Apps9 - make Enter key behave like Tab

Hi @PRODQ ,

1. Please clarify if this is regarding IEE or Aurena.
2. Please specfy the business scenario you expect from pressing the “Enter” key. Do you want to
   1. save a record or
   2. simply add another record/line etc?

The keyboard shortcuts are usually not available in Aurena for now so “tab” works as the next available field to be selected or filled where as in IEE it also functions pretty much the same by going to the next available field to be selected or filled.

However, assuming you want to;

1. Save a record > F12 would work
2. Add new record/line > F5

Similarly, see below for the short cut options to do certain actions (for IEE only);

F1 Help
F2 Populate
SHIFT + F5 Refresh 
F3 Query 
F4 Clear 
F5 New 
F6 Duplicate 
F7 Remove 
F8 List of values 
F9 Zoom 
CTRL + F9 History 
F11 Jump to the next block 
SHIFT + F11 Popup menu 
F12 or CTRL + S Save 
CTRL + F4 Close 
CTRL + X Cut
CTRL + C Copy 
CTRL + V Paste 
CTRL + Z Undo 
SHIFT + F8 Editor 
CTRL + N Bring IFS Navigator to top 
CTRL + Up Arrow Previous Object 
CTRL + Down Arrow Next Object 
CTRL + M Send Message

Hope this is of some help.

Best Regards,

Dasuni

Hi Dasuni

I know what all the keyboard shortcuts are, thank you.  This was not my question.  We’re in IEE not Aurena. 

When moving through the fields when processing a supplier invoice (Invoice no, recipient, amount, tax code, posting etc etc etc) user would like to hit the Enter key to jump to the next required field rather than the Tab key.

Linda

Linda,

Our finance folks came from a similar legacy application where <ENTER> was the same as <TAB>. Then, we allowed that to continue in some of our custom applications (written in Visual Foxpro).

But the sooner folks get used to standard Windows navigation, the better. IEE and Aurena are, at the end of the day, Windows applications (cross-browser usage aside). In any other Windows application you have to use TAB to move from field to field. ENTER is reserved for committing data or confirming a choice.

I am all but certain you cannot change the default Windows behavior of keypresses in IEE, because that would be a fairly big client-side modification.

Thanks,

Joe Kaufman

This is one of those areas where IT people are traditionally supposed to give users what they want without asking questions, but there are two difficult questions that must be asked in my opinion if you have a good CIO.

First, are these your strongest players that you want to keep happy at all costs? A great business adapts to changing markets, changing customer demands, changing supply chains, changing regulatory environments, and even changes made over time to IFRS and GAAP. Change is hard, but great businesses get good at it. Do you want to contribute to a fantasy that stagnation is acceptable?

Second, is this the business' most critical, pressing problem? Have you optimized revenue and costs so perfectly that there's nothing left to do but tweak a UI? Maybe they don't know about the transformational change IT can give them if given half a chance. Maybe it's a new time-saving integration or a new revenue-generating leads capture process. Surely those things are far more important than changing a keystroke.

(I've been direct here in the interest of brevity, but you probably already know these are difficult conversations!)

Linda,

Indeed. And I see why ENTER-as-focus-shift is desirable. Ever seen a ten-keyer go to down on numeric data entry? There’s no TAB key on the ten-pad.  *smile*

So, I get it, but as Kevin Durette elaborates, change probably still needs to happen, and it needs to come from the top. Is the data being entered still largely numeric? Can EDI or another import process alleviate that need? For more standard data entry (involving a mix of alpha and numeric data) I have never seen the advantage of the ENTER key over the TAB (other than user inertia), and most interfaces reserve the ENTER for submitting/saving data.

Keep fighting the good fight, and where you can, try to make it not be a fight.  *smile*

Thanks,

Joe Kaufman

I believe there are Keymapping programs in Windows that can change a key to be mapped to something else. If this is a major problem that is another option.

AutoHotKey will do this.

https://www.autohotkey.com/

enter_as_tab.ahk

; AutoHotKey script rewrites Enter as Tab when IFS is activated

SetTitleMatchMode, 2

Enter::
if WinActive("IFS Applications") {
   SendInput {Tab}
} Else {
   SendInput {Enter}
}

The problem is that you may legitimately want the enter key in certain places throughout the application.