Modifing note stream hot keys

[sourdoughpablo]

I have a large number of documents in which I use end notes, and occasional foot notes. I used the <option><cmd><N> key combination for the foot notes, and the <option><cmd><M> key combination for comments (as end notes). These keystroke options were on the selection list in the Note Streams Attributes dialogue box.

These options are STILL OFFERED TO ME in Mellel 2.9. BUT . . . The keystroke combination <option><cmd><M> is now ALSO assigned as a shortcut to minimize all open Mellel windows. And I can find no way to disable this new and conflicting use of that key combination.

Nor can I find a way to change the key combination for the comment note stream in a way that attaches it to a specific document style. I can't apply a hot key combination to a note stream in a style set.

This appears to leave me with only one alternative -- re-setting the note stream attribute for comments individually in each of perhaps 300 documents that I use fairly frequently.

Is there any way to automate this task? Or, better yet, to get rid of the conflict by removing the key combination <option><cmd><M> from its "minimize" assignment and giving it back to note streams attributes where it belongs? [Since "minimize" hides all the open Mellel document windows, and I can already do that with <cmd><H>, i don't personally find any particular advantage in this option of hiding the open windows while retaining the Mellel toolbar.]

[ahankinson]

Did you try going to Insert->Note->Edit Note Attributes and changing the keyboard shortcut there? That should change it everywhere.

That dialog will also let you attach a note stream to a particular note style.

Is that what you were looking for? Or did I misunderstand?

[suavito]

First, cmd-h (dropdown menu item Mellel/Hide Mellel) does not minimize but hide the Mellel window. Minimizing on the other hand you can find in the dropdown menu Window/Minimize. And here you see that the standard keyboard shortcut for minimizing, cmd-m, is set to this item properly.

But what you don't see is the dropdown menu item for minimizing ALL Mellel windows. But the function is there, and cmd-opt-m is set as the keyboard shortcut to it, hence the conflict.

But there is a solution: As soon as you have created a footnote or endnote it appears in the Insert/Note dropdown menu. And you can set a keyboard shortcut to any dropdown menu item of any program in the OS system preferences and these shortcuts will replace the shortcuts in the program, even the ones that are not visible in the dropdown menus.

So open the System Preferences, got to Keyboard. Here choose Application Shortcuts on the bottom of the list and hit the + button. Set the application to Mellel, not all programs. Enter the exact name of your note, say "MyFootnote" (without quotation marks, and just the name of the note, not the whole menu item tree), then set the Keyboard Shortcut to cmd-opt-m and hit Add.

If you are using Snow Leopard or earlier you might have to close the System Preferences or Mellel or both and restart Mellel to make this work. But it should work.

And by the way: I found Mellel's shortcuts options for notes always a little limited, why not cmd-opt-f for footnotes and cmd-opt-e for endnotes if the user likes to have these? By assigning shortcuts to notes via the System Preferences there are no limits like these anymore.