This is perhaps a sweeping RFE ... but: XMLmind XML editor (XXe) could
get much better at shortcuts.
3 points:
1. The lowest fruit: XXe uses Command-W for the «Paste after/below»
function. On the Mac, this is - it has to be - against Apple’s
guidelines, since Cmd-W is always used to close the current tab or
window. Hence, I cannot count the number of times that I have pasted
unwanted content into the current document when, in reality, I tried to
close the document. I consider this behavior to be close to destructive
- no one wants to unwillingly polute their documents with accidental
paste-ins.
2. More systematic key combinations in the shortcuts: XXe has many
useful shortcuts, but they are hard to remember. Why: Because they
appear, to me, unsystematic. For instance: Paste before: Cmd-U, Paste
[here]: Cmd V, Paste after: Cmd-W. The link between these commands is
that UVW follows each others in the alphabet. But this degree of logic
is nullified by the fact that no other group of shortcuts follow the
same logic. E.g. Insert before = Cmd-B, Insert [here] = Cmd-I, Insert
after = Cmd-J. Where is the logic?
* By contrast: Some Mac editors/processors that I use have several
paste commands: They can copy with and without styling, and some may
copy just the character styling (without content) or just paragraph
styling (without content). Thus I am used to several shortcut variants
for the same basic command. For all these variants, Mac programs tend to
use «V» plus some variant of the other. So for instance Cmd-Shift-V
for pasting text only, or Cmd-Alt-V for pasting styles.
* Thus, the system most Mac applications is that groups of commands are
based around the same letter - for paste, the letter "V". For XXe, it
would be logical to e.g. use Cmd+LetterX for all the "basic" commands.
And for instance Cmd+Shift+LetterX for all the "before" commands and
Cmd-Alt-LetterX for all the "after" commands. This would make it much
simpler to memorize the the functionality.
* Might we hope for something similar in XXe? Following this method, it
would probably be possible to add even more shortcuts than XXe has today
(because some useful commands do lack shortcuts).
3. Some way for users to add or modify shortcuts: Like I have mentioned
before, all well behaved Macintosh applications permit shortcuts to be
added/modified/removed via the Keyboard panel in the System Preferences
app.
* JabRef is a freeware, Java-based app which does support this feature.
But XXe does not support it.
* Some applications allow us to modify their shortcuts from within
themselves. But XXe does not.
* The Java control panel has a setting for allowing shortcuts to be
set, see java.com:
https://www.java.com/en/download/help/mac_controlpanel.xml But enabling
shortcuts via this panel did not seem ho have any effect on XXe’s
ability to pick up the shortscuts define in the System Preferences app.
* There are also commercial and open source apps that permit you to
modify the shortcuts of other apps - but I have not tested whether
anyone works with XXe.
* What can we hope for in this regard?
Best regards from
Leif Halvard Silli
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