RE: [dita] Stage one proposal: Add an element for things you press on keyboards.

HI there,

 

Iâ??ve had several clients with the same requirement and weâ??ve abused either <userinput> or <shortcut>.

 

Thanks, Amber

 

From:  <> On Behalf Of Dawn Stevens
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2019 4:48 PM
To: Zoe Lawson <>; DITA TC <>
Subject: Re: [dita] Stage one proposal: Add an element for things you press on keyboards.

 

I also have many clients wanting a â??keyboardâ?? element of some kind to distinguish between hardware and software buttons. And our solution tends to be similar to Zoeâ??s â?? using <userinput> with or without an outputclass, depending on what other needs there might be for <userinput>. 

 

From: dita <> on behalf of Zoe Lawson <>
Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2019 at 7:09 PM
To: dita <>
Subject: [dita] Stage one proposal: Add an element for things you press on keyboards.

 

I often want to add special formatting for things I press/type, such as CTRL+Z or ALT+0235. I know that <userinput> exists, but that generally seems to be intended for strings you put into fields. Also, I generally want different formatting for things I press on a keyboard vs text I need to enter.

 

Right now (because I'm a DITA specialization newbie), I'm using <userinput outputclass="keyboard">CTRL+S</userinput> in my processing. I'd love to simplify this down to something like <keyboard>CTRL+S</keyboard>. Potentially this is just a small addition to the software elements domain.

 

And trying to write this without using the word "key" is hard. 

 

Zoë Lawson