Bug 160143

Summary:	Change mnemonic for Delete Columns from 'C' to 'D'
Product:	LibreOffice	Reporter:	altasilvapuer <altasilvapuer>
Component:	Calc	Assignee:	Not Assigned <libreoffice-bugs>
Status:	NEW ---
Severity:	enhancement	CC:	heiko.tietze, mentoring
Priority:	medium	Keywords:	difficultyBeginner, easyHack, skillDesign, topicDesign
Version:	7.6.4.1 release
Hardware:	All
OS:	All
Whiteboard:
Crash report or crash signature:		Regression By:
Bug Depends on:
Bug Blocks:	98259, 115596

Description altasilvapuer@gmail.com 2024-03-11 02:40:45 UTC

Description:
This UI enhancement request is concerning the underlined letters that function as shortcuts in the right-click context menu. If this is the incorrect place to request this enhancement, please direct me to the proper place to post the idea.

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In Calc, if you right-click a row header, you can see the "_D_elete Rows" command has an underlined 'D'. With that context menu open, I only have to hit 'D' on my keyboard, and the row is deleted with no further clicks or keystrokes.

The same is not quite true of column headers. The equivalent shortcut used to also be 'D', but it seems to have been changed somewhere around 7.4 or 7.5. Now, the command is "Delete _C_olumns". The problem is that the hotkey 'C' conflicts with the command for "_C_ut", and neither works as quickly. You have to hit 'C' once for "_C_ut" or twice for "Delete _C_olumns", and THEN hit 'Enter' for the command to actually trigger. At that point, there's arguably little/no speed or accessibility benefit to having the 'C' hotkey in the first place.

I believe this change should be reverted to 'D' for two reasons:
1. The analogous hotkey for "_D_elete Rows" remains 'D'. The inconsistency for this seems unwarranted.

2. The hotkey of 'C' is shared with the hotkey for for "_C_ut", which causes the aforementioned conflict between the two commands.

Steps to Reproduce:
DELETE ROWS:
1. Right-click a row header. Note the underlined 'D' in "_D_elete Rows"
2. Press 'D' on your keyboard to delete the row.
(No further clicks or keystrokes required)

DELETE COLUMNS:
1. Right-click a column header. Note the underlined 'C' in both "_C_ut" and "Delete _C_olumns".
2. Press 'C' on your keyboard to highlight "_C_ut".
3. Press 'C' again on your keyboard to highlight "Delete _C_olumns".
4. Press 'Enter' to trigger the highlighted command.

Actual Results:
The procedures for triggering DELETE ROWS and DELETE COLUMNS from their respective right-click context menus are inconsistent.

Expected Results:
The procedures for DELETE ROWS and DELETE COLUMNS should be equivalent.

Reproducible: Always

User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Not Applicable

Comment 1 ady 2024-03-11 04:36:45 UTC

The accelerator shortcut keys for these context menus have been modified more than once (who knows with which kind of _overall_ reasoning – probably none).

So I am not sure we could call this request a "revert", but rather to have some kind of logical consistent reasoning. Among other factors, it would be helpful to have the same accelerator keys in these context menus as other spreadsheet tools have (Excel, GSheets, AOO...).

Independently of how we got to this point, I would agree that when selecting an entire column, the context menu that includes "Delete Columns" should have the "D" key as accelerator for such action.

Probably all "Delete" (cell/column/row/range) deserves the same accelerator key, but there is probably more items to consider in some of those cases too.

The current "C" indeed requires additional user inputs, and I doubt this was some overall thought-through evaluation or idea.

FWIW, I tend to use the [CTRL]-[-] keyboard shortcut, instead of using the context menu for these actions (thus, skipping the context menu in these cases), but that is not the point here. Clicking on a column header and using the context menu should be as user friendly as possible anyway.

Beware that we can also bring the column header's context menu while the selected area does not correspond to it. The key accelerators should be the same for each available item, independently of the selected area (but in some case, the available actions could be different).

I have no access to Excel, so someone else would have to review whether this is the current equivalent accelerator in it too. That would be an additional "plus".

In AOO, indeed "Delete Columns" is assigned the letter "D" as accelerator shortcut (as it used to be in LO 3.3).

Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2024-03-11 09:29:11 UTC

Mnemonics can be defined with the label or automatically. In this case it's hard coded at officecfg/registry/data/org/openoffice/Office/UI/GenericCommands.xcu <node oor:name=".uno:DeleteColumns" oor:op="replace">.

The C is used twice, for ~Cut and Delete ~Columns (not a blocker since you can press the hotkey repeatedly). It's not common to use a keyboard for context menus and I would rather consider the main menu where the command is located under Sheet. And C is available here for Insert ~Cells too. 

(In reply to altasilvapuer@gmail.com from comment #0)
> Additional Info: Not Applicable
Not true. You will see the mnemonics in context menus depending on your OS/DE.