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Macros, tips, and templates for Corel® WordPerfect® for Windows®
© Copyright 1996-2008 by Barry MacDonnell. All Rights Reserved.

Customize your menu - How to add new menu choices or rearrange existing ones

Do you need more features or macros available from the top menu? Is it time to rearrange your menu selections or items — perhaps to organize them in a more personal way? Here's how.

Note "Menu selection" (or just "menu") as used here means the label you see at the top of your screen, such as File, Edit, View, Help, etc. "Menu item" generally means the choice available under a menu selection, but can also refer to a single item on the top menu bar. The meaning should be clear from the context of the sentence in which it appears. [Much of the material on this page is found in the author's WPMenus.pdf (about 114KB), which was written to explain how to quickly load stationery, envelopes, invoices, fax cover sheets, or other customized templates or boilerplate text files from the top menu bar.]

Step 1. Create a new menu selection on the top menu.

First, you need to create a new menu selection — a label like the existing ones (File, View, etc.) — on the top menu. Then you can add items under it. Right-click on the top menu bar (the one with File, Edit, View, etc.). From the drop list that appears, click on "Settings...." In the Customize Settings window that pops up, click on the menu you want to customize under the Menus tab. Generally this is the <WordPerfect N Menu> (where "N" is your version number, unless you have previously created a customized menu — in which case, click on that one. Then click Edit to bring up the Menu Editor. (You can drag the Menu Editor dialog to reposition it.) In the Menu Editor window you'll see an indented box on the right side labeled Menu, just above the box labeled Separator. Hold down your left mouse button and drag the Menu icon from this box (it's a small white rectangle with a right arrowhead inside it) up and to the (empty) right side of WordPerfect's top menu bar. Release the mouse button to drop the icon on this empty area of the menu bar. Move your cursor over this new menu selection (which is temporarily labeled "Menu" by default), and when it turns dark blue (assuming you use default Windows' colors), double click it. The Edit Menu Text dialog appears; this lets you change the menus name in the Menu Item field (e.g., "Letterheads," "Stationery," "My Macros," or something familiar), and also add a floating description (called a "Quick Tip"). Note: If you prefer using the keyboard to the mouse to access this menu later, you can type an ampersand (&) immediately before any letter in the name that you want to use as a mnemonic; this will select (open) the menu if you use the keyboard's [Alt+<letter>] key combination. For example, if the menu is labeled "Letterheads" you would type this in the Menu Item field (without quotes): &Letterheads This produces a label on the menu with an underlined letter (the mnemonic): Letterheads When the cursor is in a document (not a dialog), pressing <Alt+L> will open the Letterheads menu (assuming <Alt+L> is not already assigned to some other feature, program, keystrokes, or macro). If the menu items (the "choices" in Step 2 below) listed on the Letterheads menu also have mnemonics in their names, just type a mnemonic letter immediately (i.e., without pressing <Alt>) to choose that menu item. See the Tips section below about using multiple mnemonics on sub-menus. Click OK when you are done editing the menu name and Quick Tip. To add choices to the new menu leave the Menu Editor open on your screen and continue with the instructions below.

Step 2. Add choices (menu items) to the new menu.

