Accelerator keys enable the user to access a menu command from the keyboard by pressing Alt+ the appropriate letter, indicated in your code by the preceding ampersand. The letter after the ampersand appears underlined in the menu. 

Delphi automatically checks for duplicate accelerators and adjusts them at runtime. This ensures that menus built dynamically at runtime contain no duplicate accelerators and that all menu items have an accelerator. You can turn off this automatic checking by setting the AutoHotkeys property of a menu item to maManual. 

To specify an accelerator, add an ampersand in front of the appropriate letter. For example, to add a Save menu command with the S as an accelerator key, type &Save. 

Keyboard shortcuts enable the user to perform the action without using the menu directly, by typing in the shortcut key combination. 

To specify a keyboard shortcut, use the Object Inspector to enter a value for the ShortCut property, or select a key combination from the drop-down list. This list is only a subset of the valid combinations you can type in. 

When you add a shortcut, it appears next to the menu item caption.