I like this idea, but I feel the scope needs to be expanded and evaluated for the entire app. If I'm going to add hotkeys, then I think they need to work for more features in CMC, both for current and for future features to come.
For example, there are the main CMC "Modes", like the Movie Library and the Music Library, and in the future there will be the Photo and Video Libaries. I think there should be hotkeys for jumping between all the main libraries, aka CMC Modes.
The External Links are extremely handy, but I imagine they could be even better if they could have a hotkey assigned. One of my future changes will unfortunately make the External Links harder to reach - there's not enough room on the Mode bar, which is where I will be putting the Photo and Video icons too, so I will be making a dedicated External Links panel, and I'm thinking of hiding it above the Mode bar. So you would have to arrow up to the main Icon bar, then again to the Mode bar, then a 3rd time to the External Links panel. So I was already thinking about a hotkey to jump straight to the External Links panel, but being able to assign at least a few of your favorite External Links to a dedicated hotkey makes sense too.
Another user has requested the ability to create predefined filter sets and to access them quickly via hotkey too, and I was thinking a hotkey was actually going to be required here since I hadn't planned ahead and left room on the Icon bar for another section (though I guess I could always go down that path too if required).
I think a hotkey for Unwatched Only/Show All would be nice.
I don't think a hotkey is needed for Settings or Sync (especially since Sync will be depreciated in the future). Not sure about Genres or Categories - I'm sure someone would want those. Ditto for Sort and Search and Advanced Filters. Don't need one for Exit, that hotkey already exists.
So here's the hotkeys I think are needed, including a suggestion for the key combo for each
(items in BOLD BLUE are available CMC v3.2):
- ALT+F: Jump to Movie Library
- ALT+M: Jump to Music Library
- ALT+H: Launch the HDHomeRun app
- ALT+G: Launch the Valve Steam gaming app
- ALT+P: Jump to Photo Library (future)
- ALT+V: Jump to Video Library (future)
- ALT+S: Run a SmartSync (Movie or Music depending upon the current library view)
- CTRL+0: Open External Links Panel (future)
- CTRL+1: Launch External Link 1
- CTRL+2: Launch External Link 2
- CTRL+3: Launch External Link 3
- CTRL+4: Launch External Link 4
- CTRL+5: Launch External Link 6
- CTRL+6: Launch External Link 8
- CTRL+7: Launch External Link 9
- CTRL+8: Launch External Link 10
- CTRL+9: Launch External Link 11
The following Hot Keys are for the Movie Library only:
- CTRL+E: Show Everything (disable all Filters and show all titles)
- CTRL+A: Apply MediaType - All
- CTRL+F: Apply MediaType - Movies
- CTRL+T: Apply MediaType - TV
- CTRL+M: Apply MediaType - Music
- CTRL+D: Apply MediaType - Documentaries
- CTRL+O: Apply MediaType - Other
- CTRL+U: Toggle Unwatched Only/Show All
- CTRL+G: Open Genres
- CTRL+C: Open Categories
- CTRL+S: Open Sort
- CTRL+|: Open Advanced Filters
- CTRL+W: Toggle Watchlist Only/Show All
- CTRL+?: Open Search
- CTRL+{: Open Filter Sets (future)
As far as to the hotkeys themselves, I don't think they need to be of the complex 3-key combo variety (i.e. CTRL+ALT+?). These hotkeys will only work when CMC is running and is focused, so a simpler 2-key combo should be fine (i.e. CTRL+? or ALT+?). Using CTRL for some and ALT for other will allow for some reuse of letters, too - since with both Music and Movies, the letter M will be in hot demand. So for example, perhaps CTRL+M changes to MediaType - Music, while ALT+M could navigate to the Music Library.
And since M is in such hot demand, I was thinking we could use a different letter for anything movie related, like B for Binnerup, since they started us all down this path with My Movies. Though perhaps F for Film makes more sense.
Some testing is probably needed to make sure that none of these key combos do anything currently when CMC is running (besides jumping through the alphabet in the cover rows, I'm probably not filtering out the modifier key).
I'm open to suggestions on better hotkey combos, plus other hotkeys that I didn't list above. I suppose I could also make it configurable so that you could assign or change the hotkeys if you don't like the defaults, though this would certainly be easier if I don't have to make it configurable.
I would like everyone's feedback on this, so feel free to comment.