Accelerator table
An accelerator table in a computer software application allows the application to specify a table of keyboard shortcuts for menus or other commands. For example, CTRL+S is often used as a shortcut to the FILE SAVE menu item in the FILE menu, CTRL+O is a common shortcut FILE OPEN menu item, etc. An accelerator takes precedence over normal processing and can be a convenient way to program some event handling.
Accelerators are usually located in the resource section of the binary.
Accelerators and Menus
The function an accelerator maps to is a control ID. The same kind of ID which is assigned to buttons, combo boxes, list boxes, and also menu items. In this way it is possible to make different, but functionally similar, GUI objects represent the same function.
Since using the menus, and subsequently the mouse, is not always the best solution, it is important to provide users with the possibility to minimize usage of the mouse. For this reason showing the accelerators in menus can be useful; it informs the user that there are shortcuts, and that using the mouse is not always mandatory.
See also
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