Idea Delivered

XPP 9.3 provides this functionality.

Override / supercede Pathfinder menus and buttons to execute other comments.

This would allow our users to access customized functionality from the standard Pathfinder Interface.

For example, if we wanted to perform a pre/post action when setting a CAP baseline or printing/exporting or completely change an interface aspect.

Thomas Mangan
Parents

  • Given the current design of pathfinder, this does not seem doable. The menu system is pretty much locked down with no way to extrapolate into a user configuration file for describing the menu structure. However, there have been other requests pertaining to the organization/traversal of the menus. A couple of thoughts come to mind.

    1. The context menus that pop up for Job/Div/Class/Style etc cannot have short-cuts  per se because they are "pop-ups"; i.e. they dont exist until the context menu is activated so you cannot do a short-cut to them.There are keyboard access keys built into all of the pop menus,  but they are really unavailable because you can't pop up the context menu with a keyboard command.

    XPP 9.3 will support the Windows SHIFT F10 keyboard that will pop up the floating menu depending on what you are pointing at. From there, the underlined letter will trigger the action if you hit that letter on the keyboard. This is a form of short-cut that can save some time.

    2. The Job/Div Tools could use some TLC. When a Job/Div is selected, the right mouse context (or now the SHIFT F10) will show the context menu. However, to use customer created "More Tools" programs, you have to select, Job (or Div) Tools, and then "More tools" and then the program to run from yet another sub-menu. Since there are only a couple of Job/Div tools under "Tools", the menus could be streamlined, if they are moved up to the top popup and the More Tools (and its list of programs as a sub-menu)  are also moved to the top. This will save mouse clicks and also feed in nicely to the SHIFT F10. The user could do SHIFT F10 T (for tools) and then a number or use the down arrow to select the appropriate program.

       For Job Tools, this would bring Exception Dictionary, Save Function Keys, Restore Function Keys and Set CAP Base up one level along with the "More tools" sub-menu.

       For Div Tools, this would bring Edit ASCII file, View ASCII file, Edit LOEP, and Set CAP Baseline up one level, along with the "More tools" sub-menu.

    3. Some of the requests pertaining to configuring the menus is expressly targeted at preventing users from executing certain functions. This has the potential to be a useful feature if enough people have the requirement. I can envision a configuration file with a list of names of the different menus. Setting the name to "disable" would gray out the menu and not make it available. This could be some kind of global configuration with a way to override values on a per user basis. With the functionality, a user could be locked out of being able to run the font import, or any other menu item (including the pop-ups). You could also put the names of the Job/Div Tools program names under "More tools" into the configuration file(s) and prevent users from being able to run individual custom programs.

Comment

  • Given the current design of pathfinder, this does not seem doable. The menu system is pretty much locked down with no way to extrapolate into a user configuration file for describing the menu structure. However, there have been other requests pertaining to the organization/traversal of the menus. A couple of thoughts come to mind.

    1. The context menus that pop up for Job/Div/Class/Style etc cannot have short-cuts  per se because they are "pop-ups"; i.e. they dont exist until the context menu is activated so you cannot do a short-cut to them.There are keyboard access keys built into all of the pop menus,  but they are really unavailable because you can't pop up the context menu with a keyboard command.

    XPP 9.3 will support the Windows SHIFT F10 keyboard that will pop up the floating menu depending on what you are pointing at. From there, the underlined letter will trigger the action if you hit that letter on the keyboard. This is a form of short-cut that can save some time.

    2. The Job/Div Tools could use some TLC. When a Job/Div is selected, the right mouse context (or now the SHIFT F10) will show the context menu. However, to use customer created "More Tools" programs, you have to select, Job (or Div) Tools, and then "More tools" and then the program to run from yet another sub-menu. Since there are only a couple of Job/Div tools under "Tools", the menus could be streamlined, if they are moved up to the top popup and the More Tools (and its list of programs as a sub-menu)  are also moved to the top. This will save mouse clicks and also feed in nicely to the SHIFT F10. The user could do SHIFT F10 T (for tools) and then a number or use the down arrow to select the appropriate program.

       For Job Tools, this would bring Exception Dictionary, Save Function Keys, Restore Function Keys and Set CAP Base up one level along with the "More tools" sub-menu.

       For Div Tools, this would bring Edit ASCII file, View ASCII file, Edit LOEP, and Set CAP Baseline up one level, along with the "More tools" sub-menu.

    3. Some of the requests pertaining to configuring the menus is expressly targeted at preventing users from executing certain functions. This has the potential to be a useful feature if enough people have the requirement. I can envision a configuration file with a list of names of the different menus. Setting the name to "disable" would gray out the menu and not make it available. This could be some kind of global configuration with a way to override values on a per user basis. With the functionality, a user could be locked out of being able to run the font import, or any other menu item (including the pop-ups). You could also put the names of the Job/Div Tools program names under "More tools" into the configuration file(s) and prevent users from being able to run individual custom programs.

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