wish-list: create own keyboard shortcuts

[GoogleCodeExporter]

It would be nice to be able to create keyboard shortcuts either for the
commands of the program or for personnal macros (for example to create a
LaTeX structure,...). And possibility to create macros would be a plus.

Using a French Belgian keyboard, the AltGr combinations do not work and so
the existing shortcuts (like comment/uncomment,...) neither.

Alain Delmotte

Original issue reported on code.google.com by lal.stu...@yahoo.fr on 9 Aug 2008 at 3:02

• Blocking: #432, #434

[GoogleCodeExporter]

When the interface is localized (e.g., for French), the predefined shortcuts 
could be changed - this is at the 
discretion of the translator. However, the problem that AltGr keys are not 
recognized on Windows definitely 
needs to be resolved.

The request for user-customized shortcuts (and macros) is a bigger issue, 
probably not for a first release but 
definitely desirable in the future.

Original comment by jfkth...@gmail.com on 9 Aug 2008 at 4:56

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

When you localize, it is as "firmware" (??!!), not accessible to the user.
Would it be possible to have localisation in .xml files.
For example with TeXnicCenter, there are three files in the "packages" folder
(base.xml, math.xml and tex.xml) in which TeX modules are defined (and could be
modified for errors!!).

If TeXworks would use such files it could be easy to add macros, shortcuts,...
But I do not know if offering this possibility is easy :-(

Original comment by lal.stu...@yahoo.fr on 26 Aug 2008 at 12:57

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I attached a patch that enables the user to use custom shortcuts for all named
actions in TeXworks. I also attached a file listing all supported named actions 
for r252.

To use it, follow this procedure:
1) Create an ini file for mapping your custom shortcuts. Example:
   actionOpen = Alt+O
   actionPaste = Ctrl+V
Don't use any spaces in the shortcut definition. Backslash characters have to be
escaped (use "\\" instead of "\"). See
http://doc.trolltech.com/4.4/qsettings.html#Format-enum for more information.

2) Add the line
   shortcutsMapFile=<path-to-your-ini-file>
to your TeXworks configuration
(http://doc.trolltech.com/4.4/qsettings.html#platform-specific-notes may give 
you a
hint where to look)

Limitations/Caveats:
* Currently I haven't implemented a preferences dialog field.
* Currently only works for TeXDocument and PDFDocument windows (i.e. not for 
the Mac
top-level menu). Should be fairly easy to adopt, though (use 
QAction::setObjectName()
to support them).
* Doesn't currently work for dynamically added menu items (i.e. recent 
documents) for
the same reason.

Original comment by st.loeffler on 6 Jan 2009 at 2:30

Attachments:

• issue-17-custom-shortcuts.diff
• actions.txt

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks for looking into this, Stefan. Seems like this would be a good starting 
point, and could be extended 
further in due course. E.g., we could present the shortcuts in a Preferences 
panel using a QTableWidget, and 
update them dynamically in a similar way to on-the-fly language changes. But 
even just supporting a text file, 
as you've done here, is a great start.

Glancing through the patch, I wondered about the purpose of running the 
shortcuts through the QObject::tr() 
function in TWUtils::installCustomShortcuts(). Surely the shortcut file will 
already contain the right thing (i.e., the 
actual shortcut that the user wants). Or am I missing something?

Original comment by jfkth...@gmail.com on 12 Jan 2009 at 8:29

[GoogleCodeExporter]

A table to customize the shortcuts on-the-fly would be a logical enhancement. I
haven't looked into this so far, however, as this may be tricky to do in a
system-independent, user-friendly way (i.e. the user just clicks on the 
shortcut to
change and presses the new key(-combination)). This would involve interception 
of key
messages and/or an app-modal dialog to receive those keys. In any case there 
should
be the option to import/export a shortcut table to/from text files to make it 
easy
for people to publish "standard" shortcut lists for non-English keyboards. 
Since that
seemed to be a major issue for many users both here and on the mailing list I 
thought
I'd start with that ;).

The QObect::tr() thingy was copied from the Qt Doc under the assumption that
otherwise the displayed shortcut strings wouldn't be translated to the current
language (Ctrl is Strg in German, for example). After a few tests and some 
further
reading I figured out now that the tr() is in the documentation only to enable
changing a (static) shortcut so we won't need that here.

One more caveat I forgot last time:
* Currently it's not possible to assign context-aware shortcuts. If two 
(possibly
different) actions (i.e. in the tex and the pdf windows) have the same 
ObjectName
they get the same shortcut. This could easily be remedied by introducing
window-specific sections into the mapping file. This would possibly lead to
redundancy in the file, however (i.e. the same shortcut would most likely be 
used for
"Open" in all windows). The better way would probably be to give such 
(conflicting)
actions different names.

