19.2 Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts
You
can modify Dreamweaver keyboard shortcuts by editing the menus.xml file, but it is easier to assign
shortcuts via the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box. Keyboard shortcuts
are summarized in Appendix A. Some shortcuts may
not work on some computers, particularly laptops, which intercept
some function keys. If a shortcut does not work on the Macintosh,
turn off the Hot Function Key option in the Keyboard Control Panel.
19.2.1 The Keyboard Shortcuts Dialog Box
Use the Edit Keyboard Shortcuts command
to open the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box shown in Figure 19-1.
This dialog box includes options to customize and manage keyboard
shortcut sets (i.e., a collection of keyboard
shortcuts):
- Current Set
-
Choose from one of the factory sets—BBEdit, Dreamweaver 3, or
HomeSite—that emulate the keyboard shortcuts of other programs,
or select Macromedia Standard (the default DW4 shortcuts). Custom
sets that you define also appear in this pop-up list.
- Commands
-
After selecting a custom set from the Current Set pop-up list, select
which menu bar to modify from the Commands pop-up list. The available
options differ slightly between Windows and the Macintosh.
- Menu Commands
-
Dreamweaver's main menu bar commands (positioned at the top of
the Macintosh monitor or appearing in the Document window under
Windows).
- Site Menu Commands (Windows only)
-
Site window menu bar commands. There is no separate Site window menu
bar on the Macintosh. See Chapter 6 for details.
- Code Editing
-
Commands that work in the Document window's Code view (also
apply to the Code Inspector).
- Document Editing
-
Commands that work in the Document window's Design view.
- Site Window (Windows only)
-
Additional shortcut keys that work when the Site window is active but
don't rely on the Site window menu bar. These shortcuts are
included in the Document Editing category on the Macintosh.
- Menu list
-
Use the plus (+) icons (Windows) or triangles (Macintosh) next to the
menu names, to expand a menu and display the items within it. Select
the menu item that you want to modify.
- Shortcuts
-
This field lists the current shortcut for the selected menu item.
Click the plus (+) button to add multiple keyboard shortcuts for the
same menu command. Use the minus (-) button to remove keyboard
shortcuts.
- Press Key
-
Once you've selected the menu item to modify, click in the
Press Key field to make it active. Press one or more keys to be used
for the keyboard shortcut, such as the function keys or Ctrl+Shift+Q.
Dreamweaver fills in the mnemonic codes in the Press Key field for
you (don't attempt to type
C-t-r-l
to specify the Ctrl key, just press the Ctrl key). Click the Change
button to replace the currently selected line in the Shortcuts field
with the new shortcut specified in the Press Key field (if the Press
Key field is blank, Dreamweaver erases the current keyboard
shortcut).
Define a keyboard shortcut for each menu option as desired. Click the
OK button to save your changes or the Cancel button to abort them.
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You cannot modify the keyboard
shortcuts in a built-in (factory) set. Duplicate a set using the
Duplicate
Set icon, and then make changes to the duplicate set.
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19.2.2 Managing Custom Keyboard Shortcuts
When you enter a keyboard shortcut in the Press Key field of the
Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box, Dreamweaver tells you whether the
shortcut is already in use. Although the Press Key field is a
convenient way to check if a keyboard shortcut is available, it
isn't completely reliable. It reports keyboard shortcuts used
on either Windows or Macintosh, even if they aren't active on
the current platform.
To use a keyboard shortcut already assigned to a
<menuitem>
tag, remove the
key="shortcut"
attribute from that tag in the menus.xml file. The same keyboard shortcut
can be used for different purposes on different platforms (Macintosh
or Windows) using the <menuitem> tag's
platform attribute. The same keyboard shortcut can
be used for different applications (Dreamweaver or UltraDev) using
the <menuitem> tag's
app attribute. Avoid reassigning the Ctrl+F9 and
Ctrl+F10 shortcuts (Windows) and the Cmd+F9 and Cmd+F10 shortcuts
(Macintosh) because they are used in Dreamweaver UltraDev to open the
Server Behaviors and Data Bindings panels.
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You can export the current shortcut set using the
Export Set as HTML icon in the Keyboard
Shortcuts dialog box. The exported HTML file displays all
menu
commands, including those with keyboard shortcuts. The document can
be printed from your browser or printed from Microsoft Word. Search
for "Keyboard Shortcut Matrix" in the Dreamweaver Help
(F1) to find unused keyboard shortcut combinations.
