Below is an NSOutlineView subclass which overloads keyDown: so that

• arrow left/right will collapse/expand current item,
• return will send action to target,
• space will brings up the field editor for the first column which can be edited.

Question: Is there anyway to dismiss the field editor via the keyboard? � I think the ESC key will work. But it doesn’t.

And: Is there any reason Apple hasn’t made similar functionality built-in?

---

@implementation KeySupportingOutlineView

• (void)keyDown:(NSEvent)theEvent { BOOL swallow = NO; if([self numberOfSelectedRows] == 1) { id item = [self itemAtRow:[self selectedRow]]; NSString keyString = [theEvent characters]; switch([keyString length] == 1 ? [keyString characterAtIndex:0] : 0) { case NSLeftArrowFunctionKey: { if(self dataSource] outlineView:self isItemExpandable:item] == YES) [self collapseItem:item], swallow = YES; } break;

     case [[NSRightArrowFunctionKey:
     {
        if(self dataSource] outlineView:self isItemExpandable:item] == YES)
           [self expandItem:item], swallow = YES;
     }
     break;
  
     case '\r':
     {
        if([self action])
           swallow = [[[NSApp sendAction:[self action] to:[self target] from:self];
     }
     break;
  
     case ' ':
     {
        NSArray* columns = [self tableColumns];
        for(int i = 0; i < [columns count]; i++)
        {
           NSTableColumn* column = [columns objectAtIndex:i];
           if([column isEditable] == YES)
           {
              id delegate = [self delegate];
              if(delegate && [delegate respondsToSelector:@selector(outlineView:shouldEditTableColumn:item:)] && [delegate outlineView:self shouldEditTableColumn:column item:item] == NO)
                 continue;
     
              [self editColumn:i row:[self selectedRow] withEvent:nil select:YES];
              swallow = YES;
              break;
           }
        }
     }
     break;
  }  }
  

  if(swallow == NO) [super keyDown:theEvent]; }

@end