Detecting ALTGR fails when ALTGR isn't there (Just Czech-ed out in Word 2007)

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2007/11/16 10:16 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2007/11/16/6291947.aspx

Some prior posts on this topic:

  • 28 Dec 2004 "To start press the ALTGR key." Hmm... where's the ALTGR key?
  • 21 Apr 2005 Intuitive is in the eye of the beholder  
  • 15 Mar 2006 Multilingual keyboards and Microsoft Word 
  • 17 Apr 2006 Get off my freaking key!
  • 08 Sep 2007 Detecting ALTGR can only hope to work when ALTGR is in fact there....

    • Now in that last post I talked about my MacBook Pro, what has managed to become (among other things) my favorite Vista machine.

    I even have Office 2007 installed on it:

    Now let's take a look at the Czech keyboard, in the base, shift, and AltGr states:

    Of course we are going to focus on that AltGr shift state -- and we'll look at that bottom row:

    If you test it on Notepad, everything works as you expect when you type the keystrokes sequentially, using CTRL+ALT since there is no ALTGR on this keyboard:

    When you go to look at Word 2007

    and type those same keystrokes, the results are not the same:

    Essentially, CTRL+ALT+X works, and so does CTRL+ALT+B.

    However, the other three keys re swallowed up by Word 2007, as follows:

    I could not find the place for disabling the helpful shortcuts, though the fact that the two unassigned keystrokes work gives me some hope that it is possible to make the keyboard work properly (in prior versions some of them don't ever seem to work correctly?).

    So if I ever get around to finishing that add-in (or convincing someone over there to do it!) then everything should work properly.

    In the meantime, this seems like a fairly compelling scenario to me....

     

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    # Zooba on 16 Nov 2007 7:06 PM:

    If you click on the Office Button (the big ball in the corner) and choose Options and Customize, there's a little button near the bottom "Keyboard Shortcuts: Customize...".

    If you go straight to the "Press new shortcut key" textbox and press (for example) Ctrl+Alt+N, you will see that it is assigned to ViewNormal. Choose "All Commands" from the left-hand list and type "ViewNormal" into the right hand list and you can remove the shortcut key for that command.

    Rinse and repeat. :)

    # Michael S. Kaplan on 16 Nov 2007 10:00 PM:

    I am happy to report that if you remove the entries, the keyboard works properly!

    I think I may have to finish that Word add-in after all. :-)

    # MSDNArchive on 17 Nov 2007 10:28 PM:

    Michael, try the sequence after changing the language of the document (there is a shortcut available in Word's status bar). It works for me:)

    # Michael S. Kaplan on 17 Nov 2007 11:02 PM:

    Does not seem to help here after I reset all of the keyboard shortcuts. Maybe there are additional steps?

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    referenced by

    2012/04/26 Michael's Keyboard Laws for Developers, Part 5

    2008/01/17 Virtual PC + Word 2007 ≠ AltGr support?

    2007/11/28 There is more to being an OEM for Windows than having the coolest hardware

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