Thanks for the tip on selecting hotkeys in the language file; it helps a lot.
An editor is a very personal thing; everyone has his own preferences and philosophy. That is why customization is so valuable. But I understand that it is difficult for you to build in user-customization of the menus. As to defaults, I would be happy to provide some comments for your consideration, and for others to discuss. First, perhaps, is standardization. But here we immediately run into a problem, since there are some standards which conflict with other standards, and therefore a choice must be made. For example, as far back as Wordstar (and perhaps earlier), _Ctrl-Y_ has been used for _Delete Line_, but in Windows _Ctrl-Y_ is _Redo_. Most editors that I have looked at, including PSPad, follow Wordstar, and use _Shift-Ctrl-Z_ for _Redo_ (following _Ctrl-Z_ for _Undo_), which certainly seems to be the correct choice. This pattern of _Ctrl-Key_ having one function, and then _Shift-Ctrl-Key_ having a related function, is very appropriate, in my opinion. So, _Ctrl-X_ for _Cut_, and _Shift-Ctrl-X_ for [b]Cut Append to Clipboard[/b]; _Ctrl-C_ for _Copy_, and _Shift-Ctrl-C_ for _Copy Append to Clipboard_; _Ctrl-V_ for _Paste_, and _Shift-Ctrl-V_ for _Paste with No Cursor Change_, and so on. Now as to the main menu, the (rather loose) standard seems to be to have _File_ as the first, and _Help_ as the last menu, with _Edit_, _Format_, _Search_ and _View_ following _File_, with _Tools_, _Options_/_Preferences_/_Settings_, and _Window_ preceeding _Help_, and with others in-between those two groups. Also, the respective hotkeys seem to be rather standard, with _F_ for _File_, _H_ for _Help_, and in general using the first letter of each menu, where it does not conflict with another menu. Where there is a conflict, and another letter must be chosen, it really doesn't seem to matter whether the chosen letter is the second, third, or fourth or later letter. So, for example, one might set PSPad's main menu similar to: _F_ile _E_dit For_m_at _S_earch _V_iew _P_rojects HTM_L_ _T_ools _O_ptions _W_indow _H_elp (Note: the forum doesn't seem to allow underlined characters, so I have used _Bold_ characters for the hotkeys.) Here, _Format_ is next to _Edit_ since they are very closely related in function (edit/change something); whereas _Search_ seems more closely related to _View_ (show/display something). _Project_ is admittedly a difficult one, since it deals almost entirely with files and is therefore closely related to _File_. I placed it in the center so that _Edit_ could follow _File_ (fairly standard), but would have no problem with _Project_ following _File_, as it currently does. _Settings_ was changed to _Options_ to allow the _O_ hotkey. _Format_ could have used _r_; I chose _m_ to match another editor that I use. For _HTML_, _L_ (Hypertext Markup _Language_) seemed appropriate. I understand that _P_ was not originally chosen for _Projects_ since _Alt-P_ was used elsewhere (as is _Alt-L_), but I have chosen to customize the keyboard shortcuts in any case. For example, I have used _Shift-Ctrl-Key_ for all Mode/Pane/Window functions, eg. _Shift-Ctrl-A_ = _Toggle ASCII Table_, _Shift-Ctrl-B_ = _Toggle HEX(Byte) Mode_, _Shift-Ctrl-C_ = _Toggle Code Window_, _Shift-Ctrl-D_ = _Toggle Clipboard Window_, _Shift-Ctrl-E_ = _Toggle File/Project Window_, _Shift-Ctrl-F_ = _Toggle Search(Find)/Log Window_, _Shift-Ctrl-G_ = [b]Toggle Syntax Highlighting[/b], _Shift-Ctrl-H_ = _Toggle Show Control Characters_, _Shift-Ctrl-J_ = _Toggle OEM Characters_, _Shift-Ctrl-L_ = _Toggle Line Numbers_, _Shift-Ctrl-R_ = _Toggle Ruler_, _Shift-Ctrl-T_ = _Toggle Toolbar_, _Shift-Ctrl-W_ = [b]Toggle Word Wrap[/b]. In the present menu, selecting the different panes/windows are scattered across several different menus; I would prefer to see them all collected under one menu. But now we are getting deeper into the structure; and perhaps I've written enough for now. Understand that these are just my thoughts on the subject, which I hope may prompt some discussion. Please let me know what you think. -- <http://forum.pspad.com/read.php?2,68773,68785> PSPad freeware editor http://www.pspad.com
