I always wondered is there another way to get to the next page other than moving the mouse to the page number?
I skip through kinda quick and just wondered if you can use something else to move through the pages? I already use the page down/up and home and end but what about moving thru pages?
I just need to get all this knowledge as fast as I can…
When I used to use Opera as my browser, I could use the “Forward” mouse gesture (hold down the right button and slide the mouse to the right) to go to the next page, if Opera could detect an obvious next button or link on the page. On here, it might follow the “Next Thread” link instead, but you could try it. Of course, that merely reduces mouse movement instead of eliminating it. There may be a key combo that does the same thing, though.
There’s a firefox addon called AutoPager. I tested it and it doesn’t work in SDMB with default settings, but it looks like you might be able to get it running if you mess with the settings. It looks like it’s above my skills.
A lot of browsers allow you to navigate around the links and form widgets of the page using the tab key. When you get to the link you want, pressing enter follows it. (Note: I tend to use only Free Software browsers such as SeaMonkey, Firefox, Konqueror, Lynx, Links, etc. I’m not familiar with things like Internet Explorer, though I’d be surprised if it didn’t also have provisions for keyboard navigation.)
I believe they’re all compelled to do this in compliance with the ADA. Keyboard navigation is considered an accessibility feature. It’s possible to do everything on your computer without even having a mouse, but it’s a major PITA.
I was amazed the other day while discussing adding your program to the system tray (those icons on the right of the taskbar next to the clock) that even system tray icons can be fired off using the keyboard.
I doubt it; how would such a thing be enforced? Does the ADA mandate that any browser which is written have keyboard navigation? If so, I don’t see how that can be enforced with Free Software packages which are developed by teams of hundreds of individual programmers located all over the world. Perhaps the ADA imposes the restriction only for browsers which are sold in the USA, which again wouldn’t apply to the vast majority of Free browsers Because they’re freely distributable, they’re not normally sold; even so, any third party could take one and sell it if they wanted to, but how/why would this suddenly impose an obligation on the actual authors of the software?
The closest thing I can find is in Section 508 § 1194.21(a), which says that all software used by the U.S. Federal Government must have keyboard accessibility. This is what Mozilla says is the reason for the accessibility option in Gecko-based browsers (such as Firefox).
Honestly I just think it’s because the minority of users who need to those features is large enough that it would be suicide not to support it in some way. And there really aren’t that many separate browser engines: you’ve got Trident (IE), Gecko (Firefox), Webkit (Safari), Presto (Opera), and KHTML (Konqueror). So it’s not that hard to believe that all of the decided on their own to implement keyboard features.
Those engines you refer to are all responsible for laying out the page; I would think that navigation would be a purely UI issue left up to the individual browser implementors. (There are often several different browsers that use the same layout engine.)
Great info, good to know. I meant “believe” in the “not sure but I think” sense.
I know one mechanism pressuring independent developers to comply with accessibility standards is that you can’t get a “written for Windows” logo without being fully compliant. (Those little stickers on the box that boast “written for XP” or “written for Vista” or whatever.) I always kind of assumed that the ADA put pressure on Microsoft to adopt this policy, but from the sound of the cite it looks like it’s voluntary on their part. Good for them, I guess.
Resurrecting this thread because I stumbled on a way to answer the OP. You need Firefox and the extension called NextPlease. It automatically analyzes web pages to figure out how to go to the next page. It includes keyboard shortcuts:
[ul][li]Ctrl + Shift + Left for Next [/li][li]Ctrl + Shift + Right for Back[/li][li]Ctrl + Shift + Up for First[/li][li]Ctrl + Shift + Down for Last[/li][/ul]
For others, what I find really cool is to add in Mouse Gestures. Since yoou can create your own gestures, I simulated pressing those keyboard shortcuts mentioned above.
Oh, and I notice Opera mentioned above. It has a feature called Fast Forward, which will at least go to the Next page (although I haven’t tested it here). The keyboard shortcut is, get this, the SPACEBAR.
ETA:
True, but usually, if they use the same browser engine, they go ahead and use the same keyboard shortcuts, unless they are specifically trying to do something different.
This is obviously mouse driven, but I was surprised to find that in an earlier version of Firefox (it must have been somewhere around v3.3 or .4), if you kept scrolling down, the next page would appear, and if you kept on scrolling, you could scroll through as many pages as you wanted.
I’m using v3.6, and that feature doesn’t seem to exist any more. Pity.