I cleaned up a lot of stuff making the lister more minimalistic. In the older setup, when i accidently pushed the alt key, items in the main menu
(file/edit/ go to, etc.) lit up green, so all other actions in the lister were blocked until i pushed »Alt« again.
After removing a few elements, the behaviour is different. The alt key (alone) now will work on the currently focussed file: normally, a dotted line
is displayed around the focussed item, remaining the same when moving the cursor up or down. But when pushing the alt key, the dotted line will disappear (see image).
If changing the lister (let's say the left window) side from such an unfocussed item (with the opposite lister active now, the right one), another »Alt« key
press will change the lister side back to the previous item on the left (where i thought that pushing »Alt« isn't supposed toggling lister sides).
Similiar things happen, when thumbnails are viewed, but when pushing the alt key (the dotted line will disappear), in that state the navigation by arrow
keys will get stuck. Arrow cursors will work only, if i press the alt key again (now with dotted line).
Now i´m not sure if this is some weird bug or is this some unknown function which i never used? The problem is, that now in certain cases the navigation
freezes. For example, in tiles mode navigation is possible, when indicated by some shadow unter the active element (the equivalent to the dotted line).
Pressing the Alt key will make the underlying shadow disappear (although the file will stay selected), & the navigation is blocked until alt ist pressed again.
Basically i would like to turn off that behaviour, if possible, so that pressing the alt key alone won't be able to block the navigation by arrow keys.
I forget to make clear, that the blocking of the »unfocussed« items happens in all modes with the exception of the details mode. In details mode
the arrow keys will always work, regardless of the state, no files will be »locked«.
Pushing Alt is supposed to activate the menubar, moving the input focus from the file display (or wherever it was) to the menubar. That's standard in almost all apps (that have a menubar, at least).
Is that all you're seeing or is there more to it?
(Do you still have a menubar in your setup?)
(Also note that things are a bit more complicated in Power mode if you turn off its Always in Keyboard Mode option.)
The screenshot shows the old layout (top) & the new (bottom). In the old layout pushing »Alt« lit the menu items green, so then the
quick navigation keys could be pushed anytime afterwards (the underlined characters), while in the new layout, that has most toolbars
removed (they can be toggled on by hotkeys), there is no green highlighting & for quick navigation the keys have to be pressed
at the same time.
Maybe there has to be more than two toolbars open? Now it is only the drive toolbar & the lister menu toolbar.
What is the first item on your first toolbar? Looks like a spacer or something other than a menu (assuming the second screenshot includes the first toolbar). If so that's probably why you're seeing something weird (or rather nothing at all) when you push alt.
Yes, you're right. It was a bit of a spacer, meant to optically tweak the layout. After removing it, the menu items light green again. Very intersting.
Once i suggested, to make the highlighting time out, because it happens very often, that the Alt key it's accidently pressed, as a result of any
unclean hotkey action.
For most »serious« actions like copying or moving things i use the »AltGr« in combination with other keys. Most »Alt« actions here do toggling toolbars, columns, folder colours & stuff like that, so there is no danger of accidently deleting files or similar things.
