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QPushButton in QMessageBox missing key shortcut underline on initial display

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  • M Offline
    M Offline
    mrjj
    Lifetime Qt Champion
    wrote on 9 Mar 2016, 12:33 last edited by mrjj 3 Sept 2016, 12:33
    #4

    it is.
    found setting.

    This settings seems to be controlled via
    Open Control Panel / Ease of Access Center / Make the Keyboard easier to use.
    Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys.

    H 1 Reply Last reply 9 Mar 2016, 12:54
    1
    • M mrjj
      9 Mar 2016, 12:33

      it is.
      found setting.

      This settings seems to be controlled via
      Open Control Panel / Ease of Access Center / Make the Keyboard easier to use.
      Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys.

      H Offline
      H Offline
      Harry123
      wrote on 9 Mar 2016, 12:54 last edited by
      #5

      @mrjj

      You are right that this setting forces the initial display of the underlines in QMessageBox buttons.
      However, for most programs underlines are displayed with or without this setting.

      Without this setting, I have tried out several program of mine that display dialogs, and find that some display underlines and some don't.

      Weirder and weirder.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • M Offline
        M Offline
        mrjj
        Lifetime Qt Champion
        wrote on 9 Mar 2016, 13:05 last edited by
        #6

        well My word 2010 did change for fileopen dialog.
        Also my notepad++.

        But there must be a way to show always in windows API as
        some of my programs always show it. Even same buttons.

        http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14054036/show-hotkeys-at-all-times
        here they use sendmessage to turn it on. Should also be possible in
        Qt if no Qt way exists.

        H 1 Reply Last reply 9 Mar 2016, 14:12
        0
        • M mrjj
          9 Mar 2016, 13:05

          well My word 2010 did change for fileopen dialog.
          Also my notepad++.

          But there must be a way to show always in windows API as
          some of my programs always show it. Even same buttons.

          http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14054036/show-hotkeys-at-all-times
          here they use sendmessage to turn it on. Should also be possible in
          Qt if no Qt way exists.

          H Offline
          H Offline
          Harry123
          wrote on 9 Mar 2016, 14:12 last edited by
          #7

          @mrjj

          Yes, my thought exactly.

          My code now works and displays the underlines.
          It looks like this :

          QKeyEvent event(QEvent::KeyPress, Qt::Key_Alt, Qt::NoModifier);
          QApplication::sendEvent(msgBox, &event);
          msgBox->exec();
          
          

          However, I would prefer a solution which is less of a kludge, if anyone has a better idea.

          1 Reply Last reply
          2
          • H Harry123
            9 Mar 2016, 12:06

            I'm under Windows, and I add several QPushButtons to a QMessageBox. A shortcut key is specified by an ampersand before the preferred character in each text.

            When the message box is initially displayed, the shortcut keys of all buttons are not marked by an underline, but :

            1. The button does execute if I type the shortcut key in spite of the missing underline.
            2. If I press the Alt key, the shortcut underline appears on all buttons and stays displayed after I release the Alt key.

            This lack of an initial visual cue may cause the end-user to assume that shortcuts were not provided.

            Is there something I should do to force the display of the shortcut underlines when the message box is initially displayed ?

            H Offline
            H Offline
            Harry123
            wrote on 9 Mar 2016, 15:41 last edited by Harry123 3 Oct 2016, 15:44
            #8

            This is definitely a Qt design decision to by default paint buttons without shortcut underlines.

            I have searched in the sources and found that QWindowsStyle::eventFilter() in qwindowsstyle.cpp does check for Qt::Key_Alt and then repaints all children, all this after calling an internal function named seenAlt().

            As it skips all QWidgets having the styleHint of QStyle::SH_UnderlineShortcut, it seems like this is what is missing from my QPushButtons.

            How do I add this styleHint to my buttons when creating them ?

