Hotkey Assignment Dialog Box

Use the Hotkey Assignment dialog box to check and to assign hotkeys to the text of menu items or dialog box controls. The menu items for one level of a menu, usually the menu items for one popup menu or the control's text of a dialog box are being processed.

The underlying hotkey manager suggests hotkeys and checks the current items for missing hotkeys and for a unique use of each hotkey within the listed group of items.

To assign a hotkey, use a suggested hotkey from the Key combo box or add or remove the hotkey specifier (mnemonic key) manually in the target edit field. Use the Apply button to apply the hotkey you have specified.

For languages that don't use Latin characters natively, the hotkey character is visually represented in parentheses to maintain keyboard accessibility. For example, in the following Japanese translation for an English menu item, "(&S") is the suggested hotkey inserted in the correct position:

"&Save As..."

"名前を付けて保存 (&S)..."

Dialog Box Controls

·	Target Edit Field Suggested target text where the ampersand character (&) is properly placed so as to resolve or avoid a hotkey conflict. The hotkey can be specified manually by editing the text in this field (i.e., (re)setting the ampersand (&) character). Apply changes by clicking on the Apply button.
·	Hotkey Drop-Down List Use the drop-down list to select a hotkey. The drop-down list contains a list of possible hotkeys for the currently selected item's target text.
·	Apply Button Applies changes made to the target text in the Target field.
·	OK Button Saves the hotkey assignments for all items in the list box.

·	"Conflict" Column (List Box) Denotes conflicts with a red "X" symbol. The red "X" symbol indicates that a hotkey (a character) is used more than once within a group or a hotkey is missing in the target text.

See also:
Check Function "Hotkey Check for Menus and Dialog Boxes";

NOTE on Hotkeys

For all European and Middle Eastern languages, a "native" hotkey is assigned. For example, the "&File" menu is "&Datei" in German, "&Arquivo" in Brazilian, "&Arkiv" in Swedish, and "&Dosya" in Turkish.

For East Asian languages, the English hotkeys are kept and added to the translation. For example, the "&File" menu is "ファイル (&F)" in Japanese. This was done because there are so many different input layouts for each of these languages and the only thing you are sure of is that the user will have some access to ASCII key values of a – x.

The thing to remember is hotkeys were designed to make the user's life easier. If you choose a key that may not be accessible or that is hard to get to, you are defeating its whole purpose for being there.