Menu Keys

Menu Keys

Related Information

The Menu Keys palette provides user access to all the keyboard shortcuts found on the EazyDraw menus. The names shown on each menu may be customized too.

Each menu and submenu are accessed from the outline provided on the palette. Expand or collapse the submenus to reveal particular menu of interest. The outline lists the current names shown on each menu, and the command key in effect for command.

User customized settings for menu names and keys may be saved to a disk file for future use, or to share with other EazyDraw users. A saved menu configuration file may be reloaded, using the button provided on the lower portion of this palette.

This palette is accessed from the EazyDraw main menu, found on the very left of the main menu.

Access to each menu entry is provided from the outline display at the top of the palette. This outline mirrors the arrangement of the menu system. Expand, or collapse the outline entries to locate the menu entry of interest. Highlight the entry and click the Change button to view the menu entry in detail. This detail view is used to make changes to the entry. A double click on the highlighted entry will also open the change window. Bold outline entries indicate the current menu setting is different than the "Factory" values.

If at least one entry has been customized, the Reset All button is enabled. Clicking this button will clear all modified entries and return the menus to the initial state provided with the current release of EazyDraw.

If the selected entry is a modified entry, the Clear button is enabled. Use this button to restore just the selected entry to the factory setting.

The Modify button is used to call up a detail inspection sheet. This sheet is used to change the command key or display name of the menu.

Load and Save are used to read and write the current menu state to a to or from a disk file. This will restore or save all modified menu entries.

The Close button is used to close the palette. All changes are made as they are entered, close just closes the window. The changes are made and the menus are updated when each change to an individual entry is executed.

Modify Menu Keys

Actual changes to a menu setting are made on the sheet accessed by clicking the Modify button. This sheet is shown below. Enter a new menu display name, command key, or command key modifier. The changes are applied when the Change button on this sheet is clicked.

When applying an alpha-numeric key, the Shift Modifier (second from left) is used to indicate upper case or lower case usage. The menu system always displays the upper case value and the shift key acts as a modifier. For other keys such as the number keys the modifier does not apply; enter the desired character directly (for example enter 9 or "(" directly).

There is no undo support for this palette. If you have a modified key set in use, it is necessary to save it to a disk file to return the old settings.

Changes are applied as they are made. When the Change key is clicked the change is made to the menu and may be viewed there immediately.

The full path and "Factory" settings for menu entry are shown in the reddish text at the top of the Change panel. The last component of this path is the factory name for the menu, this does not change when a customize name is applied.

The menu information is saved in a normal text file which may be viewed with any text editor. The information is human readable in the form of a property list dictionary. The macOS application, Property List Editor is used to view and modify these files. Of course care must be taken when modifying a file in this fashion. Only entries that are different from Factory settings are saved in the file.

Custom changes applied to the menu system are saved in the user defaults. This means that updates to EazyDraw will not require reloading or reentering the custom menu command keys. They will associated with the appropriate menu entry unless that particular menu entry is removed or moved to a different node in the menu hierarchy.