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github-actions[bot] edited this page Jun 7, 2026 · 8 revisions

Input & Controls

Kartend handles keyboard, mouse, and gamepad input concurrently — they all drive the same selection model and you can switch between them mid-session without any mode change. Every navigation key is rebindable; gamepad button assignments are user-configurable; mouse modifier combinations can be reassigned.

Where to find this — Settings Dialog → General tab → Keyboard Bindings, Gamepad Config, Mouse. Underlying INI keys live under [General] — see Configuration Reference.

Keyboard

Navigation defaults

Key Action INI key (rebindable)
← → ↑ ↓ Move selection keyNavLeft, keyNavRight, keyNavUp, keyNavDown
Enter / Return Launch / enter subcollection / confirm keyConfirm
Escape Back / close overlay / cancel keyBack
Home Jump to first item keyJumpFirst
End Jump to last item keyJumpLast
Page Up Alphabetic jump backward (previous starting letter) keyAlphabeticBack
Page Down Alphabetic jump forward keyAlphabeticForward
/ Focus search bar keySearch
I Show full-screen item detail page keyItemDetails

View / layout

Key Action
Ctrl+1 Switch to Grid view
Ctrl+2 Switch to List view
Ctrl+3 Switch to Cover Flow view
Ctrl+4 Switch to Horizontal view
Ctrl+Shift++ Increase grid columns (gridWidth)
Ctrl+Shift+- Decrease grid columns
F8 Toggle toolbar (persistent, saved as showToolbar)
F9 Toggle sidebar / details pane (per-collection sidebarVisible)
F10 Toggle menu bar (persistent, saved as showMenuBar)
F11 Toggle fullscreen (persistent, saved as fullscreen)

Search bar

/ focuses the search input. Once focused:

Key Action
Ctrl+A Select all search text
Escape Clear the search and return focus to the grid
Enter Move selection into the filtered results (focus jumps to grid)

Typing while the grid is focused does not auto-focus the search — you have to press / first. This avoids accidentally search-typing when you're trying to navigate by alphabetic jump.

Zoom

Text zoom applies to the entire UI (toolbar, menus, sidebar, item titles), persisted as uiTextZoomPercent:

Key Action
Ctrl+= Increase text zoom 10%
Ctrl+- Decrease text zoom 10%
Ctrl+0 Reset zoom to 100%

A small HUD shows the current percentage briefly after each adjustment.

Application-wide

Key Action
F1 Open the in-app keyboard shortcut reference dialog
F5 Soft refresh — reload the current collection without rescanning
Ctrl+F5 Full rescan — drop and rebuild the database for the current collection
Ctrl+Shift+R Open a random item
Ctrl+Shift+P Open the Command Palette
Ctrl+, Open Settings
Ctrl+Q Quit

Rebinding keys

Settings → General → Keyboard Bindings → click the field for the action you want to rebind, then press the new key. The dialog captures the next key event and stores its Qt::Key code. Press Escape to cancel a capture in progress.

Keys that are not rebindable today: the Ctrl+1..4 view shortcuts, view toggles (F8–F11), zoom (Ctrl+= / Ctrl+- / Ctrl+0), quit (Ctrl+Q), settings (Ctrl+,), and refresh (F5 / Ctrl+F5). File a feature request if you need any of these to move.

Key repeat

Held navigation keys repeat. Cadence is independently tunable for grid and list views:

Setting INI key Default
Initial delay before repeat starts keyboardRepeatDelayMs 260 ms
Repeat interval (Grid / Cover Flow / Horizontal) keyboardRepeatIntervalMs 260 ms
Repeat interval (List) listKeyboardRepeatIntervalMs 50 ms

List view's faster default is intentional — you're often scanning linearly through hundreds of rows.

Mouse

Click defaults

Action Effect
Single-click on item Select
Double-click on item Launch (or enter subcollection / virtual folder)
Right-click on item Context menu
Single-click outside any tile Clear selection focus
Click and drag (no item) (No action — drag-to-select is via hold-scroll, below)

Middle-click

Action Effect
Middle-click on item Toggle the video preview in the sidebar (turns the preview on or off without changing selection)
Modifier + middle-click on item Cycle the artwork type shown in the sidebar gallery (e.g. boxfront → backdrop → label → boxfront…). The modifier is configurable.

