[HIG] DISCUSSION: Section 11: Menu principles: Keyboard shortcuts

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

Calum Benson wrote:
> >     *   As keys for keyboard shortcuts go, the F1 to F12 keys are the
> >         worst, since they have no mnemonic value at all
> 
> This, just for the record, is the very same argument I've had from a
> couple of non-native English speakers arguing that we *should* make more
> use of F-keys for standard keyboard shortcuts-- because
> Ctrl+some-meaningless-letter makes even less sense to them than some
> neutral shortcut like F5.

As a non-native English speaker, I thought I'd raise my thoughts on
this. I'm of a different opinion - even though that it's true that
Ctrl+some-letter-that-made-sense-in-English can make no sense in another
language and often doesn't, it can still make sense in some cases.
Moreover, I think it's easier to map and remember actions if you're able
to associate them with a letter, even if the letter itself may have no
logic behind it - it's simply easier for most people to remember letters
than numbers.


> (It's not quite as simple as saying that people should just translate
> keyboard shortcuts when translating the GUI, unfortunately, as this not
> only has knock-on effects in documentation, but completely screws people
> who occasionally use two or three different language versions of the
> same software...)

I completely agree. Let's just not go down the horrid path of localizing
shortcuts. The most wellknown example of how broken this is Microsoft
Word. Bold (Ctrl+B) and Italic (Ctrl+I) are localized in the Swedish
version to Fet (Ctrl+F) and Kursiv (Ctrl+K). Although this might
somewhat help unexperienced users to initially remember these shortcuts,
it causes a great pain for anyone that actually uses these shortcuts and
have to use a different computer from time to time. The Swedish and
English versions of Office are both common, and so it happens that the
shortcut you used at work to make the text bold, brings up the Find
dialog instead at your home computer, and vice-versa, even though it is
the very same application. Very annoying.

It doesn't even have to be different computers - a common setup at
workplaces is to have English Windows (since security patches are always
released for the English versions first) but a Swedish Office (since
this brings Swedish spellcheck and other localized content).
Unfortunately, such a setup brings no consistency at all with keyboard
shortcuts, even with all applications from the same vendor... What a
mess.


Christian