While the Menu Editor dialog is still open (Step 1 above), click on the Features, Keystrokes, Programs, or Macros tab at the top of the dialog. (The Features tab is selected by default.) Example: To add a WordPerfect feature: Click in the drop list, "Feature categories," then scroll down in the Features list and left-click on one of the existing categories. (A brief description will appear below the feature list.) Click the Add Menu Item button. Example: To add a choice to play a macro: Click the Macros tab, then click the Add Macros button. Select the macro that you previously created. Click Select to close the Select Macro window. A dialog will pop up and ask if you want to save the macro with its full path; answer either Yes or No. ("No" will use the default macros folder when playing the macro, and may be the preferred answer for most users; "Yes" will point to the exact location of the macro on your system.) Note: When you get back to the Menu Editor you may have to click in a blank area of the Menu Editor window to make the window active again. This does not seem to be required in WordPerfect 9 and later versions. You'll notice the item (the feature or macro's filename without extension) was placed on the top menu, just to the right of the new menu selection created in Step 1 above. You'll want to move it underneath the new menu selection to make it a menu item. Carefully place your cursor over the new item (the feature or macro's name) on the top menu bar until it turns reverse color (i.e., it's now "selected"), then hold down the left mouse button and drag the name over to the new menu selection — then drag it down to the empty menu area that pops up just under the new menu selection's name; drop it there. This is a sort of "go left, then go down" action with your mouse, done while holding down the left mouse button. For additional menu items you can drag-and-drop the macro name either below or above any existing menu items. A heavy horizontal line will appear to guide your placement. You also can add a separator line between menu items by dragging and dropping a separator from the Menu Editor window. For sub-menus, you can click the Menu icon on the Menu Editor dialog (see Step 1) and drag it to a location under a menu selection, at the proper position among the other menu items. You will want to rename it (see next paragraph below), then add (drag) items to the sub-menu. Rename the menu item or sub-menu by carefully positioning your mouse over it. When the macro's name turns reverse color, double click it and rename it in the pop up box. In the same way that you can add an Alt-key mnemonic to the menu selection, you can type an ampersand (&) immediately before any letter in the menu item's name. Click OK to exit the dialog box. See the Tips section below about using multiple mnemonics on sub-menus. Click OK when you are done to close the Menu Editor, then click Close in the Customize Settings window.

Step 3. (Optional) Move menu items from one menu selection to another.

Open the Menu Editor as in Step 1 above. Drag-and-drop the desired menu item either below or above any existing menu items. A heavy horizontal line will appear to guide your placement. You also can add a separator line between menu items by dragging and dropping a separator from the Menu Editor dialog. You can also drag-and-drop a menu item or a a sub-menu to an adjacent menu. With the Menu Editor on screen, left-click the menu item, drag it upward and then across to the adjacent selection, then downward to the appropriate location. Drop it there.

Step 4. (Optional) Removing menu items.

If you later decide to delete a menu selection or one of its menu items, simply bring up the Menu Editor and drag the selection from the top menu bar (which will remove all its items, too), or just drag the desired item from under the menu selection. Note that this does not delete macros (*.wcm files) from your disk. Normally, leaving your macros on your disk is a good thing, since you might need them later. However, if you really want to delete the menu's macros too, you can right-click a macro's filename from the Play Macro dialog (click Tools, Macro, Play) or from any Windows file dialog, and choose Delete from the context menu.

Tips

You can create sub-menus on the new custom menu, perhaps to group items alphabetically with mnemonic letters (e.g., &A-B, &C-D, etc.). Then you could use the same mnemonic numbers or letters on more than one sub-menu for various menu choices. There won't be any conflict since mnemonics are only operative for the currently open menu or sub-menu. For example - Your new custom menu on the top level: Vendor &letters Sub-menus under this new top menu: &A-B &C-D &E-F ... etc. Item selections on a sub-menu: &1 Central Plumbing &2 Jane Dole Construction &3 ... etc. You can use numbers (0-9) and letters (a-z) on the same menu or sub-menu to have up to 36 items. This is not an absolute limit. If you use the same mnemonic two or more times on the same menu, you will simply cycle through these choices with each use of the mnemonic while that menu is open, which effectively (if less than optimally) increases the number of mnemonics you can have on the same menu. Note that while you must use <Alt+letter> or <Alt+number> to open a top-level menu if it has a mnemonic assignment, you don't need the <Alt> key to choose an item on that menu or a sub-menu (which is also tagged with a mnemonic). Just immediately press the appropriate mnemonic number or letter for your choice. In fact, using the <Alt> key to select a mnemonically tagged item on a menu or sub-menu might cause some other feature or macro to start. So, in the above example, to load Jane Dole's letter just press <Alt+L>,C,2. Be sure to periodically back up your default template, which is where norm al menus are stored (back up any custom templates, too), in case you upgrade or reinstall the program. See the Tips page here for tips and links on this topic. Create a "macro menu" to play other macros with the click of a toolbar button. See Mike Koenecke's MacroMenu.zip at http://www.macros.koenecke.us/. It displays a set of push-buttons to make it easy to play any of your macros. Create a vertical text toolbar "menu" with the method explained in this PDF file. A more advanced macro can be used to play other macros -- and also insert words, paragraphs, symbols, disk files, QuickWords, etc.. See PickList in the Library.