P: Alt key shorcut, menu activating and beeping

What is this? I am not sure how this should work.

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And could you do it like chinese plugin can do that? Or is this in conflict with government compliance? Chinese plugin is waiting for second letter before menu activating. And this souldn't be problem since you can't create custom shortcut with only "Alt" key modificator. 

Howdy Christopher,

Thanks for the concise summary.  Yes, I am able to reproduce what you're seeing.  The BEEP is annoying, but my functionality isn't impacted.  I can activate both the Direct Selection and Shape tools, no problem.

So, here's the thing.  Having ALT activate accelerator keys is actually a requirement for selling software to ANY US government agency (508 compliance).  I believe other jurisdictions have similar accessibility requirements as well (this is also why we shy away from a number of other UI choices).  This means removing the ALT functionality entirely or even disabling it by default is a non-starter.  Disabling it via user-option is a possibility, but I've a feeling it'll be quite a bit of work.  That said, I will put in a request to have someone look at this; perhaps there is an easy solution, though I have a gut-feeling it'll be a beast.

Maybe I use the product differently, but I haven't ever had this bother me.  If I ever see the accelerators activate, I just press ALT again and they go away.  Perhaps this can help you as a stop-gap until we can get this issue resolved.

Thanks,
David

@Michael Orts
@Jeffrey Tranberry


Here is how to reproduce the issue in a Windows Environment: 
1. Press the [Alt] key
2. Press [A] (or [U] to switch to the Path/Direct Selection or Shape tool.

What is happening is: when the user presses the [Alt] key and uses the scroll-wheel to zoom, the main window menus are highlighted.  ( As mentioned in a post earlier, this is a standard Windows Interface command that goes way back to version 3.11.)  See the attached images of the menu before and after the [Alt] key is pressed.  When the menus are highlighted by using the [Alt] key, subsequent presses of letters associated with a menu command become selected.  If there is no associated letter--such as with "A" or "U"--a 'beep' occurs.

  You may try this example that many people use: "[Alt], [F], [O] ", which will highlight the menus, select the File menu, then bring up the Open dialog--respectively.

This should provide Adobe with a solid reproducible base to start with.  Hopefully this will be fixed in the next release or patch.  I am sure there are plenty of creative coding work-arounds. 

Best Regards,

Christopher
UX & Product Designer

The issue is the Alt key activating the Menu in Photoshop.  This often interferes with regularly used Photoshop shortcuts.  To reproduce easily and as an example, open Photoshop in Window's and press the Alt key once.  You'll see the menu items up top activate (shown by underline).  Press the space bar and you'll get the beeping.  This also interferes with many other shortcuts in Photoshop.

Pressing Alt is a Windows thing and I haven't yet found a way to turn this functionality off.

Edit: I should note that I was a Mac OS user for 15+ yrs and switched to Windows just over a year ago.  That might explain why I haven't used the Menu shortcuts in Windows.

"How about the option to deactivate the Menu activation altogether?  Does anyone actually use it in Photoshop?"

I do, and very heavily. As I said before, it's standard Windows user experience and can be very powerful.

Yup the menu activation and beeping drives me insane.  Makes using the Photoshop shortcuts incredibly annoying.  I retouch for a living so I'm dealing with this daily.  Hate it and a fix would be good.  How about the option to deactivate the Menu activation altogether?  Does anyone actually use it in Photoshop?

But this plugin was sometimes a bit buggy. In this case I need restart plugin. But it's relative rare.

you are right... Photoshop with plugin is waiting for second key e.g."alt+f". Alt key itself without second key does nothing.

as i sad before.... that chinese plugin PS assistant handle this behavior.... alt stopped beeping and header menu was still accesible through alt shortcuts, so its possible to make it like that 🙂