http://www.xulplanet.com/tutorials/xultu/keyshort.html http://www.xulplanet.com/reference/elemref/ref_key.html The key element defines a keyboard shortcut. Event handlers can be used to respond when the appropriate keys are pressed. A key element must be placed inside a keyset element. Set to the id of a command element that is being observed by the element. Set to true to disable the key. This is often used with a broadcaster to disable a menu command and key at the same time. The character that is must be pressed. This should be set to a displayable character. For keys that do not have displayable characters, such as the enter key or function keys, use this attribute, instead of the key attribute. Valid keys are listed here . A label for the keyboard shortcut. This text would appear next to a menuitem label if that menuitem is associated with the key element via its key attribute. A list of modifier keys that should be pressed to invoke the keyboard shortcut. Multiple keys may be separated by spaces or commas. Keys will map to other keys on platforms that do not have them. The Shift key. The Alt key. On the Macintosh, this is the Option key. The Meta key. On the Macintosh, this is the Command key. The Control key. The key used for keyboard shortcuts on the user's platform. Usually, this would be the value you would use. This event handler is called when an element is activated. How it is activated varies for each element and in many cases, there are several ways to activate an element. For example, a button can be activated by clicking on it with the mouse or by pressing ENTER while it has the focus. Menus can be activated by selecting them with the mouse or by pressing a shortcut key. You should always use the oncommand event instead of onclick because it will be called in all of the needed cases. The event phase where the handler is invoked. This should be set to the value 'capturing' to indicate during the event capturing phase or 'target' to indicate at the target element or left out entirely for the bubbling phase.