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • M Offline
              M Offline
              mrjj
              Lifetime Qt Champion
              wrote on 9 Mar 2016, 20:37 last edited by
              #9

              @Harry123 said:
              aha. that is good digging around.
              QStyle::SH_UnderlineShortcut seems to belong to the style used by the application.

              Im really not sure how to set for a buttons as such. Normally you use a QStyle
              in paintEvent for a custom button/widget.

              I guess one would have to provide a custom QStyle that somehow altered
              this setting.
              http://doc.qt.io/qt-5.5/qapplication.html#setStyle

              K 1 Reply Last reply 9 Mar 2016, 22:52
              0
              • M mrjj
                9 Mar 2016, 20:37

                @Harry123 said:
                aha. that is good digging around.
                QStyle::SH_UnderlineShortcut seems to belong to the style used by the application.

                Im really not sure how to set for a buttons as such. Normally you use a QStyle
                in paintEvent for a custom button/widget.

                I guess one would have to provide a custom QStyle that somehow altered
                this setting.
                http://doc.qt.io/qt-5.5/qapplication.html#setStyle

                K Offline
                K Offline
                kshegunov
                Moderators
                wrote on 9 Mar 2016, 22:52 last edited by
                #10

                @Harry123
                Try the qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonic function.

                Kind regards.

                Read and abide by the Qt Code of Conduct

                H 1 Reply Last reply 10 Mar 2016, 11:57
                1
                • K kshegunov
                  9 Mar 2016, 22:52

                  @Harry123
                  Try the qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonic function.

                  Kind regards.

                  H Offline
                  H Offline
                  Harry123
                  wrote on 10 Mar 2016, 11:57 last edited by
                  #11

                  @kshegunov

                  qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonic is not found by the linker.
                  In which library is it supposed to be ?
                  I have both Qt5Gui and Qt5Core in the link.

                  K 1 Reply Last reply 10 Mar 2016, 12:22
                  0
                  • H Harry123
                    10 Mar 2016, 11:57

                    @kshegunov

                    qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonic is not found by the linker.
                    In which library is it supposed to be ?
                    I have both Qt5Gui and Qt5Core in the link.

                    K Offline
                    K Offline
                    kshegunov
                    Moderators
                    wrote on 10 Mar 2016, 12:22 last edited by kshegunov 3 Oct 2016, 13:10
                    #12

                    @Harry123
                    My guess would be in the gui module, but I have never used it so I'm not 100% sure. I checked and on my 5.6 build I found it in libQt5Gui.so:

                    0000000000138d02 T _Z29qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonicb
                    

                    So, the answer is: it is located in the gui module.

                    Read and abide by the Qt Code of Conduct

                    H 1 Reply Last reply 10 Mar 2016, 13:23
                    0
                    • K kshegunov
                      10 Mar 2016, 12:22

                      @Harry123
                      My guess would be in the gui module, but I have never used it so I'm not 100% sure. I checked and on my 5.6 build I found it in libQt5Gui.so:

                      0000000000138d02 T _Z29qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonicb
                      

                      So, the answer is: it is located in the gui module.

                      H Offline
                      H Offline
                      Harry123
                      wrote on 10 Mar 2016, 13:23 last edited by
                      #13

                      @kshegunov

                      Unfortunately it seems to be missing from the Windows build.

                      K 1 Reply Last reply 10 Mar 2016, 14:44
                      0
                      • H Harry123
                        10 Mar 2016, 13:23

                        @kshegunov

                        Unfortunately it seems to be missing from the Windows build.

                        K Offline
                        K Offline
                        kshegunov
                        Moderators
                        wrote on 10 Mar 2016, 14:44 last edited by
                        #14

                        @Harry123
                        Your claim seemed somewhat dubious, so even if I don't actively develop on windows I've loaded the gui module and searched through it with the dependency walker. The symbol is there (Qt 5.5.1 installed with Qt maintenance tool), see the screenshot, and it is exported.
                        qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonic
                        I don't know what error exactly you're getting but you should be able to use the function if declared properly (as mentioned in the documentation I sourced in my previous post).

