Last modified on 2008-07-29 14:34:41
Looking back
A reference guide
The Charta Software Environment has a very generic user interface. It is developed with the idea that it should be possible to use the keyboard as much as possible, that the screen can be organized any way the user wants and that everything works in the same standard way. On top of that tables are used a lot.
Navigation
All throughout the environment the keyboard can be used for navigation. This can be done in 2 dimensions, meaning you can go left and right as well as up and down with the Arrow keys en Windows key. By pressing the Windows key and holding it down, the border of a component will be highlighted in blue. This indicates that this component is selected. By pressing the Arrow keys you can get to any component in the screen.
Some parts of the screen, like a table or the explorer, react when an Arrow key is pressed. For example, in a table you will jump from one cell to another. Other parts of the screen won't do anything when pressing such an Arrow key, like a button or a tab. In this case you will jump to the component next to the component you are currently at. This makes it possible to walk through the screen without using the Windows key. This works as long as you don't get to a component that does use horizontal and vertical navigation. From such a component you can not walk "in" and "out" without using the Windows key.
Tip: If you press and release the Windows key (without navigation) the environment won't do anything with it and the operating system (Windows) will get the chance to do something. Standard behavior is that the "Startmenu" opens up. By pressing Windows once more and releasing it again the Charta Environment will get active again.
Table components
Tables or table components are an important part of the Charta Software Environment. The reason for this is that it is a good way to organize and visualize lists of data. By showing data structured in rows and columns you can easily get transparent overviews by sorting and filtering. These and other options for tables are explained in detail in the article tables.
Short cut keys
Apart from navigation all sorts of actions can be executed via the keyboard. This is done by pressing combinations of keys on which the selected component reacts. A few om the most important combinations are listed beneath. A full list can be found in the article short cut keys.
Components
| Windows (keep pressed) + pijlen | Navigation through the components |
| Windows + Esc | Enlarge component selection |
| Windows + F4 | Close component selection |
Tables
| Ctrl + A | Select all table cells |
| Ctrl + Up | Select column |
| Ctrl + Left | Select row |
| Insert | Add row (from row selection) |
| Delete | Remove row (from row selection) |
| Enter | Open cell of selected row |
| Ctrl + F | Start / close filter option (from column selection) |
Figure component
| + | Zoom in |
| - | Zoom out |
Organizing the screen
The screen can be orgnized by the user. The following is possible:
Enlarge and reduce the size of the components
Parts of the screen can be enlarged or reduced by holding your mouse above the splitter (separation between two components within the screen) and dragging it.
Splitting a panel
By using the buttons at the top-right corner of the panel, a panel can be splitted in a horizontal way (indicated by the horizontal bar) and a vertical way (indicated by the vertical bar). After splitting an empty panel appears. Another component can be dragged into this panel. The other buttons in the top-right corner of the panel are to toggle between a split-panel and a tabbed-panel (indicated by the square; works with only one tab), to hide the top of the panel (indicated by the triangle) and to close the panel (indicated by the cross).
Dragging components
Components (tabs, panels) can be moved by dragging and dropping. For example, click on a tab and hold it. You can now move the tab to another position on the screen.