menu key settings won't stick

[samuelmuindi]

I had to log out of my Apple ID account (due to a Messages screw up).

Not only did that not fix my problem but a side effect seems to be that my customized "Menu Keys" settings got erased. And when I try to reset them they won't stick.

I'm guessing this is an iCloud issue because I've got synchronized settings turned.

Is it perhaps time to turn them off?

Thanks in advance,

Tim

[Bob Stern]

The ⌘0 shortcut key I defined in NWP years ago (for a paragraph style) stopped working when I updated MacOS to Sequoia. I don’t understand why, because I cannot find that shortcut being used by MacOS. Other ⌘-digit shortcuts I defined in NWP still work: ⌘7, ⌘8, ⌘9.

I do not use iCloud sync or any other settings sync.

[Þorvarður]

my customized "Menu Keys" settings got erased. And when I try to reset them they won't stick.

The customized keyboard shortcuts setting is stored in the file “keyboard shortcuts.plist”. This file may have been replaced with a new, empty one.

I would use Find Any File to search for "keyboard shortcuts.plist" and see if you now have two such files, one of which would then be your old one. If that is the case, replace the new with the old one. This happened in 2019 when I switched from NWP v.2 to NWP v.3

If new shortcuts won't stick, it can indicate that the “keyboard shortcuts.plist” file has been moved to another folder, as was the case by me. During the installation the new “keyboard shortcuts.plist” was moved to ~/Library/Application Support/Nisus Writer Pro

The old location was
~/Library/Containers/com.nisus.NisusWriter/Data/Library/Application Support/Nisus Writer Pro/Settings

Have you checked whether “keyboard shortcuts.plist” is locked or whether you have the right permissions?

Consider running the macro "Manage Macro File Access". It gives you access to files outside the sandbox. In 2019 I wasn't able to save files with a macro to the desktop, as I had always done, until I run that macro.
Here is also an old post from Martin about how to sync or restore Nisus Writer settings. Perhaps it helps.
viewtopic.php?t=6547

[samuelmuindi]

My thanks for this very useful information. I should have thought to tinker with the plists.

Tim

[Bob Stern]

The customized keyboard shortcuts setting is stored in the file “keyboard shortcuts.plist”. ...

Thanks, Þorvarður! You solved my problem, too!
I opened that plist, searched for <string>0</string>, and discovered that ⌘0 was assigned to a non-existent menu item. After I deleted that entry in the plist, I was able to reassign ⌘0 to my chosen style.

[Þorvarður]

Tim, Bob and all others,

I'm glad that the menu shortcuts are now working again as expected.

I would like to describe another approach. The macro language has the command Menu Shortcuts. This command allows us to see all menu shortcuts in a new Nisus document or to peek into the file “keyboard shortcuts.plist” without opening it directly

Paste the following code into an empty document.

Code: Select all

$a = Menu Shortcuts
New
Type text $a

Then select the code, i.e. the three lines, and execute the menu command "Run Selection as Macro" from the Macro menu. A new document will be created with all keyboard shortcuts that have been assigned and the path of the menu the shortcut is assigned to. One can now easily search for the keyboard shortcut ⌘0 and see whether it exists.

More elaborate macros can show all keyboard shortcuts as a list or a nice table; the table can be sorted either by the shortcuts themselves or the menu commands.
One such macro is ExportMenuKeys.nwm, which was written by Kino in 2010. It's fast and works well. Another was written by Martin in 2013 and is called Show All Shortcuts.nwm. It also works very well. Yet another one is called Show All Menu Key Shortcuts, and it looks as if it was written by Martin. A macro by Philip Spaelti, called Get All Menu Commands.nwm, unfortunately doesn't work anymore. It seems to be trapped in an never-ending loop.

These macros are excellent tools to keep track of our menu shortcuts. In case we forget a keystroke, we can quickly look it up in the table; and it also tells us how many Menu Key Shortcuts we have. As you can see on the screenshot, I have currently 898 menu shortcuts!

1.png (40.01 KiB) Viewed 101 times

☞ Warning:
The macros do not take the "fn" key into account. If we have a keyboard shortcut fn⌘0 it will turn up in the table erroneously as ⌘0. I think only MacBooks have an "fn"-key.

One should also keep in mind that Nisus remembers old shortcuts… until they are explicitly deleted or changed in the Menu Keys in Nisus Preferences > Menu Keys > [menu command].
Here is an example that demonstrates what that means. I had two versions of the same macro: one older, one younger. I deleted the older macro which had been assigned the shortcut ⌘0. When I tried