![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidlevine) wrote2005-11-22 11:16 pm
11/22/05: Shiny!
At work, it was almost like Christmas as the long-awaited Macs arrived. I must confess I was surprised -- I'd been figuring that someone, somewhere in the purchase order approval chain, would say "we make Windows software -- I don't care if they're 'Designers', they can't have Macs!" But, despite my skepticism, there they were: three shiny (very shiny!) new dual-processor Power Mac G5 Towers with half a gig of RAM and 250 gigs of disk each, plus three boxes of assorted software. And so the day was spent in setting up, configuring, installing, and tweaking. (Um, can anyone tell me how to make IntelliJ Idea use Command instead of Control for its keyboard shortcuts?)
Then, at home, I finally got off my duff -- well, no, actually I got on my duff -- and started editing "Titanium Mike." Shortened the first scene by about 200 words (in the first 800) and made the Mike story a bit more outlandish. The edits on the next scene are going to be trickier. But I'm editing again! I hope to have this one in the mail by the end of next week.
no subject
I couldn't help wondering if there would be a sequel to "Immigrants." There have been a lot of changes in the Old Country since Papa and Mama left.
But it doesn't really need a sequel.
no subject
I'd rather command than control...
Maybe. There are a couple of possibilities.
Primus: In "System Preferences" -> "Keyboard & Mouse" -> "Keyboard Shortcuts," you will find a list of various pre-existing keyboard shortcuts. At the bottom of the list is "Application Shortcuts." Below that are a "+" and "-" button. Click the "+" button. You should get asked for an application and a menu item. Select Intellliwhazis for the app. Enter the menu item you want to change. Enter the new key combination. I believe this will override whatever the app's defined for it, although I'm not positive. (I can't check my copy of Extreme Mac Modding; I'm not home at the moment.) You do have to get the menu item letter-perfect, which can be a problem with ellipses. Sometimes they're three periods, sometimes they're a single Unicode ellipsis character.
Secundus: If you install XCode, the development toolkit that comes free with OSX, and make a copy of the app you're about to surgically alter, you can select your app's replicant, and control-click the contextual menu into existance. Request "Show Package Contents." Hopefully your app was made with XCode as well. You should find a "Contents" folder containing a "Resources" folder. You're looking for the file "MainMenu.nib" which might be here, or more likely inside "English.lproj". Double click to load this into Interface Builder.
You now have the ability to mangle the app's menus beyond all recognition. Change the key shortcuts, the text of the items, what order they appear in, or even erase them. Note that the greater the change, the greater the likelihood you'll break something, naturally. But reassigning keyboard shortcuts as you see fit should be a piece of cake.
Good luck. Let me know how it works.
Re: I'd rather command than control...
But thanks for the advice! It may come in handy for some other app.
Is there any third-party extension that will give the Mac the equivalent of the Windows-standard "press ALT plus the underlined letter" to invoke any menu command in two keystrokes? Control-F2 plus pressing the arrow keys many many times, the only equivalent available with the built-in software, isn't good enough.
Re: I'd rather command than control...
This is an easier question; I don't even have to research it. "No." Because the Windows scheme involves somebody picking out letters by hand to assign and underline on menu commands. So it's not possible to magically make alt-letter commands appear. You'd have to decide which letter you want to have correspond to which menu item yourself, then use the previously mentioned techniques to assign them.