IndentNav addon for NVDA

This addon allows NVDA users to navigate by indentation level of lines. While editing source code in many programming languages, it allows to jump between the lines of the same indentation level, as well as quickly find lines with greater or lesser indentation level.

Please note that tree navigation commands have been moved to TreeNav add-on.

Download

Please install from NVDA add-on store

Note on compatibility with VSCode

Builtin VSCode accessibility is very limited: as of 2024 it only exposes 500 lines of code through accessibility API, which makes IndentNav to work incorrectly in VSCode.

By default IndentNav won't work with VSCode and when you try to use it, you will need to select from two options:

• Install VSCode extension (extension page)(source code) - recommended way. After installing extension NVDA will be able to access entire document no matter how large it is.
• Continue using VSCode in legacy mode - enable this mode in IndentNav settings. This is not recommended since NVDA will only see 500 lines of document and will erroneously report missing siblings/parents.

Compatibility issues

IndentNav has known compatibility issues with Character Information add-on. It is currently impossible to configure both IndentNav and review cursor on numpad while this add-on is running. Please either uninstall this add-on, or use an alternative keystroke map in IndentNav.

Keystroke layouts

IndentNav offers 3 builtin keystroke mappings:

• Legacy or laptop layout: this is for people who were using IndentNav v1.x and don't want to learn new layouts or for laptop keyboards that don;t have numpads.
• Alt+numpad layout.
• Numpad keys layout. There are two modes of dealing with review cursor keystroke conflict:
  • Use numpad for IndentNav in editables and review cursor everywhere else. If you still need to use review cursor in editables, you can temporarily disable IndentNav by pressing alt+numLock.
  • Remap review cursor commands to alt+numpad, thus avoiding keystroke conflict.

Keystroke layout can be selected in IndentNav settings.

Keystrokes

Action	Legacy layout	Alt+numpad layout	Numpad layout	Description
Toggle IndentNav	alt+numLock	alt+numLock	alt+numLock	This is useful when both NVDA and review cursor gestures are assigned to numPad.
Jump to previous/next sibling	NVDA+Alt+up/downArrow	alt+numPad8/numPad2	numPad8/numPad2	Sibling is defined as a line with the same indentation level. This command will not take cursor beyond current code block.
Jump to previous/next sibling skipping over clutter	N/A	control+alt+numPad8/numPad2	control+numPad8/numPad2	You can configure clutter regular expression in settings.
Jump to first/last sibling	NVDA+Alt+shift+up/downArrow	alt+numPad4/numPad6	numPad4/numPad6	Sibling is defined as a line with the same indentation level. This command will not take cursor beyond current code block.
Jump to previous/last sibling potentially outside of current block	NVDA+control+Alt+up/downArrow	control+alt+numPad4/numPad6	control+numPad4/numPad6	This command allows you to jump to a sibling in another block.
Jump to previous/next parent	NVDA+Alt+leftArrow, NVDA+alt+control+leftArrow	alt+numPad7/numPad1	numPad7/numPad1	Parent is defined as a line with lower indentation level.
Jump to previous/next child	NVDA+Alt+control+rightArrow, NVDA+alt+rightArrow	alt+numPad9/numPad3	numPad9/numPad3	Child is defined as a line with greater indentation level. This command will not take cursor beyond current code block.
Select current block	NVDA+control+i	control+alt+numPad7	control+numPad7	Selects current line plus all following lines having strictly greater indentation level. Press repeatedly to select multiple blocks.
Select current block and all following blocks on the same indentation level	NVDA+alt+i	control+alt+numPad9	control+numPad9	Selects current line plus all following lines having greater or equal indentation level.
Indent-paste	NVDA+v	NVDA+v	NVDA+v	When you need to paste a block of code to a place with different indentation level, this command will adjust indentation level before pasting.
Go back/forward in history	N/A	control+alt+numPad1/numPad3	control+numPad1/numPad3	IndentNav keeps a history of lines which you visited via IndentNav commands.
Speak current line	N/A	alt+numPad5	numPad5	This is really a review cursor command remapped for convenience.
Speak parent line	NVDA+i	N/A	N/A

Other features

QuickFind bookmarks

IndentNav allows you to configure any number of bookmarks that you can easily jump to. A bookmark is defined by a regular expression and a custom keystroke to jump to a match. Press shift+ keystroke to find previous occurrence.

Crackling:

When jumping over many lines of code, IndentNav will try to quickly play indentation levels as tones of the lines skipped over. This feature is only enabled when report indentation as tones is turned on in NVDA settings. Crackling volume can be adjusted or disabled in IndentNav settings.

Source code

Source code is available at http://github.com/mltony/nvda-indent-nav.