I like working in IntelliJ, where I can do almost everything without touching the mouse. Jinear never let me work that way. Every move meant reaching for the mouse. This release changes that, and gives calendar tasks a right-click menu while I was at it.
Hold Option to see the shortcuts
I didn't want a long list of shortcuts that you have to learn before they're any use. So Jinear shows them to you instead. Hold Option (that's Alt on Windows and Linux) for a moment, and small badges appear on the buttons that have a shortcut. Press the key on the badge while you still hold Option, and that button gets clicked.
A few to start with:
- Option+1, 2, 3, 4 go to Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and Files.
- Option+N creates a new task, or a new note when you're in Notes.
- Option+K opens task search.
- Option+I opens your inbox.
- Option+B, T, F move the calendar back, to today, and forward.
You don't have to memorize any of these. If you forget one, hold Option and look.
Why Option and not Cmd? Browsers keep Cmd+1, Cmd+T, Cmd+W and most of the others for themselves, and a web page can't take them back. Option is free. And if you use IntelliJ on Windows or Linux, Alt+1 opening a part of the app will feel familiar.
Option+J: a label on everything
Only the buttons you use most get a fixed key. For everything else there's Option+J. Press it and every button, link, and field on the screen gets a short label. Type the label and Jinear clicks it for you. If it's a text field, the cursor goes there.
The labels change from screen to screen, so this isn't something you learn by heart. You look, you type, you're there. Escape gets you out if you change your mind.
Creating a task without the mouse
The new task window got the most attention, because that's where I add tasks all day.
- The title field is ready to type into as soon as the window opens, and the shortcuts still work while you're in it.
- Option plus a letter picks the team, topic, assignee, collaborators, board, or dates. Hold Option and you'll see which letter does what.
- Option+Shift plus the same letter removes what you picked. Picked the wrong topic? Option+Shift+T clears it.
- Option+Enter creates the task, and Escape cancels.
The pickers that open from there work with the keyboard too. Type to search, use the arrow keys to move through the results, and press Enter to pick one. In the date picker the arrow keys move between days.
A couple of small things that help everywhere: Escape closes the window on top, and if you're in a text field with nothing to close, Escape takes you out of it so the shortcuts work again.
Right-click a task on the calendar
Changing one thing on a task used to mean opening the task. Now you can right-click it on the calendar, in both the month view and the week view.
The menu shows where the task stands right now, and lets you change it:
- Status, topic, dates, assignee, collaborators, and boards. Each one opens the same window you know from the task page.
- Open task, open in a new tab, or copy its link.
The calendar updates as soon as you make a change. The menu works from the keyboard too: arrow keys to move, Enter to pick, Escape to close.
Where to find what's new
There's a new newspaper icon at the top right of the app, next to the theme button. It opens this blog, so you can see what changed without looking for it. On a phone, it's in the More menu, behind the sliders icon at the top left.
What's not in it yet
- Shortcuts need a keyboard, so on a phone nothing changes.
- When you're writing a note, the shortcuts take a break. On some keyboards Option is how you type characters like @ and #, and I didn't want Jinear getting in the way of that. Press Escape to leave the note, and they're back.
- The right-click menu is only on the calendar for now.
- Events from your Google Calendar don't have the menu, since they belong to Google, not Jinear.
If a shortcut is missing for something you do every day, or something is broken, write to me. That's where most of this comes from.