Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 71409
Menu shorcuts don't correspond to keys indicated
Last modified: 2007-06-12 10:18:19 UTC
In menus, the keyboard shortcut stated does not correspond to the localized accelerator. For example, in the attached screenshot (OOE680m2), the translation for "~Open" is « ~Mở », but next to the item, it still says "Control+O". It should say "Ctrl+M". I don't know if this occurs in all menus, but it certainly occurs in several of the screenshots I have for the Linux FC6 install of our translation. I searched for "shortcut match", but could find no other issue relating to this. I think it is fairly serious, because it confuses users. This screen is a standard Writer display. The issue probably applies to other components of OOo.
Created attachment 40497 [details] Screenshot of a standard Writer display, in Vietnamese.
Ctrl+ shortcuts are usually common for all applications, independent of language. These ~ shortcuts like ~File -> ~Open are used together with Alt key in upper level and without modifier in next levels to ease navigating in menus via keyboard. When you press alt+F, file menu opens and when you press O, open dialog appears. Instead you can press crtl+O without openening menu to open file selection dialog. These entries in menus (Crtl+O) are simply reminders. I dont see issue here.
yes -> invalid issue.
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These shortcut reminders are _not_ independent of language. They represent the English keyboard shorcuts. Evidently these English keyboard shortcuts persist, even when we choose keyboard accelerators available in the translated menu items. This is confusing. When "Open" is Ctrl+O, and Ctrl+O remains in the menu even when the word "Open" is « ~Mở » in my language, with a keyboard accelerator of "M", which keyboard combination activates this menu item? Ctrl+O for English or Ctrl+M for Vietnamese? The keyboard shortcuts are chosen by the developers of the original (in this case, English-language) version of the software, as mnemonics for the menu items. "O" for "Open". "F" for "File". "P" for "Print". If these English keyboard shortcuts are retained, it becomes "O" for « Mở » (the second character is _not_ "o"), "F" for "Tập tin" and "P" for "In". The keyboard shortcuts stop being helpful mnemonics and become confusing conflicting information. And what of the accelerators shown in our menu items? Do they work as well, or are they useless? I don't think this is an invalid issue, since it involves conflicts and confusion for users.
Maybe you'll let the issue closed and start discussion in i10n-dev mailing list? When there are other language teams with similar efforts, they can share their experience. I still think, that these ctrl+ shortcuts are the ones, user knows, eg. ctrl+c = copy and ctrl+v = paste (no v in paste btw) and changing these must be done all over desktop environment and other applications (when you have localized ones). And also changing must be done cleverly, not causing conflicts with operating system shortcuts.
clytie, if you want to customize shortcuts for your language see how it done for some languages. See sw/uiconfig/sglobal/accelerator folder for Writer shortcut customizations.