Cannot Type in Rings/Enums After Tabbing to Control on the Front Panel

[YavannaKementári]

When tabbing between strings, you can type in each box.

When using Rings and Enums, you can select items by typing after the control has been clicked on; for example, if "Lead" is in the list, you can click on the Ring/Enum and type "L" and the control highlights the first element with "L" in it. You can then hit "enter" to choose that element in the list.

It would make much more sense from a user's standpoint if they could tab to a Ring/Enum, and start typing to choose an element.

I propose that when a user tabs to a Ring/Enum control, that if the user starts typing, that the Ring/Enum selects an element similar to if the user had clicked on the control.

[Lauren_MSI]

Not saying this is a bad idea, but for now you can hit the space bar after you have tabbed to the ring/enum. This expands the list (similar to if you clicked on the control). Then you can browse through or use a letter to get to an item.

[YavannaKementári]

I just tried out the spacebar thing, and it works! So that's a nice workaround.

The spacebar working, but regular typing not working, seems to further reinforce my thinking that this is perhaps a bug. Either way, it's an unintuitive issue for users.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

It is not a bug. It is an evolution in user expectations and thus a new feature request. Go back a few years and you won't find rings that you can type into until their drop menu is opened. Now they do exist more commonly.

[YavannaKementári]

AristosQueue - Thank you for your response.

I hadn't thought about the history of GUIs... I guess I haven't been around long enough (or have a terrible memory) to recall how things used to be.

It's good to hear that this is considered a feature request, based on history. That means that the idea exchange is a good place to put this!