Original comment by st.loeffler on 13 Jan 2009 at 8:02

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I didn't test yet the ini system of Stefan to add shorcuts.
I had first to understand that the actionSomething are coming from the source 
files
(but what is a .ui, .h or .cpp file?)
Anyway I'll do a list of the actionS adding the shortcuts defined in the .ts/.qm
files (unless it is already done.)

There are some actions I'dd like to have for editing the TeX source: actionEmph,
actionTextBF, actionTextIT, actionTextSL, actionTextTT and actionTextSC. These 
would
embed a selected text in the corresponding command: \emph{selected_text}. The
selection should remain, so it would be possible to apply 2 or more commands to 
the
same selection. 
NB. The same behaviour, maintain the selection, could perhaps be used for the 
paste
command??!!

These actions could appear (or not) in the Format menu or one of its submenu.

A more general action would also be actionApplyCompletion on a selection: when 
used a
popup menu, with ? (I don't remember the name: a list appears which is adjusted 
by
subsequent inputs) to select a completion shortcut, apply it and have the 
original
selection at the place of #INS#.
Example: I want to put some text in a verbatim environment: I select it, ask
actionApplyCompletion, type b...v... to finaly select bverb, then ?[Enter] to 
have
the text between \begin{verbatim} \end{verbatim}

Original comment by lal.stu...@yahoo.fr on 14 Jan 2009 at 8:34

[GoogleCodeExporter]

.h are header files, .cpp are c++ files. They contain the source code. The .ui 
files
are user interface files that are created i.e. using QtDesigner. They basically
define the way windows look and what menus and menu items exist.
I've attached a list of currently available actions (actions.txt) to my original
comment. They don't contain the standard shortcuts, they are only meant as a
reference. If you need a list on actions with the default shortcuts that's quite
simple to generate automatically (i.e. you don't have to do it by hand).

Adding new actions isn't that simple, though. It would require a lot of changes 
to
the internals of TeXworks. However, the formatting commands you mention have 
been
implemented in terms of a different code completion mechanism already. If you 
type
"sf" followed by the tab key it expands to \textsf{} with the cursor positioned
between the braces. Hit tab multiple times to access other meanings of sf (if
available). For a complete list of code completion templates refer to the files 
in
the res/resfiles/completion subdirectory of the TeXworks sources or the 
completion
folder inside your TeXworks configuration directory (under Linux, it's 
~/.TeXworks,
under Windows it's probably C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\TeXworks).

Hope this helps
Stefan

Original comment by st.loeffler on 14 Jan 2009 at 9:43

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I didn't take care to the action.txt file.

About the second comment: I am already a lot using the completion, including for
formating. 
But I often have files which I have to format *afterwards*, that is, the text 
already
exists and I have to apply emph, bold,...
So now I have to: locate in front of the text, type em+[space], [left arrow], 
[Tab],
the completion is done "\emph{}", delete "}", delete "space", move to the end 
of the
text to emphasize, type }
This is quite a painfull system (I did it for a 70 pages long text with many 
emph};
so selecting and applying em would be a real help.

This was the very first reason to ask for the hability to create shortcuts.

Alain

Original comment by lal.stu...@yahoo.fr on 14 Jan 2009 at 1:20

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I understand your wish to have a more convenient way to apply such commands. 
However, this requires a 
slightly different approach, as you don't just need to be able to assign your 
chosen shortcut to an existing 
operation in the program; you need to be able to define a custom editing 
operation, too.

I don't want to hard-code a collection of LaTeX markup options such as 
\emph{...}, etc., as "actions" that can 
have Qt shortcuts assigned; rather, I'd like to have an editable file of "text 
fragments" similar to the 
completions, but available to insert from a menu, palette, or something like 
that. Such fragments could be 
inserted as-is at the current cursor position, or if there is a selection, they 
would define how to interact with 
it (replace the selection, or insert before, after, or around it).

Original comment by jfkth...@gmail.com on 14 Jan 2009 at 2:45

[GoogleCodeExporter]

That is exactly what I would like to have!

I did propose the harcoded solutions as "easier" solutions!!

Now I have many things to test, so I'll be quite for some time!!

Original comment by lal.stu...@yahoo.fr on 14 Jan 2009 at 4:12

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Unfortunately, the original patch didn't work on Windows (thanks to Alain for 
keeping
reminding me of it ;)). This should be fixed with the attached patch (which is
supposed to replace the original one).

For those who are interested: The error was that pre-portable configuration 
code was
used. This means that the configuration was not taken from the custom ini 
files, but
from the registry. Hence no custom shortcut file was loaded. This also explains 
why
this problem only occurred on Windows.

Original comment by st.loeffler on 11 Jun 2009 at 3:29

Attachments:

• issue-17-custom-shortcuts-win.diff

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Committed a variant of this patch. It will load shortcuts from a file named 
"shortcuts.ini" in the TeXworks 
configuration folder, if it exists, rather than requiring a special entry in 
the main settings file.

