Ubuntu Linux - Custom Alt+Fn key shortcuts not working

[X422MAN]

i have added some custom styles (fonts and colors) for formatting in my writer documents and assigned some shortcut keys to use these in my docs. generally my system for creating these docs is windows based and for some years over many version of LO i have used ALT+Fn key to assign the styles i have set up.

i have recently been doing some work on some ubuntu systems 20.04, and decided to set up LO as close i can get it to my windows setup. Unfortunately i have found that assigning say Alt+F5 to one of my styles, does not work when the shortcut is used. If i assign the same style to say Alt+5 then it does work, so it seems to be an issue with the Alt + Function Key combination…

not sure if this is a bug?, or just how LO works on Ubuntu. would like to get this working as expected if possible, looking for some guidance… spent a long time searching for a solution or any reference to similar issues without a result.

EDIT:
the desktops are running Ubuntu Studio 20.04.1 LTS with XFCE v14.4.2 Desktop on v5.4.0.42 lowlatency x86_64 Kernal. LibreOffice 6.4.5-0ubuntu0-20.04.1 amd64

[anon73440385]

You did not mention the desktop manager (GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon, Xfce, Plasma/KDE…), on your Ubuntu 20.04 system. The knowledge of your desktop manager might be key to a sound answer to your question, since there might be an interference of shortcuts defined within your desktop manager and the same shortcut defined in LibreOffice.

On my Ubuntu 20.04 using a GNOME session (Ubuntu) and Version: 6.4.4.2, Build-ID: 6:6.4.4-0ubuntu0.20.04.1, CPU-Threads: 4; BS: Linux 5.4; UI-Render: Standard; VCL: gtk3; there is no problem to assign ALT+F5 to a paragraph style.

Please do **not** use *Add Answer* but **[edit](https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/ubuntu-linux-custom-alt-fn-key-shortcuts-not-working/55955)** your original question to enhance the details of your question. If you are at it, please don't forget to mention your LibreOffice version and the package resources (Ubuntu distribution repository, PPA, libreoffice.org). Thanks in advance …

[X422MAN]

thankyou for that feedback, i have updated now my post with system info.

it does look likely to be a something in the desktop manager that is overriding LO. i will investigate that avenue further.

[anon73440385]

ALT+F5 seems to be Xfce’s shortcut for “Maximize window horizontally” and hence is not being passed to the application.

[anon73440385]

Hello,

your question is related to Xfce desktop manager and it’s predefined keyboard shortcuts:

$ grep max /etc/xdg/xdg-ubuntustudio/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F5" type="string" value="maximize_horiz_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F6" type="string" value="maximize_vert_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F7" type="string" value="maximize_window_key"/>

This file gets copied into the user profile $HOME/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml (where you would need to make changes). Overall: This is not a real LibreOffice issue but a configuration setting of Xfce.

Hope that helps.

[X422MAN]

As pointed out, this is not really a LibreOffice issue, but just has an effect on LibreOffice. tbf usually any shortcut key combos that are already assigned by the system are not noramlly available(greyed out) to assign in libreoffice… This dosent seem to be the case here, so this is what led me to believe that it may be an issue with LO or LO on XFCE… it certainly has turned out to be XFCE shortcut taking precedence over LO shortcut. simple fix in the end. i have just changed XFCE shortcuts to use SUPER key instead of ALT. and now LO responds to my shortcuts. this was my preferred option as it allows me to keep my shortcuts i assign over multiple platforms.

[henry7]

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