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Motif and CDE 2.1 Style Guide Reference

Edit (Menu)

Reference

Description

The Edit menu includes the following choices:

Edit
A cascading choice that appears as a menu-bar item. It provides access to other menu items that allow a user to modify the contents of a selection scope.

Duplicate
An action choice that duplicates selected objects and displays the duplicates in the same selection scope.

Insert
This choice can be:
A dialog choice
Leads to a file selection dialog in which users can select a file or object to be inserted into a specified location or into an object or objects displayed within the window.

A cascading choice
May appear as a menu-bar item. It provides access to other choices that enable a user to insert elements into a specified location or into an object or objects displayed within the window.

Select All
An action choice that causes all of the elements in a scope of selection to be selected.

Deselect All
An action choice that deselects the selected elements (possibly excluding the cursored element) in the scope of selection.

Guidelines

In conjunction with the Menu Guidelines reference page, use Table 13 to decide which choices to include in the Edit menu and how to organize them.

Table 13. Edit Menu Choices


 Mnemonic Menu Choice Keyboard Function
Recommended U Undo Undo, Ctrl Z, Alt Backspace
Recommended R Repeat/Redo Shift Undo, Ctrl Y, Alt Shift Backspace

Recommended
Drag
Optional
Move (only if Drag is not used)
Optional
Size
Optional
Duplicate

Required T Cut Cut, Ctrl X, Shift Delete
Required C Copy Copy, Ctrl C, Ctrl Insert
Optional K Copy Link
Optional
Copy Special ...
Required P Paste Paste, Ctrl V, Shift Insert
Optional L Paste Link
Optional
Paste Special ...
Optional I Insert ...

Optional
Primary Copy Alt Copy, Alt Ctrl C, Alt Ctrl Insert
Optional
Primary Move Alt Cut, Alt Ctrl X, Alt Shift Delete
Optional
Primary Link

Recommended E Clear Delete (only if Delete entry not used)
Required D Delete Delete

Recommended S Select All Ctrl A, Ctrl /
Recommended
Deselect All Ctrl \
Optional
Find... Ctrl F
Optional
Replace....
Optional
Select Pasted
Optional
Reselect
Required
For operations with multiple shortcut keys, show the one that augments a printing character with Ctrl (for example, Ctrl A for Select All).

Required
Do not display the shortcut keys for Primary Copy or Primary Move in their respective menu entries.

Optional
If all Edit menu choices apply to the selected elements, the Edit menu is not needed, and you can place all choices in the Selected menu.

Required
When the user selects the Select Pasted choice, select the element last transferred into the selection scope.

Required
Allow a Reselect choice only when nothing is selected in the current selection scope. When the user chooses Reselect, reselect the previously selected elements within a selection scope.

Required
Provide a Duplicate choice to copy the selected elements in the same selection scope. If the elements are named, selecting Duplicate should automatically generate names for them that do not conflict with the names of other objects in the scope.

Required
Provide an Insert choice to allow the user to specify a file or object to be included at the cursor position. Either the name, reference, or contents can be included. If multiple choices are reasonable, the dialog should allow the user to determine the choice. If different kinds of elements can be inserted, then either provide a cascaded choice or make Insert a menu-bar item.

Essential Related Topics

For more information, see the Clear (Action Choice), Copy (Choice), Cut (Choice), Delete (Action Choice), Paste (Choice), and Undo (Choice) reference pages.

Supplemental Related Topics

For more information, see the Help Menu and Selected Menu reference pages.

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