Hello !
There is one big BIG problem in current (and previous) version of Scrivener for Windows : the default key mapping is BAD. It is bad in english, and absolutly BAAAAAAD in french (and it seems in other languages like german). Lot of key combinations just do not work, at all ! It is not acceptable for a professionnal, selling program.
Sure, users can change key mapping. But it tedious, and is NOT professionnal at all.
(nota ; The change to Word or Openoffice like configurations does nothing.)
More key mapping problems :
- multiples combination (Ctrl+G, Ctrl+O for instance) are ugly, remind me Wordperfect for DOS ! Remove them ALL please.
- The program dont allow some combinations (Ctrl+Alt+Win+Shif+X
). Change programming module to allow all keyboard combinations, please.
- Change default combinations to match Windows standarts please. Microsoft gives sheets for “good windows program interface”, just use it. Please.
I really think Scrivenr will NOT appeal for foreign Windows users before these changes are made. For now, as it is, it will just repell users as they try the program.
(SOrry for my english 
)
While we’re considering how best to approach the issue of allowing full keyboard shortcut customisation for a future release, we do, as you note, have the ability already to create custom shortcuts for a number of menu items. Given how many different keyboard layouts there are, I’m not sure it’s possible even in a program with far fewer default shortcuts to create a single mapping that would work for all languages, and we don’t have the resources to create different sets for each language. (All our translation work is done by volunteers.)
While the combination shortcuts may be “ugly”, they’re necessary to have as many shortcuts as Scrivener does–you’ll see the same thing in other keyboard-heavy programs like Visual Studio. Microsoft guidelines recommend (strongly, with reason) avoiding Ctrl+Alt shortcuts, as this is usually interpreted as the AltGr key. We had in fact used it early on in Scrivener, but switched it out because it did pose a problem for various languages. Similarly, the Windows logo key is reserved for Microsoft use, so we can’t use it and still follow guidelines.
A number of the current shortcuts came over from the Mac version in the early days, partly to help keep shortcuts consistent for cross-platform users. Many of these of course are also standard on Windows, e.g. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+P, etc. Others changed to be more consistent with Windows over time, and they will probably again be refined in our next major release. It’s a bit of a balancing act, figuring out which shortcuts to put where, what makes the most sense in the context of Scrivener as well as in the broader context of the OS, while observing guidelines and technical limitations.
If you’re interested in putting together a suggestion list for the default shortcuts that would better suit a French keyboard layout, we may be able to include that as part of the translation files.