Bug 104665 - customize keyboard - many key combinations missing
Summary: customize keyboard - many key combinations missing
Status: RESOLVED INSUFFICIENTDATA
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2016-12-14 05:34 UTC by john
Modified: 2018-02-06 20:18 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description john 2016-12-14 05:34:04 UTC
In the Customize dialog, in the Keyboard tab, there are many keystrokes missing.

I would like to set ALT+= as the keystroke to insert a formula, for consistency with Microsoft Word, but this is currently impossible, since ALT+= keystroke is not offered as an option on the list.

Any chance it could be added?

Would be great if this dialog could be made more user-friendly, somehow -- lots of scrolling around to find specific keystrokes, quite painful if wanting to reassign more than one or two bindings. And with the recent loss of many ALT sequences (eg alt I R = insert row) from the menus, this is more important than it was before.
Comment 2 john 2016-12-14 06:58:25 UTC
Another example: ctrl+[+] and ctrl+[_] as shortcuts for subscript and superscript in Word.

Another example: ctrl+[+] for insert cells in Excel.

Perhaps there is a slightly tricking design problem here, being that keyboard shortcuts like ctrl+plus are unclear since keyboards have multiple PLUS keys, some requiring shift and others not requiring shift. And ctrl+shift+[=] may or may not be equal to ctrl+[+] depending on whether [+] and [=] are on the same key or not, which is locale-dependent.

What happens if the user changes their keyboard settings to a different locale... Should libreoffice change to a whole different set of keyboard shortcuts? I guess not, the input local and the menu language are different things, and the keyboard shortcuts should be fixed with the menu language.
Comment 3 Cor Nouws 2016-12-14 08:41:00 UTC
Hi John,

Thanks for filing the request.
There will obvious be limitations from OS-level... but maybe some more keys can be added.

Can you be specific in what key combies you would expect and where?
(Notice that there is a difference between global and module level).

Ciao - Cor
Comment 4 john 2017-06-11 03:20:00 UTC
I don't think there is any issue at the OS level here -- I'm talking about ensuring that Alt-key sequences are unique and available for all top-of-the-screen menu options. 

Basically I expect every menu option, at all times, to be accessible with simple key Alt+xxx keystrokes, unless that are already assigned with easy Ctrl-... shortcuts.

In addition, I expect those keystrokes to be relatively stable over time, to help 'muscle memory'.

But most important is that keystroke options exist. For example, in Impress (LibreOffice 5.2.5.1) there is no keystroke for Format Character. In Calc, there is no keystroke for Paste Special->Only Values.

Seems that some kind of 'accessibility review' might be needed to check this issue thoroughly, since I am sure it is affect by translations (different keystrokes in different languages) and also all the different modes that LibreOffice can be in (Calc, Impress, etc), not sure how complex that would be.r perhaps a debugging tool could be added to check through all menus for available keyboard bindings at all times, for automated checking, and report any non-shortcut-accessible menu items to a log file...?
Comment 5 QA Administrators 2018-01-02 10:15:09 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 6 Cor Nouws 2018-01-02 10:45:24 UTC
Hi John,

In your #description, comment #2 and in comment #4 you talk about three  or more different places/situations, where short cut / keys are important.
The answer is Yes, these are important. But what is the question?
Availability of keys in Customize has been improved over time..
Short cuts have been added. At least one of what you mention in comment #2 just work.
And accelerator keys, are/should be an item that has constant attention.

When we work on enhancements, it is important that there is one report for 'one' improvement.
So my suggestion to you would be: come up with clear stuff, that matters most to you, in clear reports.
Comment 7 Cor Nouws 2018-02-06 20:18:10 UTC
no more info. Sorry to close this.