Here are the current results of the poll:

How do you input tones?
Tone buttons 30%
Writing 37%
Keyboard 7%
Mix 18%
Don't study tones 6%
112 votes

Only 7% use keyboard shortcuts (1-5) to input the tones. What I'm not sure about is how strongly those 7% want the shortcuts and how many of the 18% "Mix" use and want them.

The reason I ask is because as part of this big addition I'm building, I'm making it so that you can press 1-4 to indicate your knowledge level, similar to other SRS like Anki. 1 would correspond to the current "incorrect", 2 would be a "sort of knew it", 3 would be the current "correct", and 4 would be "I know this really well."

You wouldn't normally use these (unless you were an SRS geek), but if you wanted to be more precise about a few prompts, you could. You could also use them as a faster way of indicating knowledge & going to the next prompt, if you knew you didn't need to write something out. Usually, I'm thinking you'd just write the character/tone or type the reading or part of the definition, though, like normal, and let Skritter figure out how well you know it.

Those keys are already taken for the tones, though. There's a couple things I could do, including letting you press Ctrl+ to trigger either the tone or the more specific grading, or allowing QWER as well as 1-4 when you're not typing a reading or definition. I'm a bit worried that changing modalities based on what kind of prompt you're on will slow things down, though.

What do you think? If you use the keyboard shortcuts for the tones, is it a passionate matter or just a little fling?

Don't take the tone keys away, man! I clicked "mix" and I use the keyboard shortcuts all the time; I only use the buttons when my left hand gets tired. The keyboard shortcuts are much more convenient.

I'm not opposed to moving them somewhere else, but please keep them ergonomically convenient. QWERT would be fine, but it would be hard on the hands to have to hit CTRL or another modifier key. If you decide to move them, could you also please move the neutral tone key to be close to the other tone keys?

Definitely keep them consistent, don't change the keys based on what we're answering, that would be very confusing.

If you're saying that the 1-4 grading would only be used once in a while, maybe they should be assigned to QWERT instead of moving the tone keys.

James

I can see the thinking in terms of grading knowledge levels anki-style, as I think this would certainly mean that it would be possible to streamline the business of learning even more.

However, I was another person who clicked "mix" on the poll: when using mouse/mousepad, I use the keyboard for tones, not the tone buttons; and when I use my tablet, I use the tone buttons in the window.

The keyboard is, however, particularly useful when you have large backlogs that are mainly of tones, as I sometimes do. However, I'd be perfectly happy to go with QWERTY for 1,2,3,4 and neutral. I agree with James that CTRL + would be a bit of a pain.

I'm for keeping the tone numbers. I find that Skritter's still a little too picky about drawing the tones, and it's kind of a pain to go to the bottom of the window and press the tone buttons. I agree with jw1066 that making either the SRS confidence or the tone buttons QWERTY or somewhere else on the keyboard would be a fine compromise.

I'm pretty passionate about the keyboard. Along the same lines as James and thinkbuddha, I'd be fine with any convenient set of keys for tone numbers (e.g., QWERT), as long as that usage is consistent.

Please keep the shortcuts.

Okay! Thanks for the input, guys. We won't ditch them.

Perhaps an array of buttons to click if you had an other-than-default level of recollection?

On second thought, that might be too cluttered ...

first, using 1234, and QWER is probably the best bet ergonomically. I dont currently use the keyboard for tones, but thats mostly because i'm new and havent really explored doing so. I plan to start using them in the near future.

Secondly, is there some sort of personal config that each of us could do so that if we dont like the "standard" keyboard shortcuts for tones or SRS manhandling, then we could quickly set our own custom preferences. Basically the same as in most video games, or even in places like gmail where they enable custom keyboard shortcuts.

Finally, I appreciate your guys attention to detail, and the way you genuinely listen to your users. Keep it up, and I'm sure that skritter will continue to suck less (REF: http://blog.skritter.com/2009/08/styling-ch-ch-changes.html)