                        Read and abide by the Qt Code of Conduct

                        H 1 Reply Last reply 10 Mar 2016, 15:00
                        0
                        • K kshegunov
                          10 Mar 2016, 14:44

                          @Harry123
                          Your claim seemed somewhat dubious, so even if I don't actively develop on windows I've loaded the gui module and searched through it with the dependency walker. The symbol is there (Qt 5.5.1 installed with Qt maintenance tool), see the screenshot, and it is exported.
                          qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonic
                          I don't know what error exactly you're getting but you should be able to use the function if declared properly (as mentioned in the documentation I sourced in my previous post).

                          H Offline
                          H Offline
                          Harry123
                          wrote on 10 Mar 2016, 15:00 last edited by
                          #15

                          @kshegunov

                          Sorry, my claim was more than dubious - unfortunately I put the call in a section of extern "C".
                          Stupid mistake, but this is a complicated body of code.

                          Results: calling qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonic with the parameters of either true or false did not restore the underlines.

                          K 1 Reply Last reply 10 Mar 2016, 15:07
                          0
                          • H Harry123
                            10 Mar 2016, 15:00

                            @kshegunov

                            Sorry, my claim was more than dubious - unfortunately I put the call in a section of extern "C".
                            Stupid mistake, but this is a complicated body of code.

                            Results: calling qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonic with the parameters of either true or false did not restore the underlines.

                            K Offline
                            K Offline
                            kshegunov
                            Moderators
                            wrote on 10 Mar 2016, 15:07 last edited by
                            #16

                            @Harry123

                            Results: calling qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonic with the parameters of either true or false did not restore the underlines.

                            That's unfortunate. Another thing you could try is to set a global proxy style for your application and manually force the QStyle::SH_UnderlineShortcut flag.

                            Kind regards.

                            Read and abide by the Qt Code of Conduct

                            H 1 Reply Last reply 10 Mar 2016, 15:26
                            1
                            • K kshegunov
                              10 Mar 2016, 15:07

                              @Harry123

                              Results: calling qt_set_sequence_auto_mnemonic with the parameters of either true or false did not restore the underlines.

                              That's unfortunate. Another thing you could try is to set a global proxy style for your application and manually force the QStyle::SH_UnderlineShortcut flag.

                              Kind regards.

                              H Offline
                              H Offline
                              Harry123
                              wrote on 10 Mar 2016, 15:26 last edited by Harry123 3 Oct 2016, 15:45
                              #17

                              @kshegunov

                              This works. I modified the example in the link with :

                                  if (hint == QStyle::SH_UnderlineShortcut)
                                      return 1;
                              

                              I now have underlines. Much better than faking an Alt key and it works for all future dialogs.

                              Very many thanks.

                              K 1 Reply Last reply 10 Mar 2016, 17:16
                              0
                              • H Harry123
                                10 Mar 2016, 15:26

                                @kshegunov

                                This works. I modified the example in the link with :

                                    if (hint == QStyle::SH_UnderlineShortcut)
                                        return 1;
                                

                                I now have underlines. Much better than faking an Alt key and it works for all future dialogs.

                                Very many thanks.

                                K Offline
                                K Offline
                                kshegunov
                                Moderators
                                wrote on 10 Mar 2016, 17:16 last edited by
                                #18

                                @Harry123

                                faking an Alt key

                                Well, this could also have unforeseeable side effects as well (if for example some widget has a shortcut bound to that key), so it's a bit hackish.

                                Very many thanks.

                                You're most welcome.

                                Read and abide by the Qt Code of Conduct

                                H 1 Reply Last reply 10 Mar 2016, 20:01
                                0
                                • K kshegunov
                                  10 Mar 2016, 17:16

                                  @Harry123

                                  faking an Alt key

                                  Well, this could also have unforeseeable side effects as well (if for example some widget has a shortcut bound to that key), so it's a bit hackish.

