Mnemonics (keyboard)

A mnemonic is an underlined alphanumeric character, typically appearing in a menu title, menu item, or the text of a button or component of the user interface. A mnemonic indicates to the user which key to press (in conjunction with the Alt key) to activate a command or navigate to a component.

Firefox 3.0 menu with shortcuts highlighted with green and mnemonics highlighted with yellow.

In Microsoft Windows, mnemonics are called "Access keys".^[1] In Web browsers, Access keys may or may not be engaged by the Alt key.

Using mnemonics is limited to entering the underlined character with a single key stroke; for this reason, localized versions of software omit letters with diacritics that need to be input via an extra dead key stroke.

See also

• Keyboard shortcut