FaqAlteringToolbarsAndKeyboardShortcuts
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FAQ: Altering Toolbars, Adding Keyboard Shortcuts
Question
Can end users alter toolbars or create keyboard shortcuts?
I tend to take notes in class, and I need quick ways to use superscripts, subscripts, bullets, decreases and increases of indents. The toolbars are full of buttons I mostly wouldnt use but for those few commands, and Id like to do them from the keyboard directly. Anyone have any ideas?
Answer
On the developer mailing list the wise guru known as Dom Lachowicz said:
You cant create new shortcuts, though shortcuts do (or easily could) exist for the few things the poster did ask.
Superscript: Ctrl+=
Subscript: Ctrl+-
If you are using the UNIX/GTK+ version of Abi, you can re-arrange toolbars by dragging and dropping the icons.
However (at least as of version 2.2.9), you cannot re-arrange tools that call up multiple selections -- such as font, point size, zoom level, styles, font color, and highlight color -- or icon separators.
To move, change or remove these, you must edit the file AbiWord.Profile, which is created in the hidden .AbiSuite folder of your home directory after you make custom settings in the usual way. (Dont bother trying if you run Abiword under Microsoft Windows; any toolbar lines you add will disappear when you start the program.)
The developers, as noted in IntlFaqSettingDefaultLanguageOfDocuments, do not advise editing this file, and appear to have made its format difficult in order to discourage editing. However, after fiddling with AbiWord.Profile and restarting AbiWord a few hundred times to see the effects, I have found that changing toolbar entries is straightforward once you understand what some numbers stand for.
If you really mess up AbiWord.Profile, you can just delete the file. AbiWord will revert to the defaults, and make a new file when you customize its settings again. To save yourself the trouble of re-customizing, make a backup copy.
AbiWord cannot be running when you edit AbiWord.Profile, so you must use another text editor.
Do not touch anything outside the custom settings section, which begins with <verbatim> <Scheme name="_custom_" and ends with
/></verbatim>
Because the order of entries is jumbled, it may be easier to use an editor that can sort lines, such as NEdit. Move the custom settings into a new window and then move them back after sorting and changing. AbiWord will re-disarrange the entries to its liking when it starts.
What you are about to do is this: For each tool, you need to find a pair of lines scattered somewhere. You can change one line to hide or show the tool. You can change the other line to change tools. Or you can remove _both_ lines to utterly delete the tool.
AbiWord numbers the toolbars from 1 to 4. In AbiWord.Profile they are named:<verbatim> 1. FileEditOps 2. FormatOps 3. TableOps 4. ExtraOps </verbatim>
Within each toolbar, tools are numbered from the left, starting with 0. For example, the first tool on toolbar 1 is FileEditOps0.
The two lines for that tool are:<verbatim> Toolbar_ID_FileEditOps0="1" Toolbar_Flag_FileEditOps0="0"</verbatim>
Toolbar_ID specifies the tool -- in this case 1, the tool to create a new document. To get a different tool, change the number according to the list below.
Toolbar_Flag sets whether the tool is visible (0) or hidden (1).
Separators are a special case. Their Toolbar_ID number is 0, and they are shown if the Toolbar_Flag is set to 1 (rather than the usual 0).
If you delete a pair of entries controlling a tool, the numbers of those remaining will be adjusted when AbiWord starts.
Each toolbar also has a line that counts the tools such as<verbatim> Toolbar_NumEntries_FileEditOps="21" Do not change it. It will update itself if necessary when AbiWord starts.</verbatim>
Note that if you put more tools on a toolbar than fit on your screen, those on the right will vanish, with no indicator that there are more.
That is all there is to making custom AbiWord toolbars. Two lines per tool, one number per line.
the Toolbar_ID numbers:<verbatim> 0 separator 1 create new document 2 open document 3 save named document 4 save as ... 5 print 6 preview before printing 7 undo 8 redo 9 cut 10 copy 11 paste 12 edit header 13 edit footer 14 remove header 15 remove footer 16 spellcheck 17 insert image 18 style selector 19 font 20 insert hyperlink 21 insert bookmark 22 point size 23 bold 24 italics 25 underline 26 overline 27 strikeout 28 topline 29 bottomline 30 help 31 superscript 32 subscript 33 insert symbol 34 left alignment 35 center alignment 36 right alignment 37 justified alignment 38 space before (each line): none 39 space before: 12 pt 40 single spacing 41 1.5 spacing 42 double spacing 43 single column 44 double column 45 triple column 46 show/hide formatting 47 zoom level 48 bullets 49 numbering 50 font color 51 highlight color 52 increase indent 53 decrease indent 54 execute script 55 apply formatting of previously copied text 56 force left-to-right text direction 57 force right-to-left text direction 58 reverse left/right alignment 59 insert table 60 add row to table 61 add column to table 62 delete row 63 delete column 64 merge cells 65 split cell</verbatim>
Contributors
- Main.CarlaRosenfield - 22 Nov 2003
- Main.JamesKeating - 07 Sep 2005
