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gridcraft/docs/ui-parity.md
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vangel76andClaude Opus 5.5 76c620fc32 Keyboard: Excel shortcut audit, add the missing ones (#110)
Audited the grid, ribbon and editor key handling against Microsoft's
published Windows and Mac shortcut lists. New keymap.rs binds the ones
whose feature already exists: Ctrl+Shift+~!@#$%^&_ number formats and
borders, Ctrl+2-5, Ctrl+Shift+: time, Ctrl+' / Ctrl+Shift+" from the cell
above, Ctrl+L, Ctrl+Shift+L, Ctrl+P, Ctrl+Alt+V, Alt+=, Alt+Down,
Alt+Page Down/Up, Ctrl+Shift+Home/End, Shift+Home, the F-key family
(Shift+F2/F3/F9/F10/F11, F5, F7, F12, Ctrl+F1/F3/F4, Alt+F1, Ctrl+Alt+F9)
and the Excel for Mac variants (Cmd+L/E alignment, Control+E Flash Fill,
Cmd+Option borders, Cmd+Shift+K/J/H/R). Number-format keys match the
physical key; AltGr text never triggers a Ctrl+Alt shortcut. Fixes the
command catalog's wrong shortcut labels and documents the audit.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-11 12:43:51 +02:00

11 KiB
Raw Blame History

UI parity

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-11 · Change: minor (keyboard shortcut audit, #110) · Target: Microsoft Excel (Microsoft 365), Excel for Mac 16.113.4

Interaction, controls and feel, against Excel. Part of target-app-parity.md. UI/UX fidelity: ~55% ready, 50–80 h (estimated). Ribbon command coverage is measured separately in parity-checklist.md (258 / 290).

Sources: crates/ui-egui/src (ribbon, grid, editor, formula bar, dialogs, panes), crates/engine/src/cmd (shortcuts in command specs), the owner's black-box notes (plan/excel/observed-ui.md, local only) and user issues.

Window and chrome

Element Excel GridCraft Status
Title bar, Quick Access Toolbar, AutoSave toggle yes yes done; macOS window controls misaligned (#170), Dock icon size (#169)
Ribbon: tabs, groups, split buttons, galleries, contextual tabs yes yes (Table Design, Chart Design, Format, PivotTable tabs) done; missing contextual tabs for pictures, shapes, sparklines, header/footer, slicers
Ribbon collapse, simplified ribbon, customize ribbon/QAT yes partial customization missing (File ▸ Options is the one missing File command)
Key tips (Alt / F10 then letters) yes, every ribbon control initial (#43, 10-10): Alt or F10 shows key tips on Home for alignment, Paste Special and AutoFit plus legacy Alt sequences; other tabs and controls not yet (#33, #49) 3–5 h
Formula bar with Name Box, expand, function hints yes yes done
Sheet tabs: rename, reorder, colour, hide, scroll yes yes rename focus bug on macOS (#145)
Status bar: Sum/Count/Average and more, view buttons, zoom yes yes customizable statistics partial
Task panes (Format Chart, Comments, Watch, Selection, PivotTable fields) yes yes element-level Format pane for shapes and pictures missing
Backstage (File) view: Info, New with templates, Open recent, Export, Options yes partial Options dialog and template gallery missing
Dark mode, system appearance yes yes done (10-09)
Page Layout view (paper view with rulers and header editing) yes no (Page Break Preview only) 8–12 h
Multiple windows per workbook yes no (#162) see hardware-parity.md

Grid interaction

Behaviour Status
Click/drag/Shift/Ctrl selection, multi-area selection rectangular drag works in one direction only in some cases (#28)
Fill handle: drag to fill series, double-click to fill down, right-drag menu fill done; right-drag menu missing
Drag-move and drag-copy cells (border drag, Ctrl/Option, Shift to insert) done (M3)
In-cell editing, Enter/Tab movement, Alt/Option+Enter line breaks done
Point mode (click/drag/arrow references), reference colouring, F4 done
AutoComplete in columns, function autocomplete and argument tips done
Header resize and double-click AutoFit done (#42, #88 for header dividers)
Freeze panes, split panes freeze done; split to verify
Copy as HTML table for other apps done (#36, 10-10)
Context menu on cells 16 items (Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste Special, Insert, Delete, Clear Contents, Filter by value, Sort, New Comment, New Note, Format Cells, Pick From Drop-down List, Define Name, Link). Missing: Insert Copied/Cut Cells (#21), paste-option icons, Quick Analysis, Get Data from Table, Show Changes, Smart Lookup
Move and resize charts, pictures and shapes charts can't be resized (#190)
Context menus on row/column headers, sheet tabs, charts, shapes headers and tabs done; objects partial
Quick Analysis (Ctrl+Q) missing
Smooth scrolling, scrollbars done; vertical scrollbar added 10-09 (#73); horizontal scrollbar reported missing (#176)
Text overflow into empty neighbours, wrap, rotation, shrink to fit done

