Comment 2 for bug 223840

Chris, it looks like you found the "customisable menu shortcuts" feature of Claws. This lets you change the keyboard shortcut for menu items by hovering over them and pressing the new shortcut.

This functionality is built into GTK+, and controlled in GNOME by the non-exposed gconf key /desktop/gnome/interface/can_change_accels, which defaults to off. Claws has its own setting for this, which is turned on by default.

I'd propose that it would be nice for Claws to change the default to off. I think most users are used to this being off and would be surprised (as Chris was) that the shortcut changed when they were pressing buttons.

But, Chris, even with that feature off, pressing the shortcut while the menu is up wouldn't activate it the desired menu item. You need to press the key combo when the menu is not popped up.