The artwork-cycle modifier is set globally:

Setting INI key Default
Artwork cycle modifier artworkCycleModifier Shift

Choices are Shift, Control, Alt, Meta. Pick the one that doesn't conflict with your window manager's middle-click bindings.

Hold scroll (click-and-hold dragging)

Press and hold the mouse button on a tile to start hold scroll. Move the cursor while holding and selection follows the cursor — useful for rapidly skimming through a large collection.

Setting INI key Default
Hold delay before activation clickHoldDelayMs 500 ms
Hold-scroll repeat (Grid / Cover Flow / Horizontal) clickHoldRepeatIntervalMs 320 ms
Hold-scroll repeat (List) listClickHoldRepeatIntervalMs 80 ms

Move the cursor outside the viewport to cancel without launching.

Wheel

Action Effect
Wheel up / down Scroll the viewport
Ctrl + wheel (No action by default — reserved)
Shift + wheel (No action by default — reserved)
Setting INI key Default
Rows scrolled per wheel tick mouseWheelRows 1
Global scroll speed multiplier scrollVelocityMultiplier 1.0 (range 0.25–5.0)

Hover

When Select Item on Hover is enabled (selectItemOnHover=true, default false), moving the cursor over a tile selects it without a click — handy for kiosk setups. Combined with attract mode this gives a "scroll-to-browse" experience.

Double-click vs. expand mode

In a collection with expandMode=true, the first Enter or double-click does not launch — it shows a full-screen artwork preview. A second Enter / double-click launches; Escape cancels. See Collections → expand mode.

Context menus

Right-click anywhere reveals a context menu. Contents depend on what you clicked:

On a media item

  • Launch — run the item with the configured launcher
  • Properties — toggle the sidebar
  • Refresh — soft-reload the collection
  • (separator)
  • Edit metadata… — open the Edit Metadata Dialog (notes, tags, rating, source URL, custom fields)
  • Pin item / Hide item / Mark continue later — toggle the per-item state flags; the labels flip to Unpin / Unhide / Clear continue later when the flag is already set
  • Preview launch command… — open the Launch Preview for this item
  • Set manual file… — pick a manual / PDF / etc. for this item
  • Clear manual override — appears only if a manual is set
  • Always launch with… — appears only if the collection has more than one launcher; opens the Launcher Chooser
  • Clear launcher override — appears only if a per-item override exists
  • (separator)
  • Add to Playlist ▶ — submenu with each existing playlist + New playlist…
  • Add to Favorites (or Remove from Favorites) — toggles membership in the built-in Favorites

On a subcollection tile

  • Open — enter the subcollection
  • Properties — toggle the sidebar
  • Refresh — soft-reload

On a playlist tile

  • Rename Playlist…
  • Delete Playlist — hidden for reserved playlists like Favorites

Inside a playlist (right-click on its items)

All media-item entries above, plus:

  • Remove from Playlist

Gamepad

Gamepad support is optional and gracefully degrades: if no gamepad backend is available, all gamepad-related UI hides and the rest of the app works normally.

Backends

Kartend tries one of two backends, in order:

  1. Qt6::Gamepad — preferred. Picked up automatically if qt6-gamepad is installed and was available at build time.
  2. SDL2 — fallback. Picked up if libsdl2 is installed.

If neither is available the Gamepad section in Settings is hidden. See Building → Optional Qt6Gamepad / SDL2 and the distro-specific Launchers + dependencies.

Default bindings

Input Action INI key
D-pad Move selection gamepadUseDpad (toggle)
Left stick Move selection gamepadUseLeftStick (toggle)
A (or equivalent) Confirm / launch gamepadConfirmButton
B (or equivalent) Back / close gamepadBackButton
Y (or equivalent) Toggle sidebar gamepadToggleSidebarButton

D-pad and left stick can be enabled / disabled independently. Held input repeats at the same cadence as keyboard repeat (keyboardRepeatIntervalMs).

