The correct shorthand for writing keyboard shortcuts

[Avraham Makeler]

Hi David,
Thanks for the effort you're putting into this.

>> Press and hold Ctrl while pressing the letter m, release both keys, and
then press and hold Ctrl while pressing the letter f (Ctrl+M Ctrl+F).

A little earlier, I got the following reply from somebody offlist:

        I would say "ctrl+f, ctrl+m" would be the best way to do that. You
need to separate the steps is the issue.
        Hope that helps!

And I replied as follows:
--------------------

Great minds think alike! Lacking any other alternative, that's exactly what
I wrote in my first draft!

(And it was on that the SME wrote his take, and told me to change them all
accordingly to Ctrl M+F.)

The problem is, that ctrl+f, ctrl+m make it look as if after the ctrl+f you
then have to first release the Ctrl key and only  then do Ctrl+M.

However, lacking any other alternative *standard* alternative, this seems
the only solution.

The only other alternative would be to create our own new standard. One or
two people suggested to me Ctrl+(M,F) - and that also seems to me to be
correct.


--------------------

So coming back to your suggestion, David, it seems that are are all
converging on the same solution,
however, it's just that 'ctrl+f, ctrl+m' (with a space or a comma) gives the
wrong impression that you have to take your finger off the Ctrl key after
doing Ctrl+M and before doing Ctrl+F; you do not have to.

I would want to define a new standard, like this:  Ctrl+(M,F).

Thanks,

 - avi



On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 5:17 PM, David Spreadbury <dspreadb at yahoo.com>wrote:

>  Avraham,
>
>
>
> I looked a little further, and then remembered that FrameMaker has many
> such shortcut sequences. So I went to the FrameMaker manuals and found this
> example:
>
>
>
> *Character Sets, page 2, Using key sequences*
>
> Control+q Shift+a - Holding down Control while pressing the letter q, then
> releasing both keys, and then holding down Shift while pressing the letter a
>
>
>
> So, to use your situation and MSTP terminology:
>
>
>
> Press and hold Ctrl while pressing the letter m, release both keys, and
> then press and hold Ctrl while pressing the letter f (Ctrl+M Ctrl+F).
>
>
>
> I, personally, don’t like the wording in the Adobe description but that is
> how it is worded.
>
>
>
> *From:* Avraham Makeler [mailto:amakeler at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Sunday, April 26, 2009 7:51 AM
> *To:* David Spreadbury
> *Cc:* framers at lists.frameusers.com
> *Subject:* Re: The correct shorthand for writing keyboard shortcuts
>
>
>
> >> Two questions:
>
> >> Will Ctrl+M, followed by Ctrl+F, give the proper results?
>
> Yes
>
> >> Will Ctrl+M+F give the proper results?
>
> No
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> avi
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 3:12 PM, David Spreadbury <dspreadb at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> Avraham,
>
> Two questions:
>
> Will Ctrl+M, followed by Ctrl+F, give the proper results?
>
> Will Ctrl+M+F give the proper results?
>
> If the second is true, I would document it by teling the user; "Press and
> hold the Control key then press M followed by F (Ctrl+M+F)."
>
> The Microsoft Manual of Style, version 2, always has shortcuts with a plus
> (+) following Ctrl, Alt, of Shift (Ctrl+?).
>
> It seems to depend on whether you need to release the Ctrl key between
> sequences.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
> [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Avraham Makeler
> Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2009 3:57 AM
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: The correct shorthand for writing keyboard shortcuts
>
> Hi all,
>
>   RE: The correct shorthand for writing keyboard shortcuts
>
>
> I have a general question on writing keyboard shortcuts - but no
> particularly connected to FM. So I was referred to this forum sicne there
> is
> the general impression that FM users are the champions of extremely long
> and
> complex keyboard shortcuts.
>
> So here is my question: It is a surprising problem to have: a simple enough
> issue that I should have already come across years ago, but for some reason
> I am bumping into it only now. I have asked a number of experienced
> technical writers about this, but have had no convincing answer.
>
> I am documenting a GUI, that has a certain command called 'Merge Forms',
> whose keyboard shortcut is, *as the SME writes it*:
>
>    Ctrl M+F
>
> The SME means to say: press Ctrl+M and then with the Ctrl key still
> pressed,
> then press the F key.
>
> And this does in fact successfully invoke the required operation.  (Not of
> negligible importance: Ctrl+M followed by Ctrl+F will also work.)
>
> But is 'Ctrl M+F' the correct way to write this?
> I think not. For a start, the custom seems to be to write a plus (+) immed.
> after the 'Ctrl'.
> But 'Ctrl+M+F' means something else: to press all three keys at once.
> ---------------
>
> Ctrl+M, F is not correct, since it means: Press Ctrl+M, then release the
> Ctrl key, and then press the F key
>
> ---------------
>
> And another surprise I had is that when I tried a few experiments typing
> keyb sequences in the MS Word 'Customize Keyboard' dlg box, I found lots of
> bugs. But since this is an FM forum and not a Word forum I wont detail the
>  issues here.
>
> Thanks all,
>
> - avi
>
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