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Keyboard and Accessibility
FermiViewer is fully operable from the keyboard — you can open a file, pick an image, run an analysis, and work every dialog without touching a mouse. Controls carry the ARIA roles screen readers expect, so the menu bar announces as a menu bar, the image library as a multi-select list, and dialogs as modal dialogs.
This page is the navigation reference. For the tool shortcuts (zoom, measure, contrast), press ? in the app or see the shortcut map below.
Tab moves between the major regions — menu bar, library, stage, inspector. Each region is a single tab stop: once you are inside, the arrow keys move within it. That is the standard desktop pattern, and it means Tab never makes you walk through dozens of thumbnails to reach the next panel.
Escape consistently backs out: it closes a menu, dismisses a dialog, or cancels an in-progress measurement capture.
Whenever something closes, focus goes back where you were. Close a dialog you opened from the File menu and focus lands on File, not at the top of the page.
Tab to the menu bar, then:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ← / → | Move between menus (File, Edit, View, …) |
| ↓ · Enter · Space | Open the focused menu and jump to its first item |
| ↑ / ↓ | Move between items in an open menu |
| Home / End | First / last item |
| → | Open a submenu (on items that have one) |
| ← | Leave a submenu, back to its parent item |
| ← / → | With a menu open, switch to the neighbouring menu |
| Enter · Space | Run the focused item |
| Escape | Close the menu, focus returns to the menu name |
Unavailable items — greyed out because no image is open, for example — are skipped automatically, so arrowing never dead-ends on something you cannot activate.
The library (left) is a multi-select listbox. Focus it with Tab, then:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ↑ / ↓ · ← / → | Go to the previous / next image (and make it active) |
| Home / End | First / last image |
| Enter · Space | Select the focused image |
| Ctrl/⌘ + Enter/Space | Add or remove it from the selection |
| Shift + Enter/Space | Extend the selection as a range |
| Shift + F10 · Context-menu key | Open the image's context menu |
| F2 | Rename the active image |
Selecting two or more images enables the Compare, Batch, and Group actions above the list.
The image context menu opens with Shift + F10 (or the dedicated context-menu key) on a focused thumbnail, and behaves like the menu bar:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ↑ / ↓ | Move between items |
| Home / End | First / last item |
| Enter · Space | Run the focused item |
| Escape | Close; focus returns to the thumbnail |
| Tab | Close the menu and continue tabbing |
Unavailable entries (Compare selected with fewer than two images picked) are skipped.
Every dialog — Preferences, Export, Batch, Metadata, Calibrations, the folder picker, the image gallery — behaves the same way:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tab / Shift + Tab | Cycle the dialog's controls; focus stays inside |
| Escape | Close the dialog |
| Enter | Activate the focused control |
Opening a dialog moves focus to its first control. Closing one returns focus to whatever opened it. While a dialog is open the app-wide shortcuts are suspended, so keys like Backspace act on the dialog rather than the image behind it.
Clicking the dimmed backdrop also closes a dialog. Clicking inside it does not.
⌘K (macOS) or Ctrl-K (Windows/Linux) opens the command palette — the fastest route to any action, including ones with no shortcut of their own.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| (type) | Filter commands by name |
| ↑ / ↓ | Move through the results |
| Enter | Run the highlighted command |
| Escape | Close; focus returns where you were |
The workspace chip in the menu bar saves and restores window layouts.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ↓ / ↑ | Open the menu (at the first / last entry) |
| ↑ / ↓ | Move between saved workspaces |
| Home / End | First / last entry |
| Enter | Switch to the focused workspace |
| Escape | Close the menu |
Each row has a delete button; it sits immediately after its workspace in the arrow order.
Press ? in the app for the built-in map. In brief:
| View | + / − zoom · F or 0 fit · 1 actual size · Z box-zoom · X zoom to dimensions · H hand tool · Space (hold) pan |
| Measure | D distance · L line profile · B box profile · G angle · R ROI statistics · A auto-contrast · Del delete selected · Esc cancel capture |
| App | ⌘K palette · ⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z undo / redo · F2 rename · ← → previous / next image · ⌘[ / ⌘] toggle library / inspector · ⌘⇧L toggle theme |
The in-app ? overlay covers the tool shortcuts above. The navigation keys on this page — menu, library, dialog, and context-menu movement — follow the standard desktop conventions and are not repeated there.
Interface controls are exposed with the roles and names assistive technology expects:
- The menu bar, its menus, and submenus report as a menu bar / menu / menu item, including expanded state and which items are unavailable.
- The image library reports as a multi-selectable listbox, and each thumbnail as a selectable option.
- Dialogs report as modal dialogs with a name, and confine focus for as long as they are open.
- The command palette reports as a combobox over a results list, announcing the highlighted command as you arrow through it.
- Icon-only buttons carry text labels, and toggle buttons report their pressed state.
- The active workspace is marked as current, not signalled by the check mark alone.
- Dark and light themes (⌘⇧L, or View → Dark Theme) are both first-class, alongside System. Five accent tints are offered as Color scheme swatches in Preferences → Appearance; surfaces stay neutral so only the accent changes.
- Text, borders, and disabled states are tuned for contrast in both themes, and the armed-tool cue stays distinguishable from the accent colour on every accent.
- Interface density (Preferences → Appearance) offers compact, regular, and comfy spacing.
- Focus is always drawn with a visible ring.
Next: Viewing & Display.