Original comment by jfkth...@gmail.com on 28 Jun 2009 at 9:35

• Changed state: Started

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi, 
I just wanted to say thanks for this: 

> Committed a variant of this patch. It will 
> load shortcuts from a file named "shortcuts.ini"

I just discovered Texworks for Linux, and I think it is great - unfortunately,
sometimes if I make error in my Tex file, compile it with error, and then 
correct the
error, compilation still fails (something about missing \par) and it will not 
build
correctly unless Aux files are removed - and the Remove aux files option 
doesn't have
a shortcut by default. (Btw, choose Ctrl-Alt-R for this, since both Ctrl-R and
Ctrl-Shift-R are taken)... Now if it could just remember the choice not to 
delete say
the .blg file :)

Btw, I run Texworks "portably" (from a folder) and all I needed to do was to 
create a
new shortcuts.ini file in ~/.TeXworks/configuration (for Ubuntu); an example 
file can
be found on http://www.leliseron.org/texworks/shortcuts.ini ...

Thanks again,
Cheers!

Original comment by s...@imi.aau.dk on 9 Mar 2010 at 7:54

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Could I request that to the configurable keyboard-short cut actions be added 
the actual drop-down menus on the main editing and preview screens?

I'm habituated to typing Alt+f and getting the File menu drop down, with my 
cursor on it, whence I can select whatever I want by moving and pressing enter. 
 I looked for a way to set this up with the current TeXworks, and couldn't find 
it.  Perhaps I'm missing something, but I would expect this to be implemented 
as something like actionMenuFile, actionMenuEdit, actionMenuSearch, etc.

GNU/Linux, Ubuntu 10.04, TeXworks 0.3 r.671 (launchpad)

Thanks
Dominik

Original comment by wujas...@gmail.com on 12 Aug 2010 at 3:31

[GoogleCodeExporter]

There are some differences in the underlying code, so accelerator keys 
(underlined letters in the menu) are not dealt with by the action... code. 
Instead, this has to be done in the translation/localization file.
Alain Delmotte has posted such a customized file for English on the mailing 
list (http://tug.org/pipermail/texworks/2010q2/002606.html). If you use a 
different language, you'd probably need to add them yourself. For this, see the 
"Translating" page on the wiki (you'd need to add a "&" character in front of 
the character you want underlined).

Original comment by st.loeffler on 13 Aug 2010 at 8:33

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Many thanks.  After downloading attachment.obj from Tug.org, and renaming it 
TeXworks_en.qm, and placing it in ~/.TeXworks/translations , it worked!

This really helps a lot, making TeXworks much more friendly and easy to use.

Many thanks!
Dominik

Original comment by wujas...@gmail.com on 18 Aug 2010 at 3:48

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Could "personal macro's" header area's ...

// Description: Text here Text here Text here

Description be made to show as a mouse over hint, on the Script's position on 
the Scripts Menu please?

Paul

Original comment by paul.a.norman on 6 Nov 2010 at 6:21

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hey,

i recently switched from TeXshop to TeXworks and missed the shortcuts for the 
different typesetting engines (so you don't have to click the 
dropdownmenu/menubar).
So I grabbed the SVN and patched it myself. I did't succeed, because I my Qt 
SDK is kind of messed up right now (major include path issues, stupid 
macosx...).
After that I noticed this thread. If it helps, i attached my patch... it's 
untested for now (see above).
Either way, shortcuts for the engines would be nice (customizable or not, i 
personally don't care).

Richard

Original comment by dasri...@gmail.com on 9 May 2011 at 1:06

Attachments:

• engine_shortcuts.patch

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Is there any way for me to use the j and k keys to move up and down by SCREEN 
line? 

I'm am trying to create a system of scripts that let me navigate by pressing 
the Ctrl key, plus keys in or near the home row. (Sorta vim-like, I guess.) So 
far I can move by characters, words, and code-lines (or anything else I can 
search TW.target.text for). But not screen lines.

I can think of two possibilities: 

1. Is there some way I could map the up and down arrow keys to Ctrl+j and 
Ctrl+k?

2. Is there some TW api property that tells me the position of the next screen 
line up and down? If so I could write a script that then uses 
TW.target.selectRange(x) to move the cursor there.

I'd be grateful for any ideas, thanks!

Jonathan

I am trying to make a script to move the cursor up and down by screen lines. 
(My documents are not hard wrapped so I 

Original comment by jonathan...@yahoo.ca on 29 Jul 2012 at 8:41

[mehrt]

Initially I found TeXWorks to be hardly usable on windows, because commenting and indenting by keyboard is one of the main features I use almost on a per-line basis, and the default shortcuts were not usable. I'm using the .ini-approach for now, which mitigates the issue. Still ... this seems to be a widely used editor, so I personally find it strange that this has stayed open for a bit more than nine years now.