Alt Key

users
#1

On Linux pressing and holding the Alt key "activates" text menu (File,
Edit, View, etc). On Windows pressing then releasing the Alt key "actives"
the text menu. Does anyone know how to get Linux to behave like Windows for
the Alt key or vice versa?

#2

@Bruce, *

Bruce Hohl wrote

On Linux pressing and holding the Alt key "activates" text menu (File,
Edit, View, etc). On Windows pressing then releasing the Alt key "actives"
the text menu. Does anyone know how to get Linux to behave like Windows
for
the Alt key or vice versa?

Unfortunately you can not.

Recent work done to make the handling of Accelerators compliant with GTK+
v3, on GTK+3 compliant desktop environments implemented a desired behavior
or simply toggling the assigned mnemonic accelerators visible (e.g. the
underlined character to be pressed to activate the action).

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92630

But, on GTK+2 and Windows and OS X the adjustments have been somewhat
unwelcome and cause disruption in the handling of the Accelerators. As you
note on Windows the <Atl> key moves focus to the main menu--and then the
mnemonic key must be entered to navigate. Previously they were handled as
paired <Alt>+key values.

You can get some feel for the issue in the proposal to make the GTK+ toggle
optional in non-GTK+3 Desktop Environments.

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=99326

So, the issue is still be kicked around.

Stuart

#3

Thanks for the info and the links, two observations:

(1) The Windows behaviour of pressing and releasing the Alt key to activate
the text menu is a more "accessible" default behaviour for those who cannot
or have difficulty with pressing keys simultaneously (versus the Linux
behaviour which requires Alt+<some_other_key>).

(2) As LO is cross platform I think the idea of a LO setting for choosing
the preferred Alt key behaviour is a good idea so that users can work with
LO in a consistent fashion regardless of the OS/DE/Theme of computer being
used.