I've recently made the switch over to Ubuntu, and have been enjoying the change by and large. These forums have been a great resource while configuring and tweaking Ubuntu, but it seems I've finally come up with a change I want to make that I can't find by searching here.
My goal is to disable the part of the functionality of the Alt key that I never use. Specifically the ability to open window menus using Alt-<Menu's First Letter>. I do NOT, for example, want to be able to open the File menu by typing Alt-F.
I want to disable this functionality so I can use those key combinations as shortcuts within applications. I like to use the Emacs gtk_key_theme for its text navigation key bindings, but those key bindings interfere with some of the default shortcuts (e.g. Ctrl-A is often bound to Select All). I decided I would try to switch the modifying key of the default shortcuts over to Alt. (Super/Win is also an option, but not a serious one until I find a way to disable shortcuts like Super-A which enables a cross-workspace window chooser.)
I've changed as much as I can using application preferences, but keyboard shortcut configuration doesn't seem like a popular feature. So, I've enabled can_change_accels such that I can hover the mouse pointer over a menu item and change its shortcut by typing my own. For the most part this works great, but there are times that the shortcut refuses to change to the one I'm typing. The only reason I can see that the shortcuts are not changing in these cases is because they are being used; often the only use I can ascertain is as window menu access shortcuts (e.g. Alt-V in gedit brings up the View menu when I would like it to paste).
Is there any way I can disable this functionality? I realize that there could be some strange series of events that could make general window menu access through the keyboard useful to me again, but it seems unlikely enough I'd like to risk it.
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