Numbers, characters and special characters
As these keys usually produce output, only two modifiers can be taken into consideration when it comes to the question of assigning handy intuitive functions. The only exception to this rule are – theoretically – key bindings in Draw, but as it is not possible to assign functions to plain keys, this is a matter of future improvements to OpenOffice.org.
Another difficulty lies in the fact, that – depending on the keyboard layout – we cannot assign every possible Ctrl+Shift+<number> combination to a function, as they are identical to other Ctrl+<special character> combinations. I tried to incorporate this into the suggestions, but there might be keyboard layouts where the suggested assignments collide and would produce double assignments.
Characters (Ctrl+<character>)
There are standard key bindings, which are widely used over most of the applications available, and proprietary key bindings.
Standard key bindings
Due to the existing standards in computer use – having its origin the SAA conventions, as far as I remember – some shortcuts are standardized and not negotiatable (in lexicographical order):
| Shortcut | Function |
| Ctrl+A | Select all |
| Ctrl+C | Copy |
| Ctrl+F | Find |
| Ctrl+N | New |
| Ctrl+O | Open |
| Ctrl+P | |
| Ctrl+Q | Quit |
| Ctrl+S | Save |
| Ctrl+V | Paste |
| Ctrl+W | Close |
| Ctrl+X | Cut |
| Ctrl+Y | Redo |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo |
OpenOffice.org 2.0 does implement almost all of those standard functions, except the functionality of Ctrl+Y which is simply assigned to "undo undo" and not to "redo" as well – but this obviously lies in the separation into two different commands.
Ctrl+H typically invokes "search and replace" in some well known office suites, in OpenOffice.org the search and replace feature is integrated in the search function, which means, that this shortcut has to be assigned in addition or is to be left out.
Suggested standard key bindings
I would like to propose some additional standard key bindings, which I found very useful:
| Shortcut | Function |
| Ctrl+E | Indent |
| Ctrl+G | Group |
| Ctrl+H | Hyperlink |
| Ctrl+L | Last used files |
"Big" Characters (Ctrl+Shift<character>)
Standard key bindings
There are some convenient key bindings typically assigned to Ctrl+Shift shortcuts, most of them deal with formatting issues, which is a useful abstraction for this group of functions. There is unfortunately a little problem with the internationalization of the user interface. "Bold", for example, is in German "fett" and the according icon also displays as "F". This makes it impossible to find a sophisticated solution. But anyway: Let's give it a try and stick to the original terms in order to memorize the shortcuts easily:
Suggested standard key bindings
Please note carefuly that there is not key binding for "underline", as this is a typographical desaster which has been unfortunately implemented. Good typo is always done without underlining – thus we should not promote this feature. Or take it the other way around: If someone has no clue of what good typo is about, he will certainly use the mouse and so it is convenient enough to show a button in the toolbar with this useless functionality.
| Shortcut | Function |
| Ctrl+Shift+B | Bold |
| Ctrl+Shift+I | Italic |
| Ctrl+Shift+L | Left |
| Ctrl+Shift+C | Center |
| Ctrl+Shift+R | Right |
| Ctrl+Shift+J | Justified |
| Ctrl+Shift+U | Up / Top |
| Ctrl+Shift+M | Middle |
| Ctrl+Shift+D | Down / Bottom |
Another aspect of the Ctrl+Shift modifier is to provide a similar function to the simple key binding, which uses the Ctrl modifier. Therefore I would suggest further key bindings, which are related to the above mentioned standard key bindings. Not necessary / facultative key bindings are set in italics:
| Shortcut | Function |
| Ctrl+Shift+A | Select all pages |
| Ctrl+Shift+N | New from template |
| Ctrl+Shift+P | PDF export |
| Ctrl+Shift+S | Save as |
| Ctrl+Shift+V | Paste special |
And finally we have to complete the "suggested standard key bindings" of the previous section:
| Shortcut | Function |
| Ctrl+Shift+E | Unindent |
| Ctrl+Shift+G | Ungroup |
Summary
Regarding the above mentioned suggestions for assignments, this would result in the following
| Key | Ctrl+Key | Ctrl+Shift+Key |
| A | Select all | Select all pages |
| B | Bold | |
| C | Copy | Centered |
| D | Down | |
| E | Indent | Unindent |
| F | Search and replace | |
| G | Group | Ungroup |
| H | Hyperlink | |
| I | Italic | |
| J | Justified | |
| K | ||
| L | Last used files | Left |
| M | Middle | |
| N | New | New from template |
| O | Open | |
| P | PDF export | |
| Q | Quit | |
| R | Right | |
| S | Save | Save as |
| T | ||
| U | Up | |
| V | Paste | Paste special |
| W | Close | |
| X | Cut | |
| Y | Redo | |
| Z | Undo |
Numbers
Shortcuts are only useful if they provide a functionality which somehow can be derived from the underlying key. For this reason the number shortcuts can only partially be generalized, as numbers have different weight in the several modules, but I will try again to find some common sense.
Control + <number>
In a well known spreadsheet application Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2 and Ctrl+3 are assigned to "Format Dialog", "bold" and "italics". Due to compatibility reasons it might be a nice idea to stick to these assignments, although other OpenOffice.org objects have different requirements.
In text processing, Ctrl+<number> are often used to assign the spacing in a document (1, 1.5, 2 lines spacing). In OpenOffice.org 2.0 these shortcuts assign the Heading format. I think that is a good common sense and would like to keep it this way.
| Shortcut | Ctrl | Ctrl+Shift |
| 0 | Format Standard | Reset Format |
| 1 | – | Spacing 1 line |
| 2 | – | Spacing 2 lines |
| 3 | – | Spacing 1.5 lines |
| 4 | – | Number format currency |
| 5 | – | Number format percent |
| 6 | – | – |
| 7 | – | – |
| 8 | – | – |
| 9 | – | – |
Special characters
In respect to the different international keyboard layouts it is almost impossible to find unified assignments. This section comprises the assignment facilities OpenOffice.org offers and – if applicable – possible conflicts.
All keys are only shown with the Ctrl modifier, as Ctrl+Shift might refer to another special character.
