Thought of the week

Accelerators

Accelerators are powerful means for speeding user interaction.  Accelerators enable users to invoke functions without needing to access a menu or use the mouse.  They are particularly valuable in text and data oriented applications where the user is mainly using the keyboard.

There are de facto standards for commonly used functions such as Cut (Ctrl+C) and Paste (Ctrl+V).  These conventions should not be compromised otherwise users may be confused when switching between applications.  When introducing new accelerators, the key to be used in conjunction with the Ctrl key should be selected, if possible, to have some correspondence with the name of the function.  For instance, Ctrl+Q, might be used as an accelerator for ‘Quit’.  If suitable combinations of the Ctrl key and a letter are not available then it is acceptable to use other reserved keys (Del for Delete) and function keys.