Keyboard

Area Excel GridCraft
Shortcuts bound to commands 200+ documented shortcuts per platform audited below (#110): shortcuts whose feature exists are bound, with the exceptions listed; the rest wait for their features
Ctrl+arrow, Ctrl+Shift+arrow, Ctrl+Home/End, Ctrl+Shift+Home/End, Page Up/Down, Alt+Page yes done
Ctrl+1, Ctrl+; and Ctrl+Shift+; , Ctrl+D/R, Ctrl+E, Ctrl+T/L, Ctrl+K, Ctrl+Shift+L, Ctrl+Shift+~!@#$%^&_ yes done
F2, F4, F5, F7, F9 family, Shift+F2/F3/F10/F11, F12 yes done; F11 chart sheet, F8 extend mode, F3 Paste Name, F4 Repeat missing
Mac-specific (Cmd variants, Control variants, Fn keys) yes done where a feature exists (keymap.rs picks the Mac variant)
Requests — #110 (more shortcuts and hot keys), #33 (sequential Alt; initial support landed in #43)

Shortcut audit (#110)

Checked against Microsoft's published "Keyboard shortcuts in Excel" (Windows and Mac tables, 2026-10-11). Alt key-tip sequences are tracked separately (#33). Bindings live in crates/ui-egui/src/grid.rs (navigation, editing keys), ribbon::shortcut (Ctrl/Cmd letters), keymap.rs (everything added in #110, with a lookup table that tests cover) and formula_bar.rs (keys while editing). "Ctrl" means Cmd on a Mac unless the Mac column says otherwise. Number-format and border keys match the physical key (Ctrl+Shift+4, wherever $ is).

