Talk:Access key/Archive 1

Typical Access keys
Is it worthwhile to mention typical values of access keys? The set below is based on widely used access keys:

1 Home page

2 Skip navigation (to main content)

3 Site map

4 Search

5 FAQs

6 Help

7 Complaints procedure

8 Terms and conditions

9 Feedback

0 Access key details/Accessibility statement

Mr Barndoor 14:30, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Narrow focus?
Surely access keys apply to all software - not just web browsers? --HappyDog 04:13, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
 * it specifically pertains to web applications so it's pretty much limited to web browsers —Preceding unsigned comment added by A plague of rainbows (talk • contribs) 19:12, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Seems a bit ironic to list the "standard" accesskeys when Wikipedia doesn't follow the standard. Darkimmortal (talk) 18:52, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Some issues here
I have a few problems with this article.


 * 1) The grammar is inconsistant and sometimes of low quality. I am doing a minor brush up which I hope will meet with approval.
 * 2) accesskeys are used to set focus on elements, not just links. You will see them commonly applied to form elements, for example. No mention is made of this.
 * 3) Are the examples of usage really necessary? Even as it stands the description is clear enough for anyone doing web development.
 * 4) Is wikipedia a technical reference? Should this even be in here? If it's here, do we need all of the "how to do it" detail? Can't a good tutorial simply be supplied in the external links?
 * 5) As someone else commented "access keys" are a subset of keyboard shortcuts in general and are not specific to web browsers. Should there even be a seperate article discussing the HTML "accesskey" attribute? There is no article devoted to the CSS voice-family property which is about as obscure and about as appropriate to a general purpose encyclopedia.
 * 6) Why is there a mention of underlining access keys in hyperlinks? This is just a convention some GUIs use to notate access keys and is often not used when access keys are found in web browsers. This is not description but instruction. I would replace this with a simple warning that browsers don't automatically notify the user of the value to which the accesskey is set.
 * 7) The description of the differing modifier keys on different browsers/platforms is not easy to follow.

I am not really a wikipedian so I don't know what ought to be done about this, other than just fixing it myself.

--Sorpigal (talk) 21:04, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Here's some revision I'm working on. What do people think?

In a web browser an access key or accesskey allows a computer user to immediately jump to a specific part of a web page via the keyboard. They were introduced in 1999 and quickly achieved near-universal browser support (including Internet Explorer 4, Netscape 6, Safari, Omniweb, and iCab).

To invoke an access key that has been bound on a web page the user must simultaneously press a modifier key and the access key. Each browser has some differences; for example in Mozilla Firefox any hyperlink assigned an access key will immediately follow the link when the access key is pressed, whereas in Internet Explorer the user must additionally press. Modifier key differences are summarized below.

''Browser differences

--Sorpigal (talk) 21:56, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

FireFox 3.0 note does not seem correct
I'm using FireFox 3.0.3 currently, and the note which says FF 3 only focuses (but requires an additional "Enter") does not appear to always be correct. Alt + Shift + Z for example will shoot me right to Main_Page in some MediaWikis, but just highlight the logo in others (such as Wikipedia). Can anyone give a source for 3.0 requiring an enter or not? -SColombo (talk) 12:30, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Firefox 3 only requires Enter when there are several items with the same accesskey, only in this case it behaves like IE (Alt-Shift-accesskey cycles between these items, Enter activates). Both this link and my quick testing confirm this. So this section has to be rewritten. —AlexSm 17:56, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Underline/empasis
While the mention in the article about indicating which key is an access key by may be unnecessary or badly written, changing the wording from "Underline" with a u tag to "Emphasis" to an em tag is entirely inappropriate. Access keys in Windows and other popular platforms use an underline to indicate access keys. This is often duplicated in web pages. I have rarely seen simple "emphasis" --which generally amounts to bolding--used for this purpose. I think this is a case of someone attempting to make things more 'general' and inadvertently, through ignorance of the subject, doing a disservice by degrading the factual accuracy. Dispute me if you disagree. --Sorpigal (talk) 21:38, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

tag
One convention is for the page author to show the access key value by using the  tag to underline the a letter in the link's text corresponding to the accesskey assigned. Not that it is that important but really people should be using  tags now not    —Preceding unsigned comment added by Inputdata (talk • contribs) 17:07, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

access keys on macs
I've just found through trial... access keys on Macs for FireFox is CTRL+number/letter (92.10.31.143 (talk) 13:56, 11 September 2009 (UTC))

Mac key conflicts
Generally mac access keys are enabled as control+key, however this conflicts with and overrides the built-in text entry control commands (emacs style), making most text entry on forms terribly awkward. It's like having a webpage override your home/end/del/arrowkeys with random actions. Might be nice to add a blurb indicating that access keys are a bad idea on any page with a form (even a searchbox) until mac browsers fix this problem. Control keys should never be rebound. 76.88.99.93 (talk) 22:35, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Hm! This is now somewhat configurable for firefox, see: 76.88.99.93 (talk) 22:20, 11 October 2009 (UTC)