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Steps: Open a sample schema. In Schema view, switch to tree view. Select an element; F2 -> auto-rename is enabled for such element Switch to column view and repeat the above step -> auto-rename is not working
The F2 to rename is a Swing feature which invokes the cell editor of a JTree and JTable. Unfortuately, the JList component (upon which ListView is based) does not support the concept of a cell editor. Given that F2 is a keyboard shortcut bound by Swing, not by the application, and that this is merely a shortcut to a feature we provide via the Schema view context menu, I am marking this as a P4 enhancement. In order to implement this, we would need a specialized JList, ListView, a new type of cell editor, and likely have to copy code from JDK and NetBeans to make this work, since the framework is simply not there. The alternative is to switch the ListView for a TreeView, but we have been there before, and that had more problems than ListView, which is why we switched.
*** Issue 84938 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
We have seen Windows users doing F2 quite often. They are simply used to the fact that it works everywhere - on the desktop, in folders, choosers, trees ... If this is not working it is a usability issue (users expect this behaviour). Of course, there is a workaround - going go property sheet - which means more steps for the user. Raising this to P3, perhaps this might even be a bug (usability issue).
There may be a way around this problem in ListView/JList, and that is to go back to using the TreeView (JTree) component. The problem with JTree is that it always shows the expanders (or at least the lines indicating the sibling relationships), so we need a way to hide those. Scott Violet has just posted the source for the Extreme GUI Makeover JavaOne demo, which features a customized JTree with the expanders positioned in an unusual place. The source may help in determining if it is possible to hide the expanders (and the sibling lines) completely. See his blog for the source code: http://weblogs.java.net/blog/zixle/archive/2006/11/extreme_gui_mak.html Also, due to issue 78196 and issue 78199, we ought to stop using ListView and go back to using TreeView, anyway.