Question

Is there a way to get a localized description of a shortcut like Ctrl+Z so that I get “Ctrl+Z” if the app runs on an English system and “Strg+Z” on a German system?

The VCL function ShortCutToText isn’t internationalized. The API function GetKeyNameText is a bit better but still not perfect: If one switches the regional settings of a German XP to English (US), it still produces German texts. Besides the results are in CAPITALS which is ugly.

Clarification: I know how I can replace ShortCutToText or the Smkc* resource strings with customized versions. But to use that I need the translated strings. And I would like to get these from the OS (or similar).

Update: It looks like Microsoft expects developers to do the translation on their own – see 2. in Associating a Menu Item with an Accelerator Key. Quote:

For example, to assign CTRL+O to the Open command on the File menu,
you modify the menu item’s caption so that it looks like this:

Open\tCtrl+O

The menu item in the Menu editor is updated to reflect the new caption
as you type it.

Note that the shortcut is manually appended to the caption.

Answer 1

I’ll answer my own question so that I have something to accept: It looks like Microsoft expects developers to do the translation on their own – see 2. in Associating a Menu Item with an Accelerator Key. Quote:

For example, to assign CTRL+O to the Open command on the File menu,
you modify the menu item’s caption so that it looks like this:

Open\tCtrl+O

The menu item in the Menu editor is updated to reflect the new caption
as you type it.

Note that the shortcut is manually appended to the caption.