Tag: User Experience

Keyboard Shortcut Shortcuts

This is a short post and hopefully incredibly helpful to some. There is (almost) a standard around finding out basic information about keyboard shortcuts in your favourite apps, and it came to my attention this week that not everyone knows about it. What I am about to tell you may change the way you use some of your most cherished applications forever, or it may not.

Almost every web application supports a keyboard shortcut for seeing more keyboard shortcuts using either ā‡§ + / or āŒ˜ + /1. Using these you can quickly get to a summary of keyboard shortcuts for your app of choice. Even some locally installable desktop apps have taken to this "standard" shortcut for showing shortcuts. Go now and try it in something.

For those who aren't into experimenting with shortcuts, here are a few apps and their shortcuts shortcut. Search the table for your app of choice. If you happen to know about any other apps that use this approach should be in this list, let me know in the comments.

Happy keyboarding!

ApplicationShortcut
AsanaāŒ˜ + /
Bitbucketā‡§ + /
Confluenceā‡§ + /
DesmosāŒ˜ + /
Facebookā‡§ + /
Figmaā‡§ + āŒ„ + /
Githubā‡§ + /
Gmailā‡§ + /
Google Calendarā‡§ + /
Google DocsāŒ˜ + /
Google Driveā‡§ + /
Google Hangoutsā‡§ + /
Google MeetāŒ˜ + / or ā‡§ + /
Google SheetsāŒ˜ + /
Google SitesāŒ˜ + /
Google SlidesāŒ˜ + /
Jiraā‡§ + /
Onedriveā‡§ + /
SlackāŒ˜ + /
Trelloā‡§ + /
Tweetdeckā‡§ + /

Featured photo derived from photo by Andrew Worley on Unsplash

  1. By āŒ˜, I mean either the looped square key on an Apple computer, or the Windows key on a PC [↩]

Merging multiple accounts on UserEcho

UserEcho is a service employed by the likes of OzCode and SublimeTextĀ for collecting and managing customer issues and suggestions; often regarding software features and bugs. It enables users and developers to discussĀ bugs and ideas, and respondĀ to frequently asked questions.

OzCode UserEcho landing page
OzCode UserEcho landing page

Recently, I signed into the OzCode UserEcho site using my Google credentials. UserEcho supports the OpenIDĀ identity system, providing a wide range of ways to authenticate. Upon logging in, I was immediately confused; where was the issue I had raised a week or two earlier? I was certain it should be there but it was not. After a little thought, I realised I may have logged in with the wrong credentials, inadvertently creating a new account. I logged out and then, using my GitHub account to authenticate instead of Google, tried logging back in. Voila! My issue appeared.

For some, this would probably be the end of it, but it bugged me that I now had two accounts.Ā You may think this is no big deal and you are right, but it was bothering me1.

Settings dropdown on UserEcho
Settings dropdown on UserEcho

Using the dropdown captioned with my name at the top-right of the UserEcho site, I chose UserĀ Profile. At the bottom of the subsequent page, I foundĀ a table of OpenID logins that the account used but no way to edit it. How could I merge my accounts or add new OpenID identities?

OpenID table on UserEcho user profile screen
OpenID table on UserEcho user profile screen

After searching around the UserEcho siteĀ a bit and trying a few Google searches2, I was almost ready to contact UserEcho for some help (or just give up), but then I had an idea. If UserEcho was like most sites these days, it probably keyed accounts using a primaryĀ email address for the user. So, I checked the twoĀ UserEchoĀ accounts I knew I had and confirmed they had different email addresses.

User details section of a UserEcho profile
User details section of a UserEcho profile

I edited the email address for one of the two accounts to match the other, triggeringĀ UserEchoĀ to send a verification email3, so I followed the instructions andĀ verified the email address change.

UserEcho table of accounts with the same email
UserEcho table of accounts with the same email

Then IĀ returned to the User Profile screen in OzCode's UserEcho. At the bottom, below the OpenID table, I was now presented with a message saying that there were other accounts with the same email address, including a Merge button. I clicked that button and immediately, the table showed both the Google and GitHub logins.

OpenID table in UserEcho showing GitHub and Google IDs
OpenID table in UserEcho showing GitHub and Google IDs

So, there you go. If you have multiple accounts for aĀ UserEcho product site, make sure the email addresses match and that you have verified the email address on each account, then view one and click Merge. Job done.

  1. In writing this blog and generating the screenshots, I discovered I actually had three accounts! [↩]
  2. and maybe one Bing [↩]
  3. just making sureĀ you're still you [↩]