It would be great for the cursor to be in the Customer field when loading this screen so that those that use a keyboard primarily for navigation can start typing the customer they want to add billable time in for.
The cursor does not appear in any field on any type of transaction form by default. The tab order is always purely sequential based on form layout.
What you request might be your personal preference. But others might prefer to begin with the time, before they forget it, or a description of the work. Or their initial concern might be to first change an hourly rate set under Form Defaults and only later to enter the customer.
You can still navigate by keyboard. For the form you mentioned, two clicks of the Tab key will put you in the Customer field, where you can start typing.
Is it possible for this to be an option then, starting field so that users can specify where they want to start?
That seems like an unnecessary bit of bloat when keyboard navigation is already possible. It would have to be added to all functional forms in all tabs. And remember, fields appear in many cases depending on what tabs are enabled and what selections have already been made. So you would be allowing starting field selection based on unknown possibilities. Not a straightforward prospect.
I’m assuming it’s different on whatever Operating System you’re on.
I’m on Linux and it’s 26 tabs to get to the Customer field after clicking on Billable Time.
What edition (desktop, server, or cloud) are you using?
Your statement is puzzling, because there are only 6 fields on the billable time entry form (7 if you have tracking codes defined), and Customer is the second one. What 25 fields do you tab through first to get there?
Desktop Edition.
It has to tab through all of the links and the left navigation bar before it gets to the Billable Time page.
To be perfectly clear, this is after clicking into the Billable Time tab and clicking New Billable Time Entry? If so, that illustrates how difficult your suggestion might be to implement across operating systems and browsers.
Yes, correct. However isn’t Manager just a web server? Many web pages default to a search field when loaded to make it easier and faster to get results.
Now we are going in circles. Manager operates like a web browser, but it is not a browser itself. In the desktop edition, it makes use of an underlying browser. In the server and cloud editions, it operates through whichever browser the user happens to choose. When you use a browser for normal operations, you are using a browser written expressly for your operating system. Manager, on the other hand, operates across multiple operating systems and browsers. And, as you may have noticed, not all browsers on all operating systems behave the same way when visiting the same web pages, despite web designers’ best efforts to make them do so. That’s why you so frequently see messages telling you some web sites—especially those where you are filling in complex forms—work best with specific browsers on certain operating systems.
Even if performance could be guaranteed, you would be right back to the issues I already mentioned.