SlickEdit User Guide

Key and Mouse Bindings
KEY AND MOUSE BINDINGS
Key and mouse bindings are quick ways to execute operations in SlickEdit®. Key bindings are the most
efficient. Time is wasted each time you lift your hand from the keyboard to grab the mouse, and more time
is wasted when you move your hand back to the keyboard in preparation for more typing. Therefore, if you
learn the key bindings associated with operations that you use most frequently, you will save time coding.
If an operation you use frequently isn’t already bound by default, create your own easy-to-remember
binding.
What is a Binding?
A key or mouse binding is a key sequence or mouse event associated with a command. Key terms are
defined as follows:
• Mouse event - The clicking of any button or motion of the mouse wheel.
• Key - Any single key on the keyboard.
• Key combination - Two or more keys pressed simultaneously, for example, Ctrl+O (in CUA
emulation, associated with the gui_open command, File > Open, and the Open button on the
Standard toolbar). The plus (+) sign between the keys indicates that these keys must be pressed
simultaneously: press the Ctrl and O keys at the same time. Note that the last key is caseinsensitive.
You do not need to press Shift.
• Key sequence - A series of one or more keys or key combinations, for example, Ctrl+X,R (in Vim
emulation, this binding is associated with the redo command, Edit > Redo, and the Redo button
on the Standard toolbar). The comma (,) indicates that each key must be pressed consecutively:
press Ctrl and X at the same time, release, then press the R key.
• Key binding range - A command bound to a range of keys. For example, the alt_bookmark
command is bound by default to the key combination range of Ctrl+0 through Ctrl+9. Press Ctrl+0
to create a bookmark named “0”, Ctrl+1 to create a bookmark named “1”, etc.
To view or change bindings, create new bindings, and export/import custom bindings, see Key and Mouse
Bindings.
The available key bindings change depending on the selected emulation. While SlickEdit® provides
emulations for 13 editors, CUA is the default emulation, so key bindings listed throughout the
documentation are for the CUA emulation. To change the emulation mode, click Tools > Options >
Emulation. For more information, see Emulations.
NOTE
• For documentation purposes, both mouse events and keys that are bound to commands are
often referred to collectively as key bindings.
• The SlickEdit main menu displays the key bindings for commands associated with each
menu entry. See Accessing Menus and Creating and Editing Menus for more information.
• A menu hotkey is a key sequence that corresponds to an underlined letter on a menu name.
See Menu Hotkeys for more information about these items.
Managing Bindings
Create and manage key bindings using the Key Bindings option screen. This displays a list of all
SlickEdit® commands, including macros that you have recorded, their associated key sequences, and the
SlickEdit® User Guide 107