Make Ctrl-n/Ctrl-p scroll through completion suggestions instead of going to next/previous line

Bear feedback Bear Bug Report
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1

I feel like I get hit by this literally every day because my muscle memory from other tools is so strong:

  1. Press ⌘-D or start typing a tag #…
  2. Completion suggestions appear
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  3. I inevitably get the urge to select the one I want using Ctrl-n
  4. I can’t resist, I press Ctrl-n
  5. It takes me to the next line, completion suggestion popup closed
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  6. I curse myself for falling for it again, navigate to the previous line and hyperextend my pinky uncomfortably to select the completion item I want using the arrow down key

I really hope this can be fixed, but at the same I feel like there must be some kind of technical reason behind it not being already implemented – it just feels too obvious, pretty much every other tool works like this: macOS menu bar item search, xCode completion, etc etc

Extra note: I actually really like using Ctrl-n/p/f/b for navigation normally and wouldn’t want to disable these shortcuts.

1 Like
2

Bump, this needs to be fixed!

3

Actually these hotkeys are used in many editors to move the cursor down to the next line. Why should bear change that standard behaviour, especially since you can use the standard up and down arrow keys?

4

In general in most conforming apps Ctrl-n/p and down/up-arrow actions are synced. This is plain common sense and is true even for Apple’s own apps – see xCode for example. So Bear’s behavior is definitely not standard, this is a bug.

Note that I’m not asking to change the normal behavior of Ctrl-n/p keybindings, they should still move the cursor up and down, but not when there’s a completion popup open!

5

Ctrl-n/p behavior in completion popups in Reminders and xCode:

6

Your title and the word „instead“ was misleading :wink: