Bug 148648 - Change shortcut Shift+Alt+R from ruler to cross-reference
Summary: Change shortcut Shift+Alt+R from ruler to cross-reference
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Rahul Anand
URL:
Whiteboard: target:26.8.0
Keywords: difficultyBeginner, easyHack, skillDesign, topicDesign
Depends on:
Blocks: Shortcuts-Accelerators Fields-Cross-Reference
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Reported: 2022-04-18 11:05 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2026-03-02 16:17 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Eyal Rozenberg 2022-04-18 11:05:55 UTC
Today, if I want to increase a cross-reference, I have to do one of the following:

Option 1:

1. Remember the shortcut key for the Insert menu.
2. Press the shortcut key for the Insert menu.
3. Remember the shortcut key for Cross-Reference.
4. Press the shortcut key for Cross-Reference.
5. Remember that the shortcut needs to be pressed twice (Signature Line is selected before Cross Reference for some reason).
6. Press the shortcut key for Cross-Reference again.
7. Press Enter.

Option 2:

1. Remember the shortcut key for the Insert menu.
2. Press the shortcut key for the Insert menu.
3. Take my eyes of the text.
4. Search the menu for Cross-Reference.
5. Press the shortcut key for Cross-Reference.
6. Notice nothing has happened, and realize another item was selected.
7. Press the shortcut key for Cross-Reference again.
8. Enter.

Option 3:

1. Take a hand off of the keyboard.
2. Click the Insert menu
3. Search for Cross-Reference
4. Click Cross-Reference


Options (1) and (2) are too cumbersome! And option 3 breaks my flow of working with the keyboard.

I want to be able to make Insert | Cross-Reference more accessible.

Specifically:

1. There should be a global shortcut for Insert | Cross-Reference
2. The priority of Cross-Ref w.r.t. its shortcut key should be the first selected upon pressing the shortcut.
Comment 1 Heiko Tietze 2022-04-25 15:39:38 UTC
Shortcuts are precious and hard if not impossible to remove later. What key combination do you have in mind?

It's possible to customize .uno:InsertReferenceField / cross reference.
Comment 2 Eyal Rozenberg 2022-04-25 17:27:31 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1)
> Shortcuts are precious and hard if not impossible to remove later.

Fair enough...

> What key combination do you have in mind?

Anything would be better than no shortcut, I guess... how about Alt+Shift+R, or Alt+Shift+C?
Comment 3 Heiko Tietze 2022-04-28 06:11:56 UTC
The topic was on the agenda of the design meeting.

Alt+shift+R is occupied by Rulers On/Off, which is a rarely used function. And rather than adding another predefined shortcut we should reassign it to crossreference.

Code pointer:

In /officecfg/registry/data/org/openoffice/Office/Accelerators.xcu the command at <node oor:name="R_SHIFT_MOD1" oor:op="replace"> needs to be changed from .uno:Ruler to .uno:InsertReferenceField - four times for the modules GlobalDocument, WebDocument, TextDocument, and XMLFormDocument where Web* and XML* are not suited for crossreference functions and for consistency I'd leave it free (do not use different commands on one shortcut).
Comment 4 Rahul Anand 2026-02-07 11:21:14 UTC
Hi,

I’m working on this Easy Hack (tdf#148648) related to the shortcut change.

While looking into Accelerators.xcu, I saw that the Ruler command is bound to:

R_SHIFT_MOD1


Initially I thought MOD1 was Alt, but after checking other mappings (like B_MOD1 for Bold), it seems MOD1 is actually Ctrl and MOD2 is Alt. That means R_SHIFT_MOD1 corresponds to Ctrl+Shift+R, not Alt+Shift+R.

Now I’m a bit confused about the intended change.

Cross-reference (.uno:InsertReferenceField) already has Ctrl+Shift+R as its default shortcut. So should this task:

replace the Ruler shortcut with InsertReferenceField (so Cross-reference would get another shortcut),
or

introduce a new Alt+Shift+R shortcut for InsertReferenceField instead?

Just want to be sure I’m changing the right binding and not creating conflicting shortcuts.

Thanks!
Comment 5 Eyal Rozenberg 2026-02-07 17:46:25 UTC
(In reply to Rahul Anand from comment #4)

So, I took Heiko's word about Alt+Shift+R's current use...

Checking right now, I indeed find that ruler on/off use Ctrl+Shift+R, while Alt+Shift+R opens the From menu.

> Cross-reference (.uno:InsertReferenceField) already has Ctrl+Shift+R as its
> default shortcut.

It does? Interesting...

> So should this task:
> 
> replace the Ruler shortcut with InsertReferenceField (so Cross-reference
> would get another shortcut),
> or
> 
> introduce a new Alt+Shift+R shortcut for InsertReferenceField instead?
> 
> Just want to be sure I’m changing the right binding and not creating
> conflicting shortcuts.

If we went with Alt+Shift+R, the Form menu would need to be Alt+Shift+M (which AFAICT current does nothing). 

That is still acceptable (I think), but I am a little in favor of going with Ctrl+Shift+R. Let Heiko opine about this though.
Comment 6 Rahul Anand 2026-02-08 02:30:18 UTC
(In reply to Rahul Anand from comment #4)

> 
> Cross-reference (.uno:InsertReferenceField) already has Ctrl+Shift+R as its
> default shortcut. So should this task:

I need to correct something I wrote earlier.

I said that Cross-reference (.uno:InsertReferenceField) already had Ctrl+Shift+R as its default shortcut. That was wrong.

After reverting my local changes and testing the original state, I confirmed:

Ctrl+Shift+R is actually assigned to .uno:Ruler, not to Cross-reference.

So Cross-reference does not currently have that shortcut by default.

Sorry for the confusion — just wanted to clarify the actual default mapping before proceeding further.
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2026-02-09 09:19:01 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #5)
> I am a little in favor of going with Ctrl+Shift+R.
Me too. Using Alt/MOD2 is not common on macOS and also not really on Win/Linux (alt+key are accelerators for the main menu).

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #3)
> ...is occupied by Rulers On/Off, which is a rarely used function.
> And rather than adding another predefined shortcut we should reassign it to
> crossreference.
I might have mistyped the command, everything above is valid for ctrl+shift+R.
Comment 8 Commit Notification 2026-02-23 10:09:17 UTC
Rahul Anand committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/bf1cb18b1a98210538febfde1479eec0eb52bb2b

tdf#148648 Change shortcut Shift+Ctrl+R from ruler to cross-reference

It will be available in 26.8.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Comment 9 Buovjaga 2026-03-02 10:08:56 UTC
Rahul: if this is done, please close as fixed.