Keyboard shortcuts

[marc]

Hi,

Being a KDE user, usually, but keeping an open mind and giving Gnome a 
whirl after moving to Dapper, I'm a little stumped about how to create 
keyboard shortcuts for launching applications - a process as fundamental 
logging in.

Put simply, I can't find a way to do it.

The properties for a "launcher" don't provide a mechanism, and nor does 
the "Entry editor" within the menu editor. Preferences/Shortcuts doesn't 
provide entries for applications at all.

A bit of googling brought me this disturbing news:

 http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=42404

I eventually found the gconf-editor via Synaptic - why is it hidden? - a 
bewildering tool clearly modelled on Windows' Registry - which is a 
scary, scary thought.

I dutifully did the following:

 - navigated to apps/metacity/keybindings_commands
 - selected command_1
 - right-clicked command_1
 - selected Edit Key
 - clicked Edit Key
 - Entered 'firefox'
 - navigated to apps.metacity/global_keybindings
 - selected run_command_1
 - right-clicked run_command_1
 - selected Edit Key
 - clicked Edit Key
 - [1] Entered '<Win>f'

Apparently this should work.

Unfortunately, <Win>+f opens an unnamed and seemingly featureless text 
box containing the letter 'f' when in the gconf editor, so I abandoned f 
and tried another letter. 

No joy.

So, then I tried <Alt>f. Success. Of a sort - since <Alt> keys are 
hardly an option.

So, my questions:

- Is this the true state of affairs with keyboard shortcuts in Gnome?
- If not, what should one use?
- If so, how does one apply keyboard shortcuts for all accounts?
- If so, how do you reset all settings to their default?
- How can these settings be backed up and restored?
- What is the mechanism to use,say, <Win>+f ?


-- 
Best,
Marc

If god made us the way we are, how come he built us out of spare chimp 
parts?

[1] This mechanism is buggy, since duplicate key combinations can be 
entered and there is no indication that this has happened.