On 04/25/2017 11:06 PM, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
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?
There is a logic.
It's Insert before = Cmd-H, Insert [here] = Cmd-I, Insert after = Cmd-J
(Hence HIJ) on all platforms but the Mac. See Quick reference card,
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/quickrefcard/quickrefcard-A4.pdf
The problem is that on the Mac Cmd-H is a system keyboard shortcut which
means: hide this widow.
* 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.
XXE has 2 copy commands and several paste commands (aside paste before,
paste into, paste after):
- Edit|Copy (Cmd-C), Edit|Copy as Text (VERY USEFUL: Cmd+Shift-P, P like
Plain text):
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/help/editMenu.html
- DocBook, DITA Topic, XHTML menu | "Paste As" submenu. For example:
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/xhtml/menu.html
The menu items being rarely used have no keyboard shortcut.
* 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).
XXE already allows the end-user to easily bind *custom* keyboard
shortcuts to (possibly automatically recorded) macro-commands and to
native commands.
Tutorial: Custom keyboard shortcuts:
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_tutorial/custom_bindings/index.html
Tutorial: Automating repetitive tasks by recording macros:
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_tutorial/record_macro/index.html
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.
XXE is a multi-platform application written in Java, not a native Mac
application written in Objective C or Swift. Becoming a truly
well-behaved Macintosh application is out of our technical reach.
* 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?
I'm sorry but we will not change any of the stock keyboard shortcuts of
XXE and we will not permit the user to add/modify/remove stock keyboard
shortcuts.
Spending too much time on "comfort improvements" like those you want
predates the commercial future of the product. Most customers basically
want nicer, more customizable and may be more interactive output from
XXE's "Convert Document" menu.
--
XMLmind XML Editor Support List
xmleditor-support@xmlmind.com
http://www.xmlmind.com/mailman/listinfo/xmleditor-support
