Dynamic Runtime Menus don't show underlined shortcut characters

[Thomas_robertson]

The attached VI (edit of an NI example) inserts a File, Edit, Help menu with shorcut keys "_F, _E, _H".  The shortcut keys work, but, they do not show the underline on the letters until you use a shortcut key, and then they disappear after the menu closes.  That is different than how they behave if I used a static menu.  Is there something that can be done to get the underlines to always show?

[Thomas_robertson]

Sorry, it appears that there's a missing subvi link in that vi, however, you can delete the calls to that subvi without affecting the behavior of the vi.

[Thomas_robertson]

Here's the vi without the missing subvi

[ctriana]

Hi Thomas,

Thats the normal behavior of the shortcuts, usually if you open any program and press Alt that allowes you to see the underlined caracter of the shortcut. I already checked it with your VI and it works fine. If you want to check for that behavior, open Notepad and press Alt and it should work in the same way. Let me know if that is what you mean.

Regards.

[Thomas_robertson]

We appear to be seeing different behavior?

 see no underlined charectors before or after pressing Alt.  Only if I hit Alt+F do I see the File menu F underlined.  In notepad, nothing is underlined but if I hit "Alt" all of the shortcut charectors in all of the menus are underlined.  Meanwhile in a previous version of our software when we were using RTM files instead of dynamically generating menus, it always underlined the shortcut charectors for all menus regardless of whether Alt was pressed or a menu selected.

[MIG]

I just tried your VI in LabVIEW 12, Windows 7, and the underlined characters show up when I hit the Alt key.

But you're right, the menu behaviour did change at some point. At some time in the past the underlined characters were visible all the time, but now the underlining only becomes visible when you hit the Alt key. I'm not sure if this was due to a change in LabVIEW, or a change in the operating system when we switched from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Edit: I just tried one of my old LabVIEW 8.2.1 programs in Windows 7, and the underlining is visible all the time, so there must have been a change in LabVIEW at some point.

[Thomas_robertson]

It's interesting that you and I are seeing different behavior.  I'll have some of my co-workers take a look and see if they also see differences between machines.

[Thomas_robertson]

Oh weird, I see what you're saying, it's not a computer difference.  However, LabVIEW is not behaving like notepad.  In LabVIEW if I hold down the Alt key nothing happens.  If I release the Alt key, then the underlines characters appear.   In Notepad if you hold the Alt key, all shortcuts are immediately underlined. So our difference in experience is probably a difference in habit.  I always hold the alt key when looking for a shortcut key in a menu.

I guess then, my wish for NI would be to always show the shortcut keys, or, at a minimum, always show them when the Alt key is depressed or the menu is activated.