On 15.03.2010, at 19:21, Kino wrote:

> -
> On Mar 15, 2010, at 10:42 PM, Þorvarður Davíðsson wrote:
>
>>> You can set any key combinations by defining them as  
>>> NSUserKeyEquivalents in com.nisus.NisusWriter.plist. For that,  
>>> you can edit the file with Property List Editor (a component of  
>>> Developer Tools) or by a Terminal command. With some limitations,  
>>> you can use also the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of Keyboard [& Mouse]  
>>> System Preferences to define them.
>>
>> Are there any step-by-step instructions available for this task?
>
> Begin with GUI
> (…)
>
> You may find it too restrictive. (…)
>
> You are not affected by such limitations if you edit  
> com.nisus.NisusWriter.plist directly. Open it in Property List  
> Editor, add NSUserKeyEquivalents as Dictionary (…)


Many thanks for the detailed instruction. I guess I have enough stuff  
now to keep me busy for the next two months! :-)

Property List Editor is on the Snow Leopard installation CD, isn't  
it? I'm still using OS 10.4.11 and I cannot install Snow Leopard on  
my old machine. But I have PlistEdit Pro which claims to be "the most  
advanced property list editor written for Mac OS X." I don't know if  
that is true. Have you worked with PlistEdit Pro? Can I use it  
instead of Property List Editor?

Provided I used the program today correctly, I was not able to find  
any "NSUserKeyEquivalents". Instead I found  
"com.nisus.Menus.keyequivalents" which consists of 117 expandable sub- 
entries (Class: Arrays) which in turn all consist of the subentries  
0, 1, 2 (Class: String). I have to read the Help before I risk going  
further and make changes.

Now to something else. You mentioned that you started with OS 7 in  
the 90ies. Were you also involved in the HyperCard euphoria of these  
years? I still have invaluable HyperCard stacks for which I have not  
found any replacement yet. I can apparently convert them directly  
with Revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_ 
(development_environment), but I have not seriously thought about it  
yet. Perhaps I should try to write my own application (if it is not  
too difficult for a layman like me.) It would be a combination of a  
dictionary and vocabulary coach then. The purpose is to help you keep  
track of and learn permanently new words you come across in foreign  
languages (or in your own language, if you like.) This dictionary is  
initially empty, you enter your own words and expressions at will.  
Therefore it is basically not restricted to any particular language  
although a few language specific fields (like gender and/or case) are  
required, of course.

I actually only need several fields (gender, style label, headword,  
meaning(s), example(s) + a few other fields). All text is hypertext.  
Clicking on a word in the meaning-field or the example-field takes  
you to the corresponding headword (like in the English Dictionary  
that comes with OS X.) Training is done automatically by jumping  
randomly from one headword to another, either time restricted (jump  
and stay for 5 seconds) or unrestricted (jump and stay until you  
click the mouse, for example, then jump randomly to another  
headword.) In HyperCard it's easy to implement all sorts of  
additional training features for individual use. Would it be  
difficult to write such an application in Cocoa?


Þorvarður
OS X 10.4.11
Power Mac G4