Use Keyboard Arrow Keys to Pan Block Diagram

[JackDunaway]

If you click in empty space on a block diagram, then press any of the arrow keys on the keyboard, nothing happens. I propose that this action should pan the block diagram. This idea hit me while huddled in an airplane seat trying to review some block diagrams - it was a laborious task trying to pan using the laptop touchpad that would have been greatly simplified by just using keyboard arrows. This intuitive action is already standard in web browsers and popular document editing software.

[JackDunaway]

If you like this idea, you may also want to pan by clicking and holding the mouse wheel scroll button.

[smercurio_fc]

I would recommend using a modifier key with the arrow keys, as arrow keys are used to move selected objects on the block diagram. Having the arrow keys by themselves pan when nothing is selected can be confusing to new users.

[JackDunaway]

Well, I would vote against a modifier. Regular arrow keys would pan a "small" amount (a few px), and Shift+Arrow would pan a "large" amount (dozens of px). This would be consistent with current translations of selected objects.

So, if an object is selected, it's a translation. If no object is selected, it's a window pan. And in both scenarios, the Shift modifier makes a "larger" jump.

Finally, I would like to see the # of pixels to pan for both normal and Shift-modified in the environment settings.

[JackDunaway]

Crosslinking a conversation about keyboard scrolling. Shane, like myself, was candidly surprised this feature does not already exist.

[jhgorse]

Solution: https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z0000019SOXSA2&l=en-US

Per our friends MichaelBalzer and ikaiser:

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Horizontal-Scroll-Hotkey/idc-p/3664599/highlight/true...

Cheers, Joe