Must Type Alt Key 2x vs. 1x to Activate RadMenu Starting w/ 2009Q3

[Tom Chien]

1. I just installed Telerik Q3 2009 WinForms (2009.3.9.1103) over Q2 2009 (2009.2.9.729) and it's now requiring you press the Alt Key twice before the RadMenu will activate.

2. I noticed your Q3 2009 Release Notes for RadMenu says "RadMenu can now be highlighted via system keys (alt and F10)".  It was already (in Q2 2009) allowing itself to be "highlighted" via the Alt key for me and I had nothing explicitly implemented (i.e. via any KeyDown Events) to make that happen.  Am I missing something?

Telerik WinForms 2009Q3 (2009.3.9.1103), VB, VS 2005 (v8.0.50727.762 SP.050727-7600), .Net 2.0 (2.0.50727), XP SP3, 3GB, 2.99GHZ, Core2Duo.

[Deyan]

Hello Tom,

Thanks for contacting us.

Unfortunately, I was not able to reproduce what you have described. What I did was:

1. Put a RadMenu control onto my Form and add some items and sub-items.
2. Ran the application and pressed the Alt key.
3. The first menu item is properly selected and I can open its drop-down by pressing the Enter key.

Could you please share some further details on your case? We will also appreciate it if you send us a simple Windows Forms application that we can use to reproduce and investigate the issue. You can send us the application in a new support ticket.

I look forward to receiving the details requested.

Sincerely yours,
Deyan
the Telerik team

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[Muthuprakash Srinivasan]

For me the underlines (shortcut keys) in the menu appears only when you press the Alt key, till then the underlines (shortcut keys) in the menu are missing. Why is this,  the underlines should be visible always. I am using the latest version.

[Deyan]

Hello Sathish,

Thanks for contacting us.

This is the default behavior of RadMenu. We have designed it in this way in order to be compatible with the standard MenuStrip (the one found in the standard Visual Studio Toolbox).

Could you please share some further details on why would you need the RadMenu to behave in this way. Thanks for the feedback.

Greetings,
Deyan
the Telerik team

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[Tom Chien]

Re. "the underlines (shortcut keys) in the menu appears only when you press the Alt key": You said you "designed it in this way in order to be compatible with the standard MenuStrip (the one found in the standard Visual Studio Toolbox". 

a. I use .Net's MenuStrip in several places in my App.  In no instance does it suppress display of the underline below the Shortcut Letter.
b. I cannot find any property that I set or could set (in MenuStrip or RadMenuStrip) to toggle display of the underline below the Shortcut Letter.
c. Microsoft Windows Explorer, Outlook, Visual Studio and SQL Server Management Studio (the latter 2 you programmers should be very familiar with) all do not suppress display of the underline below the Shortcut Letter.
d. The suppression of the underline below the Shortcut Letter should be (and for Microsoft Apps and .Net's MenuStrip is but not RadMenu) controlled by the "Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key" Checkbox under Windows, Start Menu, Control Panel, Display, (or Windows, Desktop, Right-Click, Display Properties), Appearance Tab, Effects.

[Deyan]

Hello Tom,

Indeed, this option is available in Windows before Vista. As of Vista, this option can only be adjusted by modifying the Windows registry, i.e. you can't adjust this behavior by simply using the UI. This means that the ordinary Windows user will not be able to modify it.

I think it is a good idea to add a property in RadMenu which explicitly defines whether the accelerator keys will be permanently shown or only when the Alt key is pressed.

We will appreciate any feedback on this topic that might help us decide which is the best way to implement this feature. Thanks for your time.

Greetings,

Deyan
the Telerik team

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[Tom Chien]

I suggest creating a UnderlineShortcutLetter (call it what you want) Property that has Yes, No and WindowsDefault (again call it what you want) values.

How about some points for this "feature request"?

[Boyko Markov]

Hello Tom Chien,

Thank you for your suggestion, Tom. We have updated your points.

We hope you are happy with this arrangement.

Best wishes,
Boyko Markov
the Telerik team

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[John Hughes]

Is there a way to set a property to determine whether the underlines show up or not?  I am running on XP and do NOT get the underlines for my accelerators until AFTER I press the Alt key.  I also want the underlines to be persistent, no matter what OS I am running on (XP, Vista, Win7, etc.).

Thanks,


John

[Deyan]

Hi John,

Thanks for contacting us and for your questions.

Currently you cannot instruct RadMenu to permanently show/hide mnemonic letters. However, we have this on our TODO list and we hope that we will be able to implement this functionality for one of our future releases.

Do not hesitate to write back anytime you have further questions or need assistance.

Kind regards,
Deyan
the Telerik team

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[Joe Lewis]

Hi:

I could not find anything related to the RadMenu accelerator underline in the Public Issue Tracking System. Was wondering if an option which would determine the underline handling of accelerator keys was ever added to the list of things to do?

It would be nice if Rad Menu adhered to the Windows Display applet option (Appearance Tabs -> Effects) "Hide underline for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key".

Thanks!
Joe Lewis
Tangent Systems, Inc.

[Nikolay]

Hello Joe,

Thank you for writing and please accept my apologies for the delayed response.

You can find the PITS item for the desired functionality here. We will consider implementing it in one of our next releases if more customers vote for it.

Currently, what you can do is permanently show the accelerator keys by setting the ShowKeyboardCues property of the TextPrimitives that display the text of the RadMenuItems:

public partial class Form1 : Form
   {
       public Form1()
       {
           InitializeComponent();
           for (int i = 0; i < this.radMenu1.Items.Count; i++)
           {
               ((TextPrimitive)this.radMenu1.Items[i].Children[2].Children[0].Children[1].Children[0]).ShowKeyboardCues = true;
               ((TextPrimitive)this.radMenu1.Items[i].Children[2].Children[0].Children[1].Children[0]).PropertyChanged += new PropertyChangedEventHandler(Form1_PropertyChanged);
           }
       }
       void Form1_PropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
       {
           TextPrimitive text = sender as TextPrimitive;
           if (e.PropertyName == "ShowKeyboardCues" && text.ShowKeyboardCues == false)
           {
               text.ShowKeyboardCues = true;
           }
       }
   }

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Nikolay
the Telerik team