New keyboard shortcut?

[#1]

FM 2017 user here

I often need to use a menu option that doesn't have a keyboard shortcut (such as Insert > Character > Hex Input).  Is there a way I can assign a keyboard shortcut to those keystrokes?  Or perhaps make that into a macro?  I'm tired of having to use the mouse so repetitively.

Thanks!

[#2]

FM 2017 user here

I often need to use a menu option that doesn't have a keyboard shortcut (such as Insert > Character > Hex Input).  Is there a way I can assign a keyboard shortcut to those keystrokes?  Or perhaps make that into a macro?  I'm tired of having to use the mouse so repetitively.

Thanks!

[#3]

There are no Adobe-defined keyboard shortcuts to either the Hex Input or the Character Palette. Klaus Daube has written a fairly comprehensive guide to creating your own menu items (etb-customising-fm14.pdf) that may be of use to you.

[#4]

Does it talk about keyboard shortcuts?  I'd like to be able to free myself from the mouse.  Ideally I'd like to assign a particular keystroke to a given menu function.

[#5]

Maker contains the following text, but Win+H doesn't do anything related to FrameMaker, unfortunately.  Perhaps I'm doing it wrong?

;character map
;For encoding, UTF-8=0, UTF-16=1, UTF-32=2;
;Key Combinations can be a combination of Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Win+{some key code}
Encoding=2

Width=420

RememberPage=0

RememberFont=Courier

ClipBoardForHexInput=On

ClipBoardForCharPalette=Off

HexInput_Key=Win+H

CharPalette_Key=Win+I

[#6]

They do nothing for me either, but I'm having my own issues with both the Character Palette and the Hex Input. Namely, they don't stay open for longer than 10 seconds, although it may be less.

I believe Klaus does give information on how to create new keyboard shortcuts, but I've never had a need to customize the UI that much so I haven't tried it out. Note that if you DO assign key combinations to these two items, you'll want to check your choices against the ones in use, or unexpected things may happen.

[#7]

Where does Klaus give that information?

Thanks!

[#8]

Here are some resources:

https://www.daube.ch/docu/fmaker75.html

https://www.daube.ch/docu/files/etb-customising-fm14.pdf

Best regards

Winfried

[#9]

Thanks Winfried.

Following those documents I've learned how to add a new menu, and how to add commands to that menu.  But it's not letting me add the Hex Input or Character Palette commands.

Does anyone know Frame's names for these commands?  I'm assuming they are different from what I typed above because those don't work.

Klaus' document says the following:

To be able to set up custom menus and tool bars it is necessary to get the command names from these sources. The best method is to use the free FrameScript Report FM-commands from itl.

I don't have Framescript so I can't run the Report FM-commands script.  I'd appreciate it if someone could run this script and post here the results.

Thanks again!

[#10]

I've been using Klaus' instructions on using \x codes (such as \xB5) to insert symbols, but only a few symbols use a two character code.  How do I insert symbols that have 4 codes (such as \u03A9)?  I'm specifically trying to add these codes to a context sensitive menu to simplify the process of inserting them.

For instance, the code below works great for Mu:

<Command MyCharMu

<Definition \xB5>

<Label \xB5 Mu>

<KeySeqLabel \B5> >

<Add MyCharMu <Menu SpecialCharsContext>>

[#11]

Tagging K.Daube, the guru of FrameMaker customization here

[#12]

FrameMaker supports configuration (.cfg) files that define menus and keyboard shortcuts. The last manual I have that describes these files is for FM 7. Through FM 10, users could use the View > Menu > Modify command to add new commands and shortcuts. When .cfg files were moved into the definition of a workspace in FM 11, the behavior of this command changed; it now replaces all existing menus and shortcuts. Thus, if you want to add one more shortcut this way, you need to add that shortcut to a copy of your existing .cfg files in the relevant subdirectories of %appdata%\Adobe\FrameMaker\n\Workspaces (where n indicates the version of FM).

It is still possible to use the FDK to build a plugin that adds the entries in a file to the existing entries instead of starting over. I assume ExtendScript has the same ability, but I have never confirmed that assumption.

[#13]

Strangely enough, none of the files under %appdata%\Adobe\FrameMaker\n\Workspaces contain any entries for the Insert > Character sub-menu, or the two entries on that sub-menu.  It goes straight from Symbols to Directional Marks.

<Add SpecialSymbolsOnly <Menu InsertMenu>>

<Add DirectionSymbols <Menu InsertMenu>>

So I wouldn't know what to modify even if I knew where.  

[#14]

Along with Klause's thoughts, I'd also be interested to see what frameexpert​ Rick Quatro has to say about this.

[#15 · Accepted solution]

doug1120​ has also been posting on the Frameusers list. K.Daube​ responded there and suggested use of his enhanced toolbars, that include a special context menu for inserting special characters. Doug has installed and is reporting that he is very happy with the results.