Does anyone have some design ideas for using the keyboard for data
entry? I’m working on migrating a legacy data app to rails and I feel
that the only thing missing is an easy way to enter data from the
keyboard alone. Current users are very proficient at repetitive data
entry because they do not need to use the mouse. There doesn’t seem to
be any solid paradigm for this in web apps, so I am wondering if anyone
has had to tackle this issue. Or does it just mean that I shouldn’t be
trying to replace a data warehouse-ish app with a web-based one?
Thanks
Does anyone have some design ideas for using the keyboard for data
entry? I’m working on migrating a legacy data app to rails and I feel
that the only thing missing is an easy way to enter data from the
keyboard alone. Current users are very proficient at repetitive data
entry because they do not need to use the mouse. There doesn’t seem to
be any solid paradigm for this in web apps, so I am wondering if anyone
has had to tackle this issue. Or does it just mean that I shouldn’t be
trying to replace a data warehouse-ish app with a web-based one?
Thanks
Just design the pages so that they can tab through them – both
navigation
and forms, and submit buttons…
I’d imagine it would be pretty simular to their current interface…?
Yeah, thats what I’ve been doing so far as far as entering data.
However, my version of firefox (OS X) likes to jump over select boxes.
To be more specific, the current app is a terminal front end written in
COBOL, done before my time. There are a bunch of hotkeys and funky
ways to jump between related records and fields which don’t translate
so well to a web app.
you might be able to use accesskey for hot keys
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/interact/forms.html#adef-accesskey