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With this and this in mind, what's the quickest way to keyboard-navigate to "Recently Used" in the "Places" side-pane in a (Nautilus) "Save as ... " dialog?

Currently, the quickest ( ! ) way I know of is to Shift Tab a number of times, possibly taking a shortcut along the way by hitting F6, which will save three of the many Shift Tab's.

Clearly, this is neither quick nor efficient. Any ideas?

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nutty about natty
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  • for navigating to bookmarks etc there's a different solution here http://askubuntu.com/questions/284707/in-a-save-as-dialog-whats-the-quickest-way-to-keyboard-navigate-to-tmp – nutty about natty May 04 '13 at 08:01

1 Answers1

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In my English Ubuntu 12.10, when I hold Alt, the "P" in "Places" becomes underlined. This gives the hint that Alt+P will move focus to the "Places" bar.

The accelerator might be different in another release or a localized version of Ubuntu. Also note that some characters in other labels become underlined, too -- the logic is the same here.

This works in many other dialogs in Ubuntu and Windows.

EDIT: Beyond that logic, hitting Alt+R selects "Recently used" in the "Places" bar and leaves the focus in the "Files" pane.

EDIT 2: Alt+D selects "Desktop".

nutty about natty
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krlmlr
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  • Brilliant! Hadn't crossed my mind to think of an accelerator for this... I'll leave the question open for a bit still, but this is likely to be the accepted answer! – nutty about natty Mar 18 '13 at 22:50
  • Hmm, it's still not as smooth as I'd hope: when I use Alt P, I immediately land in "Search"; how do I get from "Search" to "Recently Used"? The down arrow activates the search field, rather than focussing "Recently Used". So close, but still far away...? – nutty about natty Mar 19 '13 at 14:54
  • @nuttyaboutnatty: Not on my system. Which application are you testing? On what version of Ubuntu? – krlmlr Mar 19 '13 at 19:25
  • I'm on precise. Which application? Well, just take Firefox as an example: if I want to save the very page I'm writing this on, get to Save as ... dialog, hit Alt P to focus Places in side-bar. Within Places, tmp (currently) is selected, presumably because earlier today I downloaded a (pdf) file to tmp. But before downloading to tmp, "Search" was selected (don't know why; I rarely use that "Search" in Places). But even now that tmp is selected: how do I (quickly & efficiently) get to "Recently Used"? From tmp I'm bound to traverse (Bookmarks and) unmounted partitions. – nutty about natty Mar 19 '13 at 19:54
  • Another example: wanting to print-to-pdf (Print to File) from Firefox, click on Save in Folder, Other..., Alt P - and again land in "Search". – nutty about natty Mar 19 '13 at 20:04
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    @nuttyaboutnatty: Try Alt R, see also my edit. – krlmlr Mar 19 '13 at 20:11
  • doh! I feel quite stupid now... thx for bearing with me!! – nutty about natty Mar 19 '13 at 20:16
  • I'm still trying to find the accelerator (and/or quickest way) to select (focus) the tmp folder and my bookmarks, without having to traverse and mount other filesystems (which are in between Recently Used, Home folder, Desktop and tmp, bookmarks). Any idea how? – nutty about natty Apr 16 '13 at 05:19
  • @nuttyaboutnatty: Hit T once you are in the "Places" pane? Otherwise, I have no idea... – krlmlr Apr 16 '13 at 08:31
  • Nope, doesn't work AFAICT. Maybe I ought to start a new question for this. But Regarding your original answer: tons of thanks, helps me a lot! – nutty about natty Apr 16 '13 at 08:41
  • found a solution, posted it here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/284707/in-a-save-as-dialog-whats-the-quickest-way-to-keyboard-navigate-to-tmp – nutty about natty May 04 '13 at 08:00