Keyboard Shortcuts request

[David Kudler]

This is a very niche request for the devs, but... Could we not use the Alt/Option key as a default shortcut trigger without other keys?

I work on a lot of books that use diacritical marks. On the Macs I mostly use, these are accessed by using the Option key in combination with other keys. So, for example, to get a nice macron (straight line) over a letter, you press Option-A, then the letter you want the macron over, so it turns out like this: ā

(I'm using the US Extended keyboard, if anyone cares.)

Sadly, however, in recent versions of Sigil, that key combo (Alt/Option-A) triggers a global search and replace! Not what I was looking for at all.

The same happens when I use Option-C to get myself a cedilla (eg, ç — I get a search count), Option-L to get a through-stroke (eg, ł — everything selected is converted to lowercase), Option-Q to create the O-E diphthong (œ — I get spellcheck) or Option-U to get a trema/umlaut (eg ü — everything selected is turned uppercase).

I changed the shortcuts in the preferences for myself — but can I prevail on anyone out there to eschew making plain Alt+Letter combos default shortcuts?

I love Sigil. I use it every day. I have nothing but love and respect for the devs that have kept this wonderful piece of software growing and improving. But this? This I would love to change.

[KevinH]

Go to the Sigil Preferences and change the Settings in the KeyBoard Shortcuts. Remove the ones that you use for key generation.

As you play with changing or reassigning these Shortcuts, note that the Apple key modifier generates a Ctrl key modifier on macs inside Sigil and visa versa - true for all Qt based apps. This is so Apple-c will generate Ctrl-c so that simple copy and paste standard shortcuts works identically on all platforms.

[KevinH]

Once changed, these settings will be used forever, even after upgrades. So no real reason to eschew anything. Just set it the way you want and forget it.