Pages 3.0: Text selection shortcut used for adding rows in tables
Posted by Pierre Igot in: PagesDecember 12th, 2007 • 3:06 pm
Further proof, if needed, that Apple’s engineers don’t really care much about meeting the needs of those users who prefer to use the keyboard for text navigation and text selection.
I personally use keyboard shortcuts all the time for text navigation and text selection. In Pages, option-Right and option-Left can be used to jump from word to word in a line of text. And shift-option-Right and shift-option-Left can be used to extend the selection by one word to the left or to the right.
Similarly, option-Down and option-Up can be used to jump to the end or the beginning of the current paragraph. And shift-option-Down and shift-option-Up can be used to extend the selection to the end or the beginning of the paragraph.
Like I said, I use these shortcuts all the time for text navigation and selection.
Which means that I also use them when I am typing text in table cells. Tables are not just for numbers. Sometimes, you want to type one or more lines of text in a table cell. And naturally, if you normally use keyboard shortcuts for text navigation and selection, you’ll tend to use the same shortcuts when editing text in table cells.
There is only one small problem with this: In Pages, when the cursor is inside a table cell, the shift-option-Down and shift-option-Up keyboard shortcuts are used for… adding a new table row below or above the current table row.
Argh!
As far as I can tell, there is no way to turn these shortcuts off. And of course they take precedence over the default function of the shift-option-Down and shift-option-Up shortcuts outside table cells. Which means that, when you are editing text in table cells in Pages, you’re screwed. You can just forget about using keyboard shortcuts for text selection. (The other shortcuts still work, but trying to use only the other ones and not these two is a sure-fire way to bring your frustration to a raging boil.)
It is intensely frustrating to be treated as a second-class citizen again and again just because you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts for text navigation and selection. But that is exactly what happens with Apple products. Again. And again.