Patch Messaging Jump Forward, Backward One Word at a Time

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Summary

Sym+f : jump backwards one word
Sym+g : jump forwards one word

Description

It's very easy to fat finger while thumbing out a message and difficult to tap the cursor into the right position to correct a typo. Not having arrow keys to move the cursor drove me nuts, especially when the typo was near the submit icon -- oops accidentally sent garbage because my fingertip wasn't sharp enough. This patch allows Sym+f to jump backwards one word and Sym+g to jump forward one word. This, plus the built-in Sym+Backspace to delete the current word makes fixing typos much easier. Most other Sym+key combinations are shortcuts for other symbols but f and g were unused.

Prerequisites

• Rooted phone.

Process

1. Log in as root.
2. Mount the file system as RW.
3. Enter the /usr/palm/applications/com.palm.app.messaging/app/controllers directory.
4. In chatview-assistant.js, locate the handleTextAreaUp event handler near line 1680 (1800 for me):

   <source lang="text"> handleTextAreaKeyUp: function(event) {</source>

   and add the following just after:

   <source lang="text"> if (event && event.ctrlKey && event.keyCode==Mojo.Char.f) {

   currentText=this.messageTextElement.value;

   oldPos = this.messageTextElement.selectionStart;

   newPos = currentText.lastIndexOf(' ',oldPos-1);

   if (newPos>-1) {

   this.messageTextElement.setSelectionRange(newPos,newPos);

   }

   else {

   this.messageTextElement.setSelectionRange(0,0);

   }

   Event.stop(event);

   }

   if (event && event.ctrlKey && event.keyCode==Mojo.Char.g ) {

   currentText=this.messageTextElement.value;

   oldPos = this.messageTextElement.selectionStart;

   newPos = currentText.indexOf(' ',oldPos);

   if (newPos>-1) {

   this.messageTextElement.setSelectionRange(newPos+1,newPos+1);

   }

   else {

   this.messageTextElement.setSelectionRange(currentText.length,currentText.length);

   }

   Event.stop(event);

   } </source>

5. Mount the file system as RO.
6. Reboot.