Selecting menus with alt+letter in translations
A blind user brought up this. In translations different menus can have the same initial letter (in Finnish eg. Tiedosto (File) and Tyyli (Style)). Alt+T can mean either, when the user tries to select a menu by typing. I can't see how the translator could help this except by choosing another word entirely. Could the selection letter be set after the translation, so that for example alt+Y could be used to select the "Tyyli" menu?
Comments
Yes, the letter can be set by typing the '&' character before the letter in the translation. In your case thus: "&Tiedosto" and "T&yyli" respectively.
In reply to Yes, the letter can be set… by Louis Cloete
And I've done exactly this just now. If you wait a while (up to an hour I think) and then update your Finnish translations, you'll have Alt+y as the shortcut for "Tyyli"
In the translation of these menu items you'd need to take extra care where to place the &, which is the shortcut/mnemonic marker
In reply to In the translation of these… by Jojo-Schmitz
To elaborate on Jojo's post: you must ensure that all of the top row menu items (File, Edit, View, Add etc.) have a unique shortcut letter, as well as inside each drop-down menu. I.e. if the "File" menu uses alt+F, none of the other top row menu items should use alt+F for its shortcut. Inside each drop-down menu, any shortcut can be used, but again only once. I.e. alt+F can be used for an item inside the File menu, an item inside the Edit menu, an item inside the View menu, etc., but not twice inside any one menu.
You as translator should keep this in mind while translating and ensure these rules are followed.
I don't speak Finnish, but I tested it. Currently, in the Finnish there are two words that start with N. Pressing alt+N opens the one on the left the first time and the one on the right the second time. I don't personally think this is a good idea for blind users or ever for that matter. If the user has audio feedback the selected menu should be announced. If the wrong menu is selected the user can either use the same key again or use arrow keys to select the next menu until the correct one is selected.
In other programs where the first letters are the same in different menus, a different letter of the word is used to open that particular menu. I would suggest that MuseScore adopt this method and if it will work use Alt+Y for the style menu in Finnish (provided it doesn't cause another conflict since I restored MuseScore to my system settings). This is assuming that Alt+T is the normal key sequence for the file menu in Finnish.
There was work done this past summer so in a future version of MuseScore the user will be prompted with their language and keyboard layout to determine which shortcuts to assign. Hopefully the situation will be fixed when that version (probably 3.0) is released.
Edit: Not being a translator, I was not aware that a fix would be so easy.
Thank you all! I never realized the & was for that. Now I changed rest of the overlapping shortcuts:
&Tiedosto
&Muokkaa
&Näytä
&Luo
N&uotit
&Ulkoasu
T&yyli
L&isäosat
&Ohje
In reply to Thank you all! I never… by Matti Sunell
Oh my. Should be N&äytä, &Nuotit and &Ulkoasu.