should keep Cmd+K for linking text and use a different shortcut for global search. Cmd+K does not cut it for the block editor's needs. It works fine outside the block editor but alas WordPress is very much about creating content so we need something that works everywhere. I also think we should choose shortcuts not based on popularity contests.

[richtabor]

As an alternative, can we have CMD+K only attempt to make a link, if there is text indeed highlighted? Then there wouldn't be a conflict with CMD+K opening the command palette.

This seems the most sensible.

[stokesman]

That can be contested: Most sensible seems to be aliasing another shortcut that works regardless of context. GitHub, for example, opted to do that:

My only gripe with that is the one that works everywhere should be documented as the primary one. Also there's no reason it has to be a three-key variation of the other.

[stokesman]

Here’s a tidbit I hope we’ll all agree on: The visual regression that comes along with this should be fixed. Here’s the simplest way I found to do it #53001.

[bph]

@stokesman @t-hamano We'l move the issue off the 6.3 project board, and punt it to 6.4 so it stays active. The visual regression PR #53001 made it into 6.3 RC 3

There is also a related discussion happening on this PR: #52386

[afercia]

Quick thought from my side:

(Cmd+K) In most text based apps (e.g. online MSWord) it adds links.

Correct, and that's a de facto standard singe ages. I'd like to remind also TinyMCE uses Cmd+K ant WordPress users are very familiar with it.

As an alternative, can we have CMD+K only attempt to make a link, if there is text indeed highlighted? Then there wouldn't be a conflict with CMD+K opening the command palette.

I think this would be less than ideal. As often happens, smart behaviors may seem a good idea at first but they likely fail with helping users in the long run. Also, WordPress (with TinyMCE and the Editor so far) has always allowed users to insert link with or without text selection, for good usability reasons. I'd strongly recommend against the idea of requiring an actual text selection, which would only partially solve the conflict anyways.

[afercia]

Worth also noting the keyboard shortcut conflict is also visible in the keyboard shortcuts modal dialog:

Overall, I'm not sure why releasing software with known bugs is now considered acceptable in WordPress. And this is not the only known bug. I do realize such a consideration is out of the scope of this issue btu I'd think it's something that should be discussed at a higher level.

[t-hamano]

With the introduction of the Command Palette in WordPress 6.3 and the impending release of WordPress 6.4, I think we need to reconsider how to deal with this issue.

Personally, I think it would be better to change the key combinations as suggested in #52386 that do not completely conflict with other shortcuts or add aliases, rather than trying to somehow deal with the current key combinations as they are.

For example, in #54515, it is suggested that the command palette be made available anywhere in WordPress. This might conflict with the shortcut for users using the Classic Editor.

[justlevine]

Late to the party, but to add another 👎 to switching what CMD+K does based on context ( that I don't believe has been mentioned yet ) is the cognitive load involved (#a11y).

Learning a global shortcut is a one time learning curve. Using that changes based on what you have actively selected adds cognitive load to every single interaction with that shortcut.

[priethor]

Late to the party, but to add another 👎 to switching what CMD+K does based on context ( that I don't believe has been mentioned yet ) is the cognitive load involved (#a11y).

This is a common pattern in similar software across the industry, and, in my humble opinion, working differently than the rest of the software adds more cognitive load. A good example of this is how Gutenberg lists are not indented with TAB; I still make the mistake of hitting TAB to this date because using uncommon shortcuts puts the burden of knowing the context on the user (in this case, the context of what text/block editor I'm using).

All in all, opening the command palette only when there is no text selected seems like the best approach to me.

[t-hamano]

Based on the discussion so far, there are probably three possible approaches at this point:

1. Change to another keyboard shortcut such as /: Try forward slash keyboard shortcut for command palette #52386
2. Stop the link control from opening via command + k when we don’t have any text selected (See this comment)
3. Integrate Link Controller and Command Palette (See this comment)

[annezazu]

After a review by core editor triage and core editor tech leads on the WordPress 6.5 release team, this issue is being removed from the release due to lack of consensus and progress.

I do want to know this in progress PR as related to this effort and something that might be possible to get in for 6.5 otherwise: #58179 cc @getdave who perhaps can speak to this (and why it's closed?).

[afercia]

This is a common pattern in similar software across the industry, and, in my humble opinion, working differently than the rest of the software adds more cognitive load. A good example of this is how Gutenberg lists are not indented with TAB ...

