Keyboard shortcut for "view last document"?

Problem

I keep finding myself making navigation errors, reproducible like so:

  • Select some documents
  • Tools > Create Table of Contents
  • Within the newly-created file, click on a link
    → The linked page fills the View/Edit Pane
  • Press ⌘[

Expected: The View/Edit Pane displays the Table of Contents page
Actual: All of the panes change and I’m somewhere I don’t want to be.

I’ve been able to work out that this is the result of nested navigation, so ⌘[ and ⌘] are equivalent to clicking on the Items List navigation arrows…

image

…not the View/Edit Pane’s arrows…

image

Questions

Is there a keyboard equivalent / menu item for clicking on the View/Edit Pane’s arrows? It’s not ideal, but I’d rather learn a new pair of shortcuts than have to use the mouse just to go back a page.

If not, can you please add this as a feature request?

The specific behavior I’d expect from ⌘[ and ⌘] is that they work on all panes simultaneously, e.g., such that “Back” always shows the previously-viewed document and the Items List updates to show that document selected, and the Navigation Sidebar also updates to show the current doc’s location.

2 Likes

The specific behavior I’d expect from ⌘[ and ⌘] is that they work on all panes simultaneously, e.g., such that “Back” always shows the previously-viewed document and the Items List updates to show that document selected, and the Navigation Sidebar also updates to show the current doc’s location

No, this is not how it works. The item list and view/edit pane are independent so going back on the view/edit pane has no effect on the item list. If you went to a previous document and wanted the item list to reflect the location, Control-click > Reveal or Command-R.

Development would have to assess your request, though it is noted.

Good to know about ⌘R. Thanks!

Just to be clear, the issue here is less about seeing where the current file is and more about being able to quickly go back after navigating via inter-document links. The ToC example I shared above is, of course, only one way such links get created. Given DT’s excellent support for generating such links, it makes sense to me that there should be a way to browse them as one would a web browser, i.e., with keyboard shortcuts to navigate back and forth through visited pages.

So that first question again: Are there keyboard shortcuts equivalent to clicking on the View/Edit Pane’s arrows?

1 Like

Perhaps I misunderstand what you want but this works over here

  • After creating TOC:

  • After clicking link:

  • After using this menu …

3

  • … there’s the TOC again

Thanks for sharing, @pete31! I got pretty excited there for a second, but my DT doesn’t seem to work like yours…no idea why. When I press ⌃⇧←, I just get a system >thunk!<. :pleading_face:

Here’s what my Gehe zu menu looks like:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is a custom shortcut I’ve set via macOS system preferences.

I know you want a shortcut but test this first: If you use the menu directly without shortcut does it not take you back?

Ah, thanks @pete31. I see now that I was looking at the wrong items in my own screenshot, confused partially by the language difference, and partly by your shortcut customization. :joy:

When I create an empty database just like yours, I get the behavior you describe. This was a surprise because that’s not how it works in my “real” database. Other than filenames and number of files, the only relevant difference seemed to be that you’ve got Markdown files in your screenshots, whereas I’m using RTF. (Why, you may ask? Answer: because I use higlighting for Progressive Summarization, and DT doesn’t support highlights in Markdown.)

After further investigation, it appears that the Back button’s behavior changes based on the type of the currently-displayed file. This is bonkers, so I’ve posted this bug report separately.

https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/back-button-inactive-when-viewing-rtf-files/56503