The correct shorthand for writing keyboard shortcuts

[Stuart Rogers]

Avraham Makeler wrote:
> 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

I think you are re-inventing the wheel, as well as introducing 
ambiguity.  (Is the user supposed to press the comma key? the 
parentheses keys?  Some users are very literal.)  Microsoft's MSTP 
guidelines work perfectly well for your situation, and they are an 
industry standard.

You have said that it is irrelevant whether the CTRL key is held or 
released between operations, as long as it is held when the M and F keys 
are pressed.  Of course this is so; that's how computer keyboards work. 
  The computer pays no attention to whether a modifier key is released, 
because it receives the code from the keyboard at the moment a key is 
*pressed*.  If a modifier key (CTRL, ALT, SHIFT) is held at the same 
time as a letter key is pressed, a different code is sent.  Since it is 
irrelevant whether CTRL is released between operations, I think you do 
your readers a disservice to encumber them with invented conventions or 
instructions about what they *don't* have to do.

MSTP is consistent in using all caps for the modifier keys (CTRL, SHIFT) 
and all caps for the letter keys (which is how the letters appear on the 
keyboard).  For key sequences, the guideline is to use commas followed 
by spaces.  So the MSTP instruction would be "press CTRL+M, CTRL+F."

(Adobe has a different standard that uses mixed case, probably stemming 
from its compatibility with UNIX, which is case-sensitive in ways that 
DOS and Windows weren't and aren't.)

As for the SME, I assume that writing documentation according to 
standards is not the SM in which they are E; *you* would be the E in 
that SM, and entitled to stand your ground!  ;-)

HTH,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

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