Sticky or toggle alt key a problem.

This viewer as well as the latest beta have a fix for re-allowing the alt+WASD keys and that is that if you hit the alt key the menus become keyboard active.

This has some TERRIBLE random side effects. Much like the accidental shouting "bug", it is somewhat common to accidentally hit the alt key while typing, thus sending you on a wild adventure through the menus. Possibly setting up options you have no idead how to undo, teleporting home or in my case, TWICE IMing Help Request with random chat.

If you have noticed Odd random UI behavior, teleporting home for no reason or other random "flip-outs" of SL, this may be why.

There is a reason that this is not a common UI paradigm, it is used only for "Acessability" reasons because normally it causes problems.

This feature MUST be turned off by a switch or removed, just like the Shift+Enter to shout problem recently.

I agree, it is horrible. once the alt key stickiness happens, trying to say any word that starts with "wh" teleports me home.. with no confirmation...

Just horrible.

i've also im'd livehelp a couple times and ALMOST BOUGHT CURRENCY. scary! one thing i bug reported: if you tap alt which activates the context menus, the enter key will NOT open the chat bar and deactivate context focus (which i think would fix 90% of my problems in this case).

so the problem is that alt is actually taking focus and giving it to the context menus, whereas it should only be activating them with alt+letter keypresses, leaving the enter key free to open chat and keep chat input focus, unless i'm mistaken?

that said, i definately want to keep the ability to alt+camera, be it a toggle in preferences or whatever. i have no use for context menus at all. let us pick "alt does context menus" or "alt does camera" perhaps?

How about "alt-space" to focus on the menus, like in Windows?

Uh, I don't know what you're running, but just plain "alt" focuses on the menus on my copy of Windows XP....

Is there any way to distinguish between holding down the Alt key for its other features and quickly pressing the Alt key to access the menus?

Perhaps the menu could be activated by pressing both Alt keys at once.

Or sacrifice the F12 key for use as the activate menu key.

Or require pressing Alt F to activate the menus.

The F10 key is supposed to be a standard Windows keypress to activate the menu, although it doesn't in Opera, which is perhaps understandable, but also doesn't in Notepad, which is kind of odd since it's a MS program. F10 does activate the menu in Firefox.

In Windows, long before Windows XP or even 95, ALT-SPACE focuses on the window command menu. Then the left-right arrow keys move you between menus.

I avoid tapping alt in Windows because after 5 taps it goes into handicapped mode. Turning that off on my computer didn't help, because I was a network admin for 20 years and I used dozens of computers every day, so I got into the ALT-SPACE habit.

It's a less intrusive combo for sl as well, I think.

Does anyone actually use keyboard menu navigation?

I use accelerator keys, sure. But I've never seen anyone use the "type a letter to drop the menu, then type another letter to pick a command" -- in any software.

Can we just get rid of this "feature" altogether?

I just tried this with Internet Explorer 6. Didn't work. The arrow keys dont' move you along the menus. Works with notepad, though.

I think there's a bit of a problem trying to design an interface for use by people many of who are going to be high as kites trying to build something at the same time they are having cybersex in an IM window at 3:00 am Saturday.

Extra care needs to be given to prevent bad things from happening as a result of a single mis-pressed key.

People are already complaining about pressing the Alt key at the wrong time, so a solution that involves the Alt key might not be the best choice, especially not Alt and the key right next to it. Although surely it would be less likely to press both than just the Alt key.

I Did Not Know That (tm), but I Am Not Surprised (tm).

Microsoft broke all kinds of their own user interface guidelines in IE. They probably implement the IE menus using a different toolkit than the window menus (they're really bad about re-implementing the same interfaces over and over again) so they don't play together well.

Well, anyway, the thing is that alt-space has a *similar* function in Windows, and it's not used by SL AFAIK, so it may be available and be at least semi-reasonable.

Personally, I'd be happy if they made it control-alt-F4-delete. Since I can't imagine ever actually wanting to hit it.