how to translate properly words with key accelerators

[Mark Haanen]

Op maandag 26-04-2010 om 17:05 uur [tijdzone -0300], schreef Miguel
Rozsas:
> Hi !

Hello!

> I am reviewing a translation for Brazilian Portuguese and  I have a question
> about how to deal with words that have a hint for the shortcut keyboard for
> a function/menu entry.
> 
> For example, the original english words "_Balance:", "_Default" and
> "Placeholde_r" can be translated as "Saldo Inicial:", "Padrão" and
> "não-editável". The question is how to choose a equivalent keyboard shortcut
> for the translated words.
> 
> Should I pick any arbitrary letter in the translated word ? (I mean, "Saldo
> _Inicial", "_Padrão", "não-_editável")
> How to know if another word in the same context has the same shortcut ?

You don't. The only way to find out (without looking at the source code)
is to fire up the program and check, menu by menu, whether or not there
are duplicates. These can then be searched for specifically in the .po
and corrected.

> What are your suggestions ?

In my own translation I use the following guidelines:

1. For generic menu names or menu options often used in other programs
(Load, Save, Quit, Page Setup, Edit, Cut, Copy, About, ...) I look at
the popular programs around (for instance Firefox, OpenOffice, ...) and
pick the accelerator that is used most often.

2. For other options, I try to pick a mnemonic that's easily memorized
by a user.

3. If this leads to duplication, I tend to give the most intuitive
option to the menu entry which, by my own estimate, will probably most
often be used.