The Escape key should close Alfred in more circumstances

[beaugunderson]

Currently the escape key closes Alfred in these circumstances:

 

- there's nothing in the Alfred entry bar

- there are no matches except the default matches for the given entry

 

The escape key also goes back one level if the user is in the context-dependent actions (the list containing Open, Reveal in Finder, etc.).

 

The escape key does nothing except a visual refresh if there's been text entered in the entry bar that does return valid results, so I often hit escape, sigh, and then hit my Alfred trigger (command-space) to actually close it. I'm proposing that this is a bug and that escape should close Alfred even if something valid has been entered.

[Andrew]

Currently the escape key closes Alfred in these circumstances:

 

- there's nothing in the Alfred entry bar

- there are no matches except the default matches for the given entry

 

The escape key also goes back one level if the user is in the context-dependent actions (the list containing Open, Reveal in Finder, etc.).

 

The escape key does nothing except a visual refresh if there's been text entered in the entry bar that does return valid results, so I often hit escape, sigh, and then hit my Alfred trigger (command-space) to actually close it. I'm proposing that this is a bug and that escape should close Alfred even if something valid has been entered.

 

From Alfred's default results, Esc should always close the window regardless of the results showing. Is there a particular scenario where this isn't the case for you, or when there are valid results, does Alfred never close with Esc?

[beaugunderson]

Correct, the Escape key does not close the window when there are more results than the default search engines showing.

 

So, if I type "asdklfjhaskdjfhaksdjhfakjsdfhksdfa", only the default search engine results come up and I can hit Escape.

 

But if I type "test", for example, I get lots of results for files and the like, and Escape does not close the window in this case.

[Andrew]

Correct, the Escape key does not close the window when there are more results than the default search engines showing.

 

So, if I type "asdklfjhaskdjfhaksdjhfakjsdfhksdfa", only the default search engine results come up and I can hit Escape.

 

But if I type "test", for example, I get lots of results for files and the like, and Escape does not close the window in this case.

 

Escape should definitely work in both of these cases. Could you open Console.app and see if anything odd is happening when you press Escape and it isn't closing? Also, do you have a standard Mac config (i.e. Apple keyboard) and any software installed which affects or maps the keyboard?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[beaugunderson]

Ha, this is embarrassing. I've remapped Caps Lock to Escape for so long that I sometimes forget that it's not a default!

 

I looked at how I was doing this and it turns out it was via a more convoluted means than is now necessary, given current versions of OS X and Seil and Karabiner (the tools I use for keyboard mapping).

 

Mapping Caps Lock directly to the key code for Escape makes everything work.

 

For anyone interested, I was previously mapping Caps Lock to Left Control in Seil, and then mapping a single press of Left Control to Escape. This was intended to let you use Caps Lock as a Control key if it was pressed in conjunction with another key:

 

http://stevelosh.com/blog/2012/10/a-modern-space-cadet/#controlescape

 

...but I never got into the habit and so have gone with the simpler route (which makes Escape work correctly in Alfred).

 

Sorry, this was totally my fault.

[Andrew]

Sorry, this was totally my fault.

 

No worries at all! Glad you are sorted

 

[moving to closed]

[jonteamere]

Sorry to revive a closed topic, but I'm currently experiencing something odd involving esc. I use KeyboardMaestro and like to assign esc to cmd+w. Although I add Alfred app to the exclusion list in KBM, Alfred windows still don't close like normal (i.e., with esc). Any ideas, Andrew?

Edited February 26, 2016 by jonteamere

[Vero]

Sorry to revive a closed topic, but I'm currently experiencing something odd involving esc. I use KeyboardMaestro and like to assign esc to cmd+w. Although I add Alfred app to the exclusion list in KBM, Alfred windows still don't close like normal (i.e., with esc). Any ideas, Andrew?

 

 

Hi there,

 

We really don't know the ins and outs of how Keyboard Maestro work, but I've added a ticket for Andrew to look at the possibility of adding Cmd + W as a way to close the Alfred window, which would work around that issue for you.

 

Cheers,

Vero