Kando comes with a small example menu which you can use to get started. However, you should soon configure your own menu to make the most out of Kando.
When you launch Kando, nothing will happen at first. You will only see a small icon in the system tray. However, on most platforms, you can open an example menu by pressing Ctrl + Space.
There are some exceptions where this will not work. See the platform-specific installation notes for details. It can also happen that the shortcut is already used by another application. In this case, you can use the tray icon to open the settings and change the shortcut of the example menu.
Kando uses Fitts's Law to make menu navigation as fast as possible. You do not have to aim at the items you want to select, but you can click anywhere in the wedge of an item.
In additions, Kando is a marking menu (which were described first about 30 years ago by Gordon Kurtenbach). As such it allows you to select items by drawing zig-zag lines. This is extremely powerful! You can select things in subsubsubmenus in well below a second without looking at your screen!
You can watch the video on the right to get an idea of how fast you can navigate through a menu with Kando.
At first, you will probably use the point-and-click method. Once you get more comfortable with Kando, you can try the marking mode, and even the turbo mode.
| Navigation Method | Example |
|---|---|
| Point and Click: The most basic approach for selecting items is by clicking at them. Although you do not have to click directly at the item, anywhere in the item's wedge will do! This can make selections very fast as you do not have to aim carefully. |
introduction-1.mp4 |
| Marking Mode: With Kando, you can select items by drawing gestures! To do so, simply press your left mouse button, and drag over an item. You will move the item around, until you stop the movement or make a sharp turn. Try to remember the path to an item and draw it without looking much at the menu! You will be surprised how quickly you can select items which are deeply nested in the menu. For successful selections, it is better to draw expressive zig-zag lines instead of shy and curvy lines 😃 |
introduction-3.mp4 |
| Turbo Mode: If you opened the menu using a key combination, you can keep a key pressed. If you do so, the menu will behave as if the left mouse button is pressed, and you can easily browse through the menu without having to click anywhere. Once you release the key, the currently dragged item will be selected. This allows you to make even faster selections! Turbo-Mode works best with Ctrl, Shift, Alt, or Meta. For all other keys there will be a short delay until Turbo-Mode kicks in. If this delay is too long for your liking, you can hit the key quickly twice - this way Kando will get the key-down event faster and Turbo-Mode will work right out of the box! |
introduction-4.mp4 |
People are different and so are their preferences. Therefore, Kando comes with options like the "Centered Mode" or the "Anchored Mode" which change this default behavior. Especially on smaller touch screens or with gamepad input, these options may be beneficial.
You can watch the video linked above to get an idea of how these modes work.
Tip
We recommend to learn the default behavior first and only change it if you are really sure that it is not working for you. It may take some time to get used to it, but it is worth it! You will be surprised how fast you can do something after you mastered it! 🍰🚀
Once you are comfortable with the default menu, you should configure your own menus.
Installing Kando
Index