How do I use the keyboard to "Open a recently used file" in Gedit?

wjandrea

5/1/24, 4:32 PM

I want to open a recently used file in Gedit using the keyboard. How do I do that?

The best workaround I've found is to press Ctrl+Shift+Tab a few times to scroll through the buttons, but that's a pain.

I checked the keyboard shortcuts in the app but didn't see anything. The online shortcut keys page says "Open the Quick Open window Alt+O", but that does the same thing as Ctrl+O, so that seems to be wrong or outdated.

I tried holding Alt to access the title bar buttons by letter, but there doesn't seem to be any letter mapped to the recent files button (as opposed to Alt+O, which maps to the "Open" button).

I found F10 to open the hamburger menu, but there's doesn't seem to be a way to get from there to the other title bar buttons.

If it's relevant, I'm using 20.04.

2 + 1

gedit

shortcut-keys

wjandrea

5/1/24, 4:36 PM

Related: [Is it possible to bring back the search box in gedit open recent files dropdown in 20.04?](/q/1285616/301745), [Custom keyboard shortcuts in gedit](/q/223986/301745),

Score:2

Ubuntu

wjandrea

5/1/24, 4:32 PM

I ended up using the Quick Open plugin. It's installed by default, so simply enable it in the Plugins tab, then press Ctrl+Alt+O. It also lets you search, which is handy.

There doesn't seem to be a keyboard shortcut to open the recent files list. I found a merge request to add one, from three years ago, but it was closed.

+ 0

Score:0

Ubuntu

vanadium

5/2/24, 9:46 AM

There is no direct shortcut key indeed. You can use:

Ctrl+O
Left to enter the sidebar
Home, Enter to open the "Recent" list
Right to leave the sidebar

Now you can type part of the name or select a recent file using the arrow keys.

+ 1

wjandrea

5/2/24, 3:26 PM

That's not what I'm looking for, though other folks might find it useful. I only want to see the files I've opened in Gedit, and avoid opening non-text files like PNGs, which Gedit will happily open but maybe freeze/lag in the process. Also, if I do a search in that list then press Esc to close the search box, it actually leaves the list and goes back to the last folder. Lastly, one file that I opened in Gedit doesn't even show in that list, strangely enough.

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