Re: Windows Suggestions

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

"Pat" <none@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:Xns9C44879DA8841nonenonenone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(If this is not an appropriate group for general Windows suggestions,
please point me elsewhere. If there is no such group, then may this
suggestion die a quick and painless, yet most honorable, death.)


Hi,

I have a suggestion for Windows. It would be nice if there was a
concept of "universal" keyboard commands. For example, CTRL+C could be
mapped, by the user, to a universal command called "Copy."

As it is now, most applications use CTRL+C as copy, but there is no real
uniformity to this. Some users prefer to use CTRL+INSERT for copy, and
this is less commonly supported.

Applications would have the choice of directly handling either the
CTRL+C messages (as they do now) or handling the "universal" message
that the "Copy" key was pressed. This would allow the most flexibility,
so that existing apps would continue to work normally, but new apps
would have the option of switching to the more generic approach.

Only the most common commands need representation as "universal"
commands. Things like cut, copy, paste, undo, redo, select-all, select-
none, etc... And media commands like play, pause, stop, record would be
nice, too. Interestingly, "record" could apply to recording audio or
video, as well as something like recording a macro in a text editor or
spread***.

I think that the fact that every application has a different default
keymapping -- and the fact that some of them aren't even remappable -- is a major learning obstacle for many users. For example, CTRL+Z in the
newsreader application that I'm using right now maps to something
completely unrelated to "undo," and it gets me every time.

This could be accomplished as a third-party application, but it would be
much less effective. The application would only be able to offer a sort
of dynamic re-mapping. It could intercept keystrokes and convert them
based on a table, like so:

Key Sequence Application Remapped Sequence
--------------------------------------------------
CTRL+Z Word CTRL+Z
CTRL+Z Excel CTRL+Z
CTRL+Z XNews ALT+BACKSPACE
...

This would be cumbersome and would require the user to update the table
for every application. Having the concept of universal commands built
into the operating system would be much more elegant.

Thanks.



Which applications are different? When you have made your list, contact the software authors and ask why their keystroke commands are not the same as for MS Office..

--

Mike Hall - MVP Windows Experience
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

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