Issue 80604 - lone alt keybinding in menu considered harmful
Summary: lone alt keybinding in menu considered harmful
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: General
Classification: Code
Component: ui (show other issues)
Version: OOo 2.2.1
Hardware: All All
: P3 Trivial with 4 votes (vote)
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: AOO issues mailing list
QA Contact:
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: 81913
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Reported: 2007-08-11 07:23 UTC by tconnors
Modified: 2013-08-07 15:31 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: DEFECT
Latest Confirmation in: ---
Developer Difficulty: ---


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Description tconnors 2007-08-11 07:23:58 UTC
Please allow an alt keypress not to select the menu.  It is not only pointless
(the menu items all have accelarator keys -- if I wish to invoke the menu then
I'll type e.g. alt-f).  But in my window manager, it interferes with a lot of
normal window manager function.  bug 44373 was closed because Frank wasn't able
to reproduce the fault -- it turns out that that if you alt-tab to one window,
then alt tab back, then openoffice correctly deactivates the menu.  But if I
alt+left click to put my OO window into the background (a function specific of
course only to window managers that have this mouse binding activated), then
when I come back into OO and start typing, it will start activating random menu
items becuase it still thinks I want the menu activated.  No other linux
application acts like this, and I'm willing to bet no windows application does
it either.

If you must allow a single alt keypress to activate the menu (and not allow the
user to disable this behaviour by configuration), at least deactivate the menu
in all occasions when OO loses the focus, not just to alt-tab switching.  Mind
you, I press alt in other occasions that don't result in OO losing the focus too
(alt-f9 will stop my CD player, etc), and I don't want the menu activated at all
then, either.

If you are having trouble reproducing this bug, perhaps you will see it a lot
more obviously if your window manager is a focus-follows-mouse window manager,
since OO has a lot less control over the focus in such WMs.
Comment 1 thorsten.martens 2007-08-13 08:45:27 UTC
TM->requirements: Not a defect, but might be a wish for an enhancement. Please
have a look, thanks !
Comment 2 ccheney 2008-10-18 19:55:59 UTC
Due to the way the alt key works it breaks sticky keys for accessibility.

See:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/285407

Marking this as a defect instead of an enhancement due to that.
Comment 3 Martin Hollmichel 2009-01-22 17:20:39 UTC
set target 3.x
Comment 4 cyberwuffy 2009-04-14 12:11:32 UTC
Using 3.0.1 on Ubuntu Intrepid. This may be related. Alt will randomly activate
the file menu, with my hands nowhere on the keyboard. 
Comment 5 vladimircz 2010-01-12 20:50:31 UTC
I afce similar problem. The first item of menu (File) is automatically activated
every 30 seconds approximately and disappears again automatically after a bit
shorter time. There could be also a problem with F10 key ...

OS Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit, OO 3.1.1 OOO310m19 (build 9420)
Comment 6 fred_k 2011-04-25 10:18:16 UTC
It'd be nice if alt key can be configured as non-sticky.

Sticky alt key is ok in MS Windows because all other applications do the same.
It is not good in linux (or in X, gnome, or WM?) to activate file menu when you press and release alt key -- quite incompatible with other applications in this environment.

I'm not experiencing vladimircz's problem: my version behaves quite consistent, not random.

3.2.1 OOO320m14 (Build:9489), Japanese enabled.