I'm not sure comparing these two cases is a good argument. I'd encourage everyone to not think as an advanced user and rather try to think as an average, not tech-savvy user. To me, these two cases are very different.

• Many users are used to use editors like Word and Google Docs. In the context of this kind of text editors, many users have learned that pressing Tab indents text.
• Very few users, usually advanced users like developers or designers, use highly specialized software where the Cmd+K keyboard shortcut may open a command palette. This convention is used in a very niche kind of products the average users don't use and will never use. As such, I think the vast majority of WordPress users don't expect and will never expect CMd+k to open a Command palette.
• Rather, Cmd+K has always been since ages a very known convention to insert links.

[t-hamano]

Suppose we change the shortcut key from the current cmd+k to another shortcut key, for example cmd+/. As one approach to reduce the inability to recognize the key change, I propose displaying a snackbar to notify the user that the key has changed (See this comment).

[getdave]

After a review by core editor triage and core editor tech leads on the WordPress 6.5 release team, this issue is being removed from the release due to lack of consensus and progress.

I do want to know this in progress PR as related to this effort and something that might be possible to get in for 6.5 otherwise: #58179 cc @getdave who perhaps can speak to this (and why it's closed?).

The approach in #58179 was closed because there is an established convention in the editor that pressing Cmd + K within richtext will create a link even if no text is selected.

My PR was attempting to disable the ability to create links from unselected text as this felt to me like an anti-pattern. However, as you can see in the PR's comments, various folks contributed reasons why my assumption is incorrect.

This is unfortunate as my PR did partially solve the matching shortcut issue.

Note currently on trunk the command palette will only be invoked when you are outside a rich text context. So it is contextual. Will our users expect to be creating links when they are not within a rich text area.

[draganescu]

there is an established convention in the editor that pressing Cmd + K within richtext will create a link even if no text is selected.

Just want to clarify: inseting inline links while in the writing flow is a feature, present in other editors, inline with other formats, not a convention.

[justlevine]

there is an established convention in the editor that pressing Cmd + K within richtext will create a link even if no text is selected.

Just want to clarify: inseting inline links while in the writing flow is a feature, present in other editors, inline with other formats, not a convention.

I'm pretty sure the "established convention" here is in reference to WordPress itself which has used Cmd+K to insert links for years.

[liviopv]

While reviewing feedback for other 6.6 features, the conflict with Cmmd+K when a Paragraph Block is selected was mentioned twice, which surprised me. It's the first time I've received proactive feedback about the Command Palette, so it might be an interesting topic to discuss in future release cycles.

[priethor]

@liviopv, did the feedback say how they would expect it to work?

[mrfoxtalbot]

I am not Livio but I got some feedback about this today.

how they would expect it to work?

Not really, no. I am not sure how to fix this, we are taking over an existing (and very well-known) keyboard shortcut.

[liviopv]

I don't know how to fix it either without changing one of the commands.

Perhaps using Cmmd+K in a Paragraph Block would toggle the link inserter AND also toggle a snackbar notification explaining how to toggle the palette in this state?

[MadtownLems]

I've finally been playing with the Command Palette recently, and this issue is my primary complaint about implementation thus far. Having ctrl+k open the link dialog - instead of the command palette - while the cursor is inside a Paragraph Block makes the keyboard shortcut (and by extension, the entire Command Palette) MUCH less useful for content providers.

I also think the current situation is even more confusing for users than most people realize. Hitting ctrl+K opens the dialog box to create a link, but that box isn't labeled at all. I'd think most users - at least most of OUR users - won't even know what that box that just popped up is for!

It may not have mattered as much when the Command Palette was only shown in the Site Editor, and not the Post Editor. But now that it's present when writing content, and has its keyboard shortcut prominently displayed inside it, it's time to get this resolved.

I think @t-hamano did a great job of illustrating the 3 viable approaches here: #51737 (comment)

How can we get consensus on which approach to go with and move towards tackling this?

[afercia]

I'd agree this issue would need some more focus to be finally solved. To me:

• Inserting a link via Cmd/Ctrl + K is the industry standard since ages for all the HTML editors I've seen across the years. It should not be changed.
• Instead, the easiest solution is to just change the keyboard shortcut for the Command palette.

but that box isn't labeled at all. I'd think most users - at least most of OUR users - won't even know what that box that just popped up is for!

I agree that all dialogs, popovers and such should be clearly labeled with a visible title. That's an accessibility and usability issue across many UIs in the editor but seems there's no consensus on a way forward. It should go in a separate issue though.