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The Rename Set icon (see Figure 19-1) renames the
currently selected custom keyboard set but does not permit you to
rename a factory set. The Delete Set icon does not delete the current
keyboard set; rather, it displays the
Delete
Set dialog box, which lists keyboard sets that can be deleted.
Factory sets cannot be deleted, so they are not shown in the list.
The currently active set cannot be deleted either, so switch to
another set before attempting to delete the set currently in use.
Custom keyboard shortcut sets are stored in .xml files in the Dreamweaver4/Configuration/Menus/CustomSetsfolder. To share your keyboard shortcuts with others,
copy the corresponding .xml files
to the correct folder on another computer.
19.2.3 Keyboard Shortcuts in the menus.xml File
You can also modify keyboard shortcuts by
editing the menus.xml file
directly. Earlier, we saw how to define keyboard shortcuts using the
key attribute of a
<menuitem> tag. The
menus.xml file also defines keyboard shortcuts
using the <shortcutlist> and
<shortcut> tags as shown in Example 19-2.
Example 19-2. Sample keyboard shortcut definitions
<shortcutlist id="DWMainWindow">
<shortcut key="Cmd+Shift+Z" file="Menus/MM/Edit_Clipboard.htm"
arguments="'redo'" id="DWShortcuts_Edit_Redo" />
<shortcut key="Opt+BkSp" file="Menus/MM/Edit_Clipboard.htm"
arguments="'undo'" id="DWShortcuts_Edit_Undo" />
<shortcut key="Opt+F4" command="dw.quitApplication( )"
name="Quit Application" id="DWShortcuts_Main_Quit" />
<shortcut key="Cmd+U" command="dw.showPreferencesDialog( )"
id="DWShortcuts_Edit_Preferences" />
<shortcut key="Cmd+Right" file="Menus/MM/Accelerators_Main.htm"
arguments="'right', false" name="Go to Next Word"
id="DWShortcuts_Main_CmdRight" />
</shortcutlist>
19.2.3.1 The <shortcutlist> tag
The
<shortcutlist>
element is used to define a group of keyboard shortcuts. It has three
attributes:
- id (required)
-
The required shortcut list id must identify each
shortcut list uniquely and should match the id of
the corresponding menu bar or contextual menu with which the
shortcuts are associated. Do not change the ids of
the built-in shortcuts lists—DWMainWindow, DWMainSite,
DWTimelineContext, and DWHTMLContext—as doing so prevents them
from working.
- app
-
Specifies whether to enable the shortcut list in
dreamweaver (Dreamweaver) or
ultradev (UltraDev) only. If this attribute is
omitted, the shortcuts list is available in both applications.
- platform
-
Specifies whether to enable the shortcut list on either
mac (Macintosh) or win
(Windows) only. If this attribute is omitted, the shortcuts list is
available on both platforms.
The <shortcutlist> tag can contain one or
more <shortcut> tags. It can also contain
one or more comments of the form <!-- -->.
19.2.3.2 The <shortcut> tag
The
<shortcut>
element identifies an individual keyboard shortcut that is associated
with a Dreamweaver command or menu item. Eight attributes can be set
for a <shortcut> element:
- id (required)
-
The required shortcut id must identify each
shortcut uniquely. If you add a shortcut, ensure that its
id doesn't match the id
of existing shortcuts. Do not change the id s of
built-in shortcuts, as doing so prevents them from working.
- name
-
The shortcut name, such as "Open", appears in the
Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box for the benefit of users. Dreamweaver
identifies shortcuts by id, not
name, but you should provide a meaningful name as
well.
- key
-
Specifies the key combination for this shortcut as described earlier
in Section 19.1.1.2.
- app
-
Specifies whether to enable the shortcut in
dreamweaver (Dreamweaver) or
ultradev (UltraDev) only. If this attribute is
omitted, the shortcut is available in both applications.
- platform
-
Specifies whether to enable the shortcut on either
mac (Macintosh) or win
(Windows) only. If this attribute is omitted, the shortcut is
available on both platforms.
- command
-
Specifies a JavaScript command that is executed when this keyboard
shortcut is used. A shortcut must include either a
file or command attribute.
- file
-
Specifies an HTML file that controls the function of the keyboard
shortcut, as described earlier in Section 19.1.1.2.
- arguments
-
Provides a comma-separated list of arguments passed to the file
specified by the file attribute. Enclose string
arguments within single quotes (') inside the double quotes used to
delimit the attribute's value, such as
arguments="'right', false" (see Example 19-2).
A <shortcutlist> can contain as many
<shortcut> elements as desired. Save the
menus.xml file changes in your
text editor and then restart Dreamweaver for the changes
to take effect.
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