How do I use the keyboard to "Open a recently used file" in Gedit?

Question

I want to open a recently used file in Gedit using the keyboard. How do I do that?

The best workaround I've found is to press Ctrl+Shift+Tab a few times to scroll through the buttons, but that's a pain.

I checked the keyboard shortcuts in the app but didn't see anything. The online shortcut keys page says "Open the Quick Open window Alt+O", but that does the same thing as Ctrl+O, so that seems to be wrong or outdated.

I tried holding Alt to access the title bar buttons by letter, but there doesn't seem to be any letter mapped to the recent files button (as opposed to Alt+O, which maps to the "Open" button).

I found F10 to open the hamburger menu, but there's doesn't seem to be a way to get from there to the other title bar buttons.

If it's relevant, I'm using 20.04.

Answer 1

I ended up using the Quick Open plugin. It's installed by default, so simply enable it in the Plugins tab, then press Ctrl+Alt+O. It also lets you search, which is handy.

There doesn't seem to be a keyboard shortcut to open the recent files list. I found a merge request to add one, from three years ago, but it was closed.

Answer 2

There is no direct shortcut key indeed. You can use:

1. Ctrl+O
2. Left to enter the sidebar
3. Home, Enter to open the "Recent" list
4. Right to leave the sidebar

Now you can type part of the name or select a recent file using the arrow keys.