Sort Tool - Optimize for user speed

[SeanAdams]

Hi there team,

When using the sort tool - it's impossible to really develop much speed and muscle memory because you're always having to switch between keyboard and mouse.

Can we please add to the sort tool to make this a hyper-quick experience for the user?

Current Experience:

I currently have the select tool selected want to add a sort after this to sort on 3 columns:

• I hit ctrl-shift-f to go to the advanced find
• Then type "sort"
• Then I switch from keyboard to mouse, and drag this sort tool on to my canvas
• I then want to start configuring this tool - so I need to then need to mouse across to the configuration box
• hit the drop-down box with the mouse to get focus on that row in the sorter
• type or mouse select the right field - this is especially painful if there are a lot of fields
• then mouse again to get to the ascending / descending sort option
• then repeat for all other fields

Proposed alternative path:

I want to add a sort tool immediately after the currently selected tool:

• ctrl-alt-s (my user-defined shortcut for the short tool)
• control-space to enter config mode which defaults to configuring sort order for first field
• start typing the field-name - this does a look-ahead search like google.com does
• when I find the field I want, hit tab and have the same experience with asc / desc
• hit tab again, go to sort row 2 - repeat
• NEVER have to touch the mouse

As we all know - when you develop muscle memory for an IDE - not only does this remove the barrier between thought and delivery - but it also makes it more sticky as a platform (you don't want to change products because you are used to the keyboard shortcuts on this one) - so not only would this improve user speed - it would also make sense from an economic perspective for retaining customers through stickiness.

cc: @Hollingsworth 

[MarqueeCrew]

@SeanAdams 

Click recommended tools in palette. 
double click sort tool

click/scroll 3 fields 

my fingers were always on my mouse

 cheers,

 mark

[Hollingsworth]

You had me at "NEVER have to touch the mouse".

Also, and at the risk of plagiarizing myself, Alteryx Designer is an IDE [Integrated Development Environment] and should have all relevant UI/UX customization you would find in the IDE software feature set. Custom shortcut mapping is low-hanging fruit.

[CristonS]

[jarrod]

Agreed. one of the biggest speed improvements i've ever had in a software was switching from mouse -> keyboard in excel. It stands to reason, the more i can stay on the keyboard in Alteryx, i'd see similar gains.