hello dave,
this works for me, some examples, they should stand in one line:
[exec] (mutt-main) {xterm -ls -bg black -g 86x62 -fg grey -fn 9x15 +j
-T mutt-main -sb -e /usr/bin/mutt}
[exec] (xterm-pico) {xterm -ls -bg black -g 86x62 -fg grey -fn 9x15 +j
-T pico -sb -e /usr/bin/pico workspace.txt}
i think there are several mistakes in your lines:
--background #4682b4
first, aterm does not understand #4682b4 (at least on my machine),
second, this is a nice comment sign you put there, so the rest of the
line will be treated like this, a comment :-)
vi ~/.blackbox/menu
i think you should start a xterm/aterm and let them handle the vi, like
in my example with pico above.
hope this helps,
tomas