| 2009-07-23 21:36:57 |
David Siegel |
description |
Nearly every button and menu bar entry displays an underline under a single character in its label, indicating an accelerator key. For users who do not understand accelerator keys, these underlines look like glitches. I propose the following change in behavior for how accelerator keys are presented:
* In labels that are always visible (e.g. labels in windows, on buttons), only show the accelerator underline when the Alt key is being pressed.
* For top-level menu bar entries (e.g. "File", "Edit", "View"), only show the accelerator underline when the Alt key is being pressed.
* For labels that do not require Alt to be pressed with the accelerator key (e.g. labels in menus), always show the accelerator key underline.
Please see the attached screenshots for comparing the look-and-feel of interfaces that omit these underlines. |
Nearly every button and menu bar entry displays an underline under a single character in its label, indicating an accelerator key. For users who do not understand accelerator keys, these underlines look like glitches. I propose the following change in behavior for how accelerator keys are presented:
* In labels that are always visible (e.g. labels in windows, on buttons), only show the accelerator underline when the Alt key is being pressed.
* For top-level menu bar entries (e.g. "File", "Edit", "View"), only show the accelerator underline when the Alt key is being pressed.
* For labels that do not require Alt to be pressed with the accelerator key (e.g. labels in menus), always show the accelerator key underline.
* When underlines are shown conditionally, when shown they should only become visible in the focused window; they should not become visible in unfocused windows where the accelerator cannot be activated.
Please see the attached screenshots comparing the look-and-feel of interfaces that omit these underlines. |
|
