Quit Dreamweaver.
Last updated on
Aug 22, 2016
Learn how to change menus and menu commands, keyboard shortcuts, pop-up menus, and context menus in Dreamweaver.
By editing the menus.xml file, you can move menu commands within a menu or from one menu to another, add or remove separators from menus, and move menus within a menu bar or even from one menu bar to another.
You can move items into or out of context menus using the same procedure as for other menus.
For information, see The menus.xml file.
Move a menu command
Make a backup copy of the menus.xml file.
Open menus.xml in a text editor such as BBEdit, Macromedia® HomeSite,® or WordPad.
Do not open the XML file in Dreamweaver.
Cut an entire menuitem tag, from the <menuitem at the beginning to the /> at the end.
Place the insertion point at the new location for the menu command. Ensure that the insertion point is between a menu tag and the corresponding /menu tag.
Paste the menu command into its new location.
Create a submenu while moving a menu command
Place the insertion point inside a menu, between a menu tag and the corresponding /menu tag.
Insert a new menu tag and /menu tag pair inside the menu.
Add new menu commands to the new submenu.
Insert a separator between two menu commands
Place a separator/ tag between the two menuitem tags.
Remove an existing separator
Delete the corresponding separator/ line.
Move a menu
Quit Dreamweaver.
Create a backup copy of the menus.xml file.
Open menus.xml in a text editor such as BBEdit, HomeSite, or WordPad.
Do not open the XML file in Dreamweaver.
Cut an entire menu and its contents, from the opening menu tag to the closing /menu tag.
Place the insertion point at the new location for the menu. Ensure that the insertion point is between a menubar tag and the corresponding /menubar tag.
Paste the menu into its new location.
Change the name of a menu command or menu
You can easily change the name of any menu command or menu by editing the menus.xml file.
Quit Dreamweaver.
Create a backup copy of the menus.xml file.
Open menus.xml in a text editor such as HomeSite, BBEdit, or WordPad.
Do not open the XML file in Dreamweaver.
If you’re changing a menu command, find the appropriate menuitem tag, and change the value of its name attribute. If you are changing a menu, find the appropriate menu tag, and change the value of its name attribute. In either case, do not change the id attribute.
Save and close menus.xml. Restart Dreamweaver to see your changes.
Change keyboard shortcuts
If the default keyboard shortcuts are not convenient for you, you can change or remove existing shortcuts or add new ones. The easiest way to add or edit shortcuts is to use the Keyboard Shortcut Editor. However, you can also modify keyboard shortcuts directly in the menus.xml file. Entering shortcuts in menus.xml is error prone in comparison to the Keyboard Shortcut Editor.
Quit Dreamweaver.
Create a backup copy of the menus.xml file.
Open menus.xml in a text editor such as BBEdit, HomeSite, or WordPad.
Do not open the XML file in Dreamweaver.
Look at the Keyboard Shortcut Matrix. The matrix is available at the Dreamweaver Support Center. Find a shortcut that is not being used or one that you want to reassign.
If you reassign a keyboard shortcut, change it on a printed copy of the matrix for future reference.
If you’re reassigning a keyboard shortcut, find the menu command that the shortcut is assigned to. Remove the key="shortcut" attribute from that menu command.
Find the menu command to assign or reassign the keyboard shortcut.
If the menu command already has a keyboard shortcut, find the key attribute on that line. If the menu command does not already have a shortcut, add key="" anywhere between attributes inside the menuitem tag.
Between the double quotation marks (") of the key attribute, enter the new keyboard shortcut.
Use a Plus (+) sign between the keys in a key combination. For more information about modifiers, see the description of the menuitem tag in <menuitem>.
If the keyboard shortcut is in use elsewhere and you didn’t remove its other use, the shortcut applies only to the first menu command that uses it in menus.xml.
You can use the same keyboard shortcut for a Windows-only menu command and for a Macintosh-only menu command.
Write your new shortcut at the appropriate location in the Keyboard Shortcut Matrix.
Pop-up menus and context menus
Dreamweaver provides pop-up menus and context menus in many of its panels and dialog boxes. Some context menus are defined in the menus.xml file; others are defined in other XML files. You can add, remove, or modify items in those menus. However, usually, it is better to write an extension to make such changes.
The following pop-up menus and context menus in Dreamweaver are specified in XML files, using the same tags as menus.xml:
Data sources (listed in the Plus (+) pop-up menu on the Bindings panel) are specified in DataSources.xml files, in subfolders of the DataSources folder.
Server behaviors (listed in the Plus (+) pop-up menu on the Server Behaviors panel) are specified in ServerBehaviors.xml files, in subfolders of the ServerBehaviors folder.
Server formats (listed in the Plus (+) pop-up menu in the Edit Format List dialog box) are specified in ServerFormats.xml files, in subfolders of the ServerFormats folder.
Items in the formats pop-up menu for a binding in the Bindings panel are specified in Formats.xml files, in subfolders of the ServerFormats folder. You can add entries to this menu from inside Dreamweaver by using the Add Format dialog box.
The Tag Library Editor dialog box menu commands are specified in the TagLibraries/TagImporters/TagImporters.xml file.
Menu commands for parameters in the Generate Behavior dialog box, which is part of the Server Behavior Builder, are specified in Shared/Controls/String Menu/Controls.xml.
Items for context menus associated with ColdFusion Components are specified in Components/ColdFusion/CFCs/CFCsMenus.xml.
Items for context menus associated with ColdFusion data sources are specified in Components/ColdFusion/DataSources/DataSourcesMenus.xml.
Items for context menus associated with various server components are specified in XML files, in subfolders of the Components folder.
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