Hello Martin and the rest of the DocTeam
My replies to the points put forward are as follows:
• How often do such combinations appear in the guides, i.e. "win/linux-shortcut (macOS mac-shortcut)”?
No answer to this one. It all depends on the user guide. I only have experience of the Impress and Draw guides and (macOS mac-shortcut) appears a lot less than the words “keyboard shortcut”.
• Would this not render the text less readable, comprehensive?
Do not think so. This type of phrasing was very common in user guides that I have created in the past.
• If the string "Ctrl-C (macOS Cmd+C)" appears 10 times in the same guide - is that OK?
Yes it is OK. The words “keyboard shortcut” do appear several times in a user guide. (macOS ****) would appear a lot less.
• Does this impact the accessibility of the guides in any way (lots of text in brackets)?
IMO it does not, especially if answers a user’s question of what to do next.
• Does this make the "Using LibreOffice on macOS" table redundant - except for the Options command menu path?
This table is still relevant. It does explain and makes LO a little more macOS user friendly.
• Should the Options command menu path be treated the same way in the guides' texts (Options-win/linux-path (macOS Options-macos-path)?
The options shortcut modifier will be treated the same as the command modifier, for example Alt+Shift+F5 (macOS ⎇+Shift+F5) (cannot get the Apple Alt symbol to appear in my mail program. It is the other way up on the keyboard).
To explain how to use software with procedures does require a lot of duplication of phrases and procedural steps. That is very common across all types of user guides.
Regards
Peter Schofield
psauthor@gmail.com
Technical Writer, LO Documentation Team