Hot keys to avoid

Mottie picture Mottie · Mar 8, 2012 · Viewed 8.7k times · Source

I want to add a hot key that can be used while an input has focus and will be used to toggle a search result.

I guess this question has been more generalized in that I would like to know which hotkeys to avoid so as to not conflict with anything. I found this list of hotkeys, but I doubt there is a complete list anywhere. So from looking over that list, I guess I would avoid the following:

  • Function Keys: F1, F3, F5, F11, F12
  • Navigation: Tab, arrows, home, end, pageup/down, home, end, insert, delete, numpad
  • Ctrl + (a, c, d, f, h, j, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, z)
  • Alt + function keys - too easy to slip and hit alt-F4
  • Alt + Navigation - browser history, change tabs/windows, etc.
  • Alt + letters - windows menu (alt-F = file, etc)
  • Shift + Navigation - selects text inside of inputs
  • Caps lock (unless you're evil LOL)
  • Window/Meta key
  • I don't want to use multi-key combos like ctrl-alt, ctrl-shift, ctrl-alt-shift, etc.

So, that leaves:

  • Unused function keys
  • Shift + function keys
  • Ctrl + left over letters
  • Alt + letter keys (but make sure they aren't in the menu)

Are there any other key combinations that should be avoided that I just don't know about?

Answer

Shantanu picture Shantanu · Mar 8, 2012

Please take a look at this (searchable) Wikipedia page on cross-platform keyboard shortcuts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_keyboard_shortcuts Each of these keys should certainly be avoided in the toggle functionality.