Skip to Main Content
IBM Sustainability Software - Ideas Portal


This portal is to open public enhancement requests against the products and services belonging to IBM Sustainability Software. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).


Shape the future of IBM!

We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:

Search existing ideas

Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,

Post your ideas
  1. Post an idea.

  2. Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.

  3. Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.


Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use

Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.

IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.

ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.

Status Not under consideration
Created by Guest
Created on Mar 31, 2025

Address Keyboard Shortcut Conflict with Dutch Keyboard Layout in Manage

Summary:
Dutch users have reported that keyboard shortcuts do not perform expected actions in Manage. Instead of executing the intended commands, the shortcuts result in typing the characters associated with the shortcut combination. This issue is due to the way Windows handles the Ctrl + Alt combination, treating it as an AltGr key when using the Dutch (NLD) keyboard layout. Ref Case: TS017653477

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Install the Dutch keyboard layout (NLD) in Windows.

  2. Change the keyboard layout to Dutch (Netherlands) in the Windows taskbar.

  3. Log into Manage.

  4. Navigate to the Work Order Tracking application.

  5. Hit Enter to display a list of Work Orders.

  6. Open one of the Work Orders, which places focus on the Description field.

  7. While on the Work Order tab, press Ctrl + Alt + N.

    • Result: The highlighted text in the Description field is replaced by "ñ".

    • Expected Result: The application should navigate to the next record.

  8. Press Ctrl + Alt + P.

    • Result: The letter "ö" is typed instead of navigating to the previous record.

    • Expected Result: The application should navigate to the previous record.

Additional Observations:

  • The issue does not occur when using the English (ENG) or Swedish (SWE) keyboard layouts.

  • The problem is reproducible in other applications such as Google Docs, where the same shortcut behaves differently depending on the keyboard layout.

  • The SRE team has identified that Windows hijacks the Ctrl + Alt combination to function as AltGr, which is used for typing special accented characters.

  • This issue does not occur on macOS, as macOS does not treat Ctrl + Alt as AltGr.

Proposed Enhancement:
We request an enhancement to allow Manage to recognize and process keyboard shortcuts correctly, regardless of the keyboard layout. Potential solutions include:

  1. Implementing an alternative shortcut mechanism that does not conflict with AltGr behavior.

  2. Providing an option in Manage to configure keyboard shortcuts to avoid conflicts with Windows keyboard layouts.

  3. Detecting the keyboard layout and dynamically adjusting shortcuts to prevent unintended character input.

Business Impact:
This issue affects Dutch users' productivity, as they are unable to use navigation shortcuts effectively. Instead, they must manually click through records, which slows down their workflow. Resolving this conflict would improve usability and consistency across different keyboard layouts.

References:
A discussion on StackExchange highlights the underlying issue and possible workarounds:
https://superuser.com/questions/592970/can-i-make-ctrlalt-not-act-like-altgr-on-windows

Idea priority Medium
Needed By Quarter
  • Admin
    JORDAN SMITH
    Apr 28, 2025

    Hello Emma,

    We re-tested and were able to reproduce with the Netherlands keyboard.

    Unfortunately, this is an issue rooted within Windows that we are not able to intercept or work around. The ctrl+alt+n and ctrl+alt+p are reserved by the operating system, and there is no viable work-around within Maximo. The best approach is likely to install AutoHotKey, as suggested in the StackExchange thread, but this is not something that can be integrated into Maximo itself.

  • Admin
    JORDAN SMITH
    Apr 25, 2025

    Hello Emma,

    We have investigated this issue and are not able to reproduce this on a 9.0 environment with an updated Windows 11 system and the latest version of Chrome. When focusing on a description field and pressing ctrl+alt+n with a Dutch keyboard, the next record is navigated to.

    Can you please provide a bit more information about your system?

  • Guest
    Apr 24, 2025

    Any update on this? Thanks!