                                  Very many thanks.

                                  You're most welcome.

                                  H Offline
                                  H Offline
                                  Harry123
                                  wrote on 10 Mar 2016, 20:01 last edited by Harry123 3 Oct 2016, 20:02
                                  #19

                                  @kshegunov

                                  The only question that is left, is why isn't QStyle::SH_UnderlineShortcut the default .

                                  K 1 Reply Last reply 10 Mar 2016, 20:53
                                  0
                                  • H Harry123
                                    10 Mar 2016, 20:01

                                    @kshegunov

                                    The only question that is left, is why isn't QStyle::SH_UnderlineShortcut the default .

                                    K Offline
                                    K Offline
                                    kshegunov
                                    Moderators
                                    wrote on 10 Mar 2016, 20:53 last edited by
                                    #20

                                    @Harry123
                                    I'd say the default is determined by the OS settings, and Qt simply wouldn't presume to override it. That'd explain why when you change the settings systemwide the behavior changes accordingly.

                                    Read and abide by the Qt Code of Conduct

                                    H 1 Reply Last reply 11 Mar 2016, 09:19
                                    0
                                    • K kshegunov
                                      10 Mar 2016, 20:53

                                      @Harry123
                                      I'd say the default is determined by the OS settings, and Qt simply wouldn't presume to override it. That'd explain why when you change the settings systemwide the behavior changes accordingly.

                                      H Offline
                                      H Offline
                                      Harry123
                                      wrote on 11 Mar 2016, 09:19 last edited by Harry123 3 Nov 2016, 09:27
                                      #21

                                      @kshegunov

                                      I don't think this is a system default, since Qt paints its buttons itself and does not use native widgets.
                                      I say this because if I look into a Qt dialog using Spy++, it has no children, so no native objects.
                                      The reason for this design decision is probably that there was no other way to assure identical functionality across all platforms.

                                      Therefore this is a Qt default which in my opinion is badly chosen, since the Windows default is just the opposite - to always underline button shortcuts in dialogs.

                                      K 1 Reply Last reply 11 Mar 2016, 10:30
                                      0
                                      • M Offline
                                        M Offline
                                        mrjj
                                        Lifetime Qt Champion
                                        wrote on 11 Mar 2016, 09:46 last edited by
                                        #22

                                        my windows 7 do not have underscore as default.
                                        only when i press alt.
                                        That goes for buttons and menus.
                                        Except some common file open dialog it seems :)

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • H Harry123
                                          11 Mar 2016, 09:19

                                          @kshegunov

                                          I don't think this is a system default, since Qt paints its buttons itself and does not use native widgets.
                                          I say this because if I look into a Qt dialog using Spy++, it has no children, so no native objects.
                                          The reason for this design decision is probably that there was no other way to assure identical functionality across all platforms.

                                          Therefore this is a Qt default which in my opinion is badly chosen, since the Windows default is just the opposite - to always underline button shortcuts in dialogs.

                                          K Offline
                                          K Offline
                                          kshegunov
                                          Moderators
                                          wrote on 11 Mar 2016, 10:30 last edited by kshegunov 3 Nov 2016, 10:33
                                          #23

                                          @Harry123

                                          I don't think this is a system default, since Qt paints its buttons itself and does not use native widgets.

                                          Which wouldn't stop it to honor the default system behavior, would it?

                                          As @mrjj noted:

                                          my windows 7 do not have underscore as default.

                                          Which had been my experience as well.

                                          The reason for this design decision is probably that there was no other way to assure identical functionality across all platforms.

                                          This design decision, if memory serves me, happened some time when Qt 4 was developed (which should be about 10 years ago) and it was mostly done because using native handles is costly as hell, and UIs tend to just eat up resources if you have a handle for each tiny thing. And it's been working just fine, if I may add.

                                          Kind regards.

                                          Read and abide by the Qt Code of Conduct

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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