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One of the things I really hate on Windows (and Microsoft software in general) is that the keyboard shortcuts are localized therefore are different from 90% of the apps that I use on a daily basis.

Two examples of this (EN-US vs PT-PT):
- "Save" is "Gravar" while "Underline" is "Sublinhar". This means that whenever I press Ctrl + S to save a doc in MS Word I underline a word instead of saving the bloody document.
- "All" is "Tudo" so when I want to select all the itens on a folder in the File Explorer I have to press Ctrl + T, the same shortcut I press in pretty much every single tabbed app to open a new tab.

This is terrible for the user experience because different languages provide different keyboard shortcuts to the user which goes against the concept of the usefulness of a keyboard shortcut: perform an action from anywhere without having to know its menu or menu description.

Comments
  • 0
    Yes, I second this rant!
  • 0
    And i hate how you're usually unable to use ctrl + backspace and i believe ctrl+left/right as well...
  • 1
    You know what also sucks: us international keyboard. It's horrible for coding because it's holds back ' and " to help you writing accented letters: é è ë ç etc. In windows 10 switching between keyboards is easy and straightforward. Alt space, and it displays in screen in all earlier versions of windows it just happens to be mapped to ctrl shift or alt shift, a combination you make hundreds of times during the day....
  • 0
    Aren't all OSes like that?
    I've used Ubuntu and believe pretty much all distros follow the same convention. 😕
  • 0
    @sntshkmr60 I don't know about Linux distros but in macOS - the OS I used on a daily basis before switching back to Windows - the keyboard shortcuts are the same across different languages. "Close Windows" is always Cmd + W and "Select All" is always Cmd + A, no matter the display language you are using.
  • 0
    @cankarales Those shortcuts seem to work just fine (I tried on MS Word and on the Run window)
  • 0
    @Charmgoggles Actually I've never tried an US keyboard and I've never seen an International one, so I can't give my opinion on it. I only use PT-PT keyboards and those have dedicated keys for such symbols. But yes, the Windows + Space shortcut to change the keyboard layout is really bad, specially since in Windows 10 you CAN'T uninstall keyboard languages. In Windows 7, I had PT-PT and EN-US installed but only the PT-PT keyboard enabled. In Windows 10, I have to have both keyboards enabled.

    TIP: go to the Languages settings on Settings and make your layout the default one for all the languages you have installed on you system. That way whenever you press the key combination by mistake you keyboard still behaves like expected.
  • 0
    @milkbytes Shortcuts are not affected by display language I guess. Its keyboard layout that effects. Maybe? :/
  • 1
    @sntshkmr60 On macOS, changing either the keyboard layout or the display language don't change the global shortcuts. They remain the same.

    On Windows, it seems that it's just the display language that affects it. If I change mine to EN-US, the File Explorer shortcut to "Select All" goes back to Ctrl + A, even with the PT-PT keyboard.
  • 0
    I had the same problem. Solved by installing windows in english and adding the pt keyboard.
  • 0
    @Shadow117 But you kept it in EN-US or you then installed the language pack for PT-PT and changed the language?
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