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Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 19:49
by kartal
Hi

Everytime I use a shortcut that has "alt" as the only modifier the menus first letters highlight. Lets say if my shortcut is alt+t, tools drop down menu show up and interferes with my original shortcut. Is there a way to disable that behaviour, it is quite annoying :( Because I cannot use alt as modifier and using multiple modifiers is not very productive because it limits hands movement in my view.

thanks

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 20:01
by admin
There is no way to intercept this. Alt+[A-Z] shortcuts are not really usable because there are exploited as "accelerators". It's a Windows thing.

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 20:38
by kartal
Do not get me wrong but I can use alt without any problem in many applications including some other explorer replacements. I hope that at some point alt modifier would be usable properly in XYplorer. Lack of proper alt assignment is not consistent with rest of the application. Now I need to use ahk to go around this proplem which creates another layer of application usage. I think that this would be against the philosophy of "Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts for more than 300 functions. Have it your way!" idea.

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 20:40
by admin
kartal wrote:Do not get me wrong but I can use alt without any problem in many applications including some other explorer replacements. I hope that at some point alt modifier would be usable properly in XYplorer. Lack of proper alt assignment is not consistent with rest of the application. Now I need to use ahk to go around this proplem which creates another layer of application usage. I think that this would be against the philosophy of "Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts for more than 300 functions. Have it your way!" idea.
Those other file manager do not have Accelerators then, right? Of course I could simply remove them, or give you the option to remove them. Nothing easier...

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 20:52
by kartal
Sorry I do not know what accelerators stands for inside XYplorer. As a user, having an option to enable or disable it would make me happy.

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 21:08
by admin
kartal wrote:Sorry I do not know what accelerators stands for inside XYplorer. As a user, having an option to enable or disable it would make me happy.
"Accelerators" is no special XYplorer term, but general Windows lingo. They provide fast keyboard-access to GUI element by pressing Alt+[key]. The hot keys are usually underlined.

Back to my question: those other file managers, do they have accelerators?

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 21:11
by kartal
Well I use Freecommander and it seems to have what you have explained. When I press alt in it, it underlines the menu titles. But it does not seem to interfere.

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 21:17
by admin
kartal wrote:Well I use Freecommander and it seems to have what you have explained. When I press alt in it, it underlines the menu titles. But it does not seem to interfere.
So you can assign Alt+F to a function in Freecommander and at the same time have an accelerator Alt+F without interfering. How should that be possible?

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 21:46
by kartal
I have alt+f assigned to set filter in FC. What happens is that when I press "alt" it underlines the File menu item but pressing alt+f brings set filter menu. I do not have anything set for alt+h and pressing alt+h brings file-help so it acts like it has what you say. From what I understand user shortcuts has priority over accelarators.

On the otherhand XYplorer tries to do both at the same time which is the main issue to me.

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 21:53
by admin
kartal wrote:I have alt+f assigned to set filter in FC. What happens is that when I press "alt" it underlines the File menu item but pressing alt+f brings set filter menu. I do not have anything set for alt+h and pressing alt+h brings file-help so it acts like it has what you say. From what I understand user shortcuts has priority over accelarators.

On the otherhand XYplorer tries to do both at the same time which is the main issue to me.
Ok, thanks. I will see if I can do that.

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 17 Aug 2008 00:13
by kartal
that is great news

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 17 Aug 2008 01:28
by avsfan
As it currently stands, hitting Alt and releasing it will then focus the menu, at which time hitting "f" by itself will open the file menu (just as hitting Alt again will return focus to the previously active window).

If the user is able to re-define Alt-F to be something like a specific filter command, they could still get to the previously defined (i.e. app-specific) functionality (in this case, File menu) by using the above sequence (though I suppose in some circumstances, it might result in unexpected behavior).

Probably nothing earth-shattering here, just thinking in public... (but it could add some useful functionality)

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 17 Aug 2008 09:37
by admin
Unfortunately my research was not successful: ATM I don't know how to do it. :cry: I will try again later and dig a little deeper.

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 17 Aug 2008 23:04
by kartal
Is disabling possible via settings thou?

Re: Using "alt" modifier is painful, menu items interference

Posted: 18 Aug 2008 07:51
by admin
kartal wrote:Is disabling possible via settings thou?
I could remove the accelerators from the main menu. But there are many more on the info panel, e.g. on the Find Files tab!
I will rather look for a better solution. So for the time being, Alt+[A-Z] is not a good option for a KS.