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Bug 695775 - Alt does not show mnemonics on menus that are already open
Alt does not show mnemonics on menus that are already open
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 784610
Product: gtk+
Classification: Platform
Component: Widget: GtkMenu
3.4.x
Other Linux
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: gtk-bugs
gtk-bugs
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2013-03-13 14:09 UTC by Tony Houghton
Modified: 2017-08-15 00:11 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---


Description Tony Houghton 2013-03-13 14:09:26 UTC 
If I open a menu with the mouse then press Alt I would expect the underlined mnemonics to appear in the menu, but they don't. If there's a menu bar the mnemonics appear if I move the mouse back over the bar, but there's no such workaround for popup menus.
Comment 1 Daniel Boles 2017-08-03 18:42:05 UTC 
I'm marking this as a dupe of a newer bug as that one has more info and an explanation from Matthias; in brief

 * Alt is not used to show underlines because it need not be pressed to activate
   the mnemonics, so making it show them would be inconsistent

 * It's not clear why pressing ANY key - coincidentally including Alt - then
   slightly moving the pointer shows mnemonics

 * I guess someone needs to write a patch if they have a good way of making the
   underlines visible somehow after opening by mouse, but Alt probably isn't it.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 784610 ***
Comment 2 el 2017-08-15 00:11:30 UTC 
(In reply to Daniel Boles from comment #1)
> I'm marking this as a dupe of a newer bug as that one has more info and an
> explanation from Matthias; in brief
> 
>  * Alt is not used to show underlines because it need not be pressed to
> activate
>    the mnemonics, so making it show them would be inconsistent

How is it better to not show them at all if in fact they can be used?

I don't think it's necessarily bad that the GTK+ team has new ideas on mnemonics and they seem to be tried out frequently, but at some point you also have to keep in mind people's expectations from years of using other systems like Windows. 

(which as far as I recall shows mnemonics always when ALT is pressed no matter if that ALT press would have been required to activate the actual key shortcut or not)

Also, pressing ALT before pressing any keyboard shortcut might not be necessary and it might teach people suboptimal workflows, but it doesn't break the functionality. On the other hand. not showing shortcuts at all when people are looking for them (for which ALT is a common shortcut) does actually mean some people won't figure out how to use keyboard shortcuts _at all_ which is much more frustrating and problematic.