Customizing the Windows FrameMaker keyboard (was RE: using tables)

["Robert Hoffman" <rob@xxxxxxx>]

This e-mail exchange originally wondered whether there is a 
way to use the arrow keys to navigate in tables.

The attached file for Windows Frame, customui.cfg, defines 
shortcut keys for common actions, including some table movements.

The file is self-documenting (any text not in a "<...>" construct 
is a comment).

Here are some of the shortcut keys defined by the file:

  Ctrl Shift Up-Arrow    move Up in table to cell above
  Ctrl Shift Down-Arrow  move Down in table to cell below

  Ctrl Shift G           toggle Gravity on/off
  Ctrl Shift S           toggle Snap on/off

  Ctrl Shift L           toggle Lines (borders) on/off
  Ctrl Shift O           toggle cOndition indicators on/off
  Ctrl Shift Y           toggle text sYmbols on/off

  Ctrl Shift C           toggle Change bars for selected text

  Ctrl Alt   P           zoom: fit window to Page
  Ctrl Alt   I           zoom: In to next higher magnification
  Ctrl Alt   O           zoom: Out to next lower magnification
  Ctrl Alt   1           zoom: to 100%

Ctrl-Shift-Up and Down aren't as convenient as a simple Up or
Down arrow, but they are easier to type than Frame's built-in
shortcuts: for move Up: !tmu or Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Tab (also selects
text), and move Down: !tmd or Ctrl-Alt-Tab.

As noted in the customui.cfg file, it should be placed in 
directory FrameMaker5.5\fminit\configui.

Once there, it will automatically take effect each time Frame
is started. (But see also the comment in the file about
ConfigCustomUIFile in maker.ini.)

Techniques for customizing Frame are described in "Help > 
Online Manuals... > Customizing FrameMaker Products". The 
customui.cfg file is introduced under "Customized configuration
files", pg 32. The technique used in the attached customui.cfg
file for defining a new shortcut key for an existing Frame
command is described under "Adding key sequences", pg 40.

The easiest way to discover the names of existing commands
is to examine the three other configuration files, cmds.cfg,
mathcmds.cfg, and wincmds.cfg, all in the same directory
FrameMaker5.5\fminit\configui. The commands are reasonably
mnemonic, and if unsure, there is no harm in assigning a 
shortcut key to a command to see what it does.

It is easy to make errors when modifying customui.cfg. As 
discussed on pgs 13 and 47 in the above manual, to see error 
reports as the configuration files are read at startup, in 
maker.ini, set

  ConfigWarnKbdRedundant=On
  ConfigWarnKbdOverride=On
  ShowErrors=On

See these pages or the comments in customui.cfg for more details.

WARNING: As noted in customui.cfg (see the "WARNING"), the 
shortcuts defined in the file override "standard" shortcuts 
defined by Frame in wincmds.cfg. These overrides will be reported
if the warning options are set as shown above. We find our new 
shortcuts to be more useful than the standard definitions. See 
customcui.cfg for more details.

On to successful customization!

Rob Hoffman
================================================
First Systems Corporation    email: rob@ddi.com
618 Kingsley Avenue          phone: 650-321-2445
Palo Alto, CA 94301-3226

FrameMaker templates, conversion, and writing
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