XnView Software

In the XnView viewer backspace keystrokes should be ignored, but instead they navigate back by one image. Backspace is for deleting left text, not for any kind of navigation. That misguided feature in XnView causes problems when transcribing text from images because it disrupts the zoom and other settings every time you have to re-navigate to the image and configure it again with a suitable view. The stray backspace keystrokes are being captured accidentally by XnView when rapidly switching back and forth between an image and a text editor a little too fast.

What makes this "feature" particularly annoying is that navigation with arrow keys, mouse wheel, etc is configurable, but there is no way to do any configuring of the backspace key.

I don't have any good workarounds for this problem yet. I might try some sort of keystroke software that might be able to intercept backspace keystrokes before they get to XnView. It might be easier to just briefly switch to Faststone, Irfanview, PicPick, or countless other alternatives, but that doesn't really count as a workaround for XnView.

ok, i'll add a setting for backspace

I just noticed that the new option you added is described incorrectly. It is a checkbox, and I found it in:

Options --> General --> Keyboard/Mouse --> Previous file with Back key

The problem is that there is no such thing as a "Back" key on a normal keyboard. It is properly called the "Backspace" key, and its sole default function is to delete text to the left. Calling it the "Back" key isn't only wrong and confusing, it also perpetuates the misconception that the key is supposed to be used for the "back" function of a web browser. In reality, the arrow keys are used in combination with the CTRL and/or ALT keys to move back and forward in a web browser. There's no reason XnView can't do this the standard way, and indeed, it appears that it does work to use ALT+LEFT and ALT+RIGHT to move through the browsing history.

So, the Backspace-as-Back-key option ought to at least be renamed to use the correct key name, "Backspace", instead of the wrong key name, "Back". I recommend removing the option entirely. You could replace it with the ability to configure hotkeys however the user chooses, but getting it right with the features you already have is more important than adding new features, since XnView is feature-complete already as far as I can tell, in comparison to similar software. As a matter of principle, users could be instructed of the proper way to use the arrow keys to move back and forward, and I think that might be better than simply removing the feature as I recommended.

badon wrote: its sole default function is to delete text to the left.

That's not really the case, applications are free to use backpace for other purposes, e.g., crude over-printing effects, known as non-destructive BS. The enwiki article states: The backspace key is commonly used to go back a page (or up one level) when exploring folders in graphical environments, or when browsing the Web in web browsers. But no matter what it does, using the correct term backspace can't be wrong.