Other buttons (face buttons, shoulder buttons, triggers, stick clicks) are passed through but unbound by default. Open Settings to bind them to confirm/back/sidebar.

Rebinding gamepad buttons

Settings → General → Gamepad → click a button picker, then press the gamepad button you want. Live capture mode listens for the next button event. Press Escape (or click outside) to cancel.

Multiple gamepads

Kartend listens to the first connected device. Hot-plugging is supported — connect or disconnect mid-session and the backend reattaches.

Binding visualizer

Help → Binding Visualizer… opens an interactive reference that shows every keyboard and gamepad mapping currently in effect, grouped by surface (Navigation, Selection, Search, etc.). The killer feature is press-to-identify: tap a key or gamepad button while the dialog is open and the matching row highlights so you can answer "what does this do?" without scanning the table.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Binding Visualizer                                       │
│ Press a key or button to identify the mapped action.     │
│                                                          │
│ ▾ Navigation                                             │
│     Move selection up         ↑     /  Pad Up            │
│     Move selection down       ↓     /  Pad Down          │
│     Move selection left       ←     /  Pad Left          │
│     Move selection right      →     /  Pad Right         │
│ ▾ Selection                                              │
│     Launch / confirm          Enter /  A                 │
│     Back / cancel             Esc   /  B          ← lit  │
│ ▾ Search                                                 │
│     Focus search bar          /     /  —                 │
│ …                                                        │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Useful when you've rebound a few keys and forgotten which is which, or when handing the input to someone unfamiliar with the layout. Gamepad input is captured live while the dialog is open, so an unfamiliar pad can be mapped to actions interactively.

The view is read-only — rebinding still happens through Settings → General → Keyboard Bindings / Gamepad Config.

Hover, focus, and keyboard reach

A few rules govern who's listening:

  • The search bar captures keystrokes only while it has focus (yellow caret visible). / focuses it; Escape returns focus.
  • The grid captures arrow keys and most other shortcuts whenever the search bar is not focused.
  • Modal dialogs (Settings, Statistics, Shortcuts, Launcher Chooser…) capture all keys while open. Escape closes them.

Mouse hover never grabs keyboard focus. You can hover-select while typing in the search bar without disrupting the search.

Quick reference card

Selection ........... Arrow keys
Launch .............. Enter
Back ................ Escape
First / last ........ Home / End
Alphabetic jump ..... PgUp / PgDn
Search .............. /
Item details ........ I
Random item ......... Ctrl+Shift+R
View modes .......... Ctrl+1..4
Grid columns ........ Ctrl+Shift++ / Ctrl+Shift+-
Toolbar ............. F8
Sidebar ............. F9
Menu bar ............ F10
Fullscreen .......... F11
Soft refresh ........ F5
Full rescan ......... Ctrl+F5
Settings ............ Ctrl+,
Quit ................ Ctrl+Q
Shortcut help ....... F1
Zoom ................ Ctrl+= / Ctrl+- / Ctrl+0

For developers

  • Keyboard handling: src/modules/input/keyboard/ (KeyboardManager, ArrowNavigationHandler, AlphabeticNavigationHandler).
  • Mouse handling: src/modules/input/mouse/ (MouseManager).
  • Gamepad: src/modules/input/gamepad/. Backend selection happens at compile time via KARTEND_HAS_QT_GAMEPAD / KARTEND_HAS_SDL2_GAMEPAD (see CMakeLists.txt).
  • Rebinding storage: GeneralSettings::keyNav* etc. in src/utils/app/collection/generalsettings.h.
  • Repeat-interval logic for List view's special-case faster cadence: see keyboardmanager*.cpp for the view-aware path.
  • Hold-scroll: MouseManager::startHoldScroll() / holdScrollTimer.
  • Search-bar focus management: EventManager filters keystrokes that shouldn't reach the search line edit.

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