Shortcut (Windows) Mac Action Status
Ctrl+C / X / V, Ctrl+Z / Y, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+B / I / U same with Cmd clipboard, undo/redo, select all, bold/italic/underline present
Ctrl+S, Ctrl+Shift+S, Ctrl+O, Ctrl+N, Ctrl+W Cmd save, save as, open, new, close present
Ctrl+F, Ctrl+H, Ctrl+G, Ctrl+K, Ctrl+T Cmd (Ctrl+H) find, replace, go to, hyperlink, table present
Ctrl+D, Ctrl+R, Ctrl+E, Ctrl+1, Ctrl+9 / 0, Ctrl+Shift+9 / 0 Cmd (Ctrl+E on Mac: see below) fill down/right, Flash Fill, Format Cells, hide/unhide present
Ctrl+- , Ctrl+Shift+= Cmd Delete / Insert cells dialog present
Ctrl+; , Ctrl+` Control+; current date, show formulas present (Mac Control+; added)
Arrows, Shift / Ctrl / Ctrl+Shift+arrows, Home, Ctrl+Home / End, Page Up / Down, Ctrl+Page Up / Down Cmd+arrows navigation and extension present
Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Shift+Enter, Ctrl+Space, Shift+Space, Delete, Esc same entry and selection present
F2, F9, F10 (key tips), F4 / Alt+Enter / Ctrl+Enter / Ctrl+Shift+Enter while editing same edit, calculate, references, new line, fill, array present
Ctrl+Shift+~ ! @ # $ % ^ Control+Shift General, Number, Time, Date, Currency, Percent, Scientific added
Ctrl+Shift+& / Ctrl+Shift+_ Cmd+Option+0 / Cmd+Option+- (and Cmd+Option+arrows for one side) outline border / remove borders added
Ctrl+2 / 3 / 4 / 5 — bold / italic / underline / strikethrough added
Ctrl+Shift+: Cmd+; current time added
Ctrl+' / Ctrl+Shift+" Control formula / value from the cell above added
Ctrl+L Cmd+L is Align Left, Cmd+E Center, Control+E Flash Fill create table added
Ctrl+Shift+L Cmd+Shift+F (present) / Control+Shift+L filter added
Ctrl+Shift+F, Ctrl+Shift+G — Format Cells Font tab, Workbook Statistics added
— Cmd+Shift+H, Cmd+Shift+R, Cmd+Shift+K / J, Control+L, Control+U replace, sort, group / ungroup, Define Name, edit cell added
Alt+Shift+Right / Left Option+Right / Left is next/previous sheet group / ungroup added
Ctrl+Shift+* (Ctrl+Shift+8), Ctrl+Shift+Space Cmd+Shift+Space current region, select all added
Ctrl+Shift+Home / End, Shift+Home same extend to A1 / last used cell / row start added
Ctrl+P Cmd+P print added
Ctrl+Shift+> / < Cmd+Shift+> / < font size added
Ctrl+Alt+V Cmd+Control+V, Cmd+Option+V Paste Special added
Ctrl+Alt+= / Ctrl+Alt+- — zoom in / out (10% steps) added
Alt+=, Alt+Down, Alt+Page Down / Up Option+Down, Option+Page Down / Up AutoSum, drop-down list, one screen right / left added
Alt+F1, Alt+Shift+F1, Shift+F11 Shift+F11 embedded chart, new sheet added
Shift+F2, Ctrl+Shift+F2 Shift+F2, Cmd+Shift+F2 note, threaded comment added
Shift+F3, Ctrl+F3, Ctrl+Shift+F3 Shift+F3, Cmd+F3 (Define Name), Cmd+Shift+F3 Insert Function, Name Manager, Create from Selection added
F5, Shift+F5 (Mac), F7, Shift+F9, Ctrl+Alt+F9, F12, Ctrl+F4 same Go To, Find, Spelling, calculate sheet / all, Save As, close added
Shift+F10, Alt+Shift+F10, Ctrl+F1 Shift+F10, Cmd+Option+R context menu, Error Checking, ribbon added
F1, F3, F4 (repeat), F6 / Shift+F6, F8 / Shift+F8, F11, End mode same help, Paste Name, Repeat, pane cycling, extend/add mode, chart sheet missing (no such feature yet)
Ctrl+6, Ctrl+8, Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+Shift+A, Ctrl+A after a function name, Ctrl+Shift+U, Ctrl+Alt+P same objects, outline symbols, Quick Analysis, argument names, Function Arguments, formula bar height, tooltips missing
Ctrl+Shift+Page Up / Down, Ctrl+Alt+5, Ctrl+Shift+F1, Ctrl+F5–F10, Alt+F8 / F11 / F12 same group sheets, shape cycling, full screen, window keys, macros, VBA, Power Query missing
— Cmd+= (calculate), Cmd+T (references while editing; F4 works), Shift+F7, Cmd+Shift+L Mac-only extras missing (Cmd+= is egui's zoom key; no thesaurus or Modify Cell Style)

On Windows, AltGr arrives as Ctrl+Alt: a Ctrl+Alt key that also types a character is treated as text, so AltGr symbols (e.g. ~ on a German layout) never trigger a shortcut.

Dialogs

Format Cells, Insert Function/Formula Builder, Find and Replace, Go To and Go To Special, Sort, Name Manager, Data Validation, Paste Special, Conditional Formatting manager, Page Setup, Goal Seek, Scenario Manager and others exist. Missing or partial: Options, Solver, Data Analysis, Forecast Sheet, Power Query editor, Insert Object, Equation editor, Protect/Allow Edit Ranges, Workbook Links, Accessibility checker.

Accessibility

AccessKit is enabled, but the grid, ribbon and dialogs are not exposed as an accessible tree with cell addresses and values, so screen readers can't navigate a sheet; there is no high-contrast theme or accessibility checker. Excel is strong here. 12–18 h.

Feel

Pixel comparison against Excel screenshots hasn't been run since M1; fonts depend on the system (no Calibri; Carlito would match metrics, #29, #4, #168 for weights); icons are GridCraft's own by rule and will never match Office's, by design.

Work (50–80 h)

Key tips 3–5 · remaining shortcuts with their features 2–4 · context menus and Quick Analysis 5–8 · Page Layout view 8–12 · Options dialog and ribbon/QAT customization 6–10 · accessibility 12–18 · selection and scrollbar bugs 2–4 · pixel/feel pass against observed Excel 7–12.

Revision history

Date Change Summary
2026-10-11 minor Keyboard shortcut audit against Microsoft's Windows and Mac lists; missing shortcuts for existing features added (#110)
2026-10-10 minor Chart resize bug (#190)
2026-10-10 major Created: chrome, grid, keyboard, dialogs, accessibility; key tips, Page Layout view and accessibility tree flagged