Global Shortcuts

[Michael Jansen]

Am Montag 17 März 2008 19:04:04 schrieb Thiago Macieira:
> On Monday 17 March 2008 18:46:36 Michael Jansen wrote:
> > Am Montag 17 März 2008 05:26:27 schrieb Aaron J. Seigo:
> > > On Sunday 16 March 2008, Michael Jansen wrote:
> > > > 4. I start a application. It happens that it has a global shortcut
> > > > conflicting with that of another active application. Warn me. Give me
> > > > the option to disable global shortcuts for one of the application
> > > > temporarily, persistent or go to the global shortcut editor.
> > >
> > > this is the one part of the proposal that makes sense to me.
> > >
> > > the rest of it would mean the user ends up having to configure
> > > everything and there are no default actions, which means a lot more
> > > work the user if they even know it's possible.
> >
> > Yep. But if they don't know a application has the need or possibility for
> > global shortcuts, do you think it's better to just activate them? How is
> > the user supposed to notice that?
>
> Either argument is missing the discoverability of shortcuts.
>
> Normally, people discover shortcuts by looking at menus and seeing the
> combination next to the action. For instance, in this KMail Composer
> window, in the Message menu, there's "Send message    Ctrl+Enter".
>
> Global shortcuts should be no different: they should show up in the menus.
> But, of course, only when they are enabled. So I'd say that enabling them
> by default -- *reasonable* defaults -- is the best way to discover them.

I tried to check if global shortcuts are displayed differentely from local 
shurtcuts so i could really tell it's a global one. But hey, i couldn't come 
up with a single application showing me the global shortcuts in a menu.

All those core kde components don't have a menu. Kopete hides them and my 
amarok has currently no global shortcuts. I guess it's not yet ported. I 
couldn't remember one other application  having global shortcuts. That doesn't 
mean i have no other. I just don't know them. I guess that one more point for 
my position. 

But i get the feeling that there is a overwhelming majority against opt-in 
shortcuts.

Mike

-- 
Michael Jansen
Available for contract work ( Development / Configuration Management )
http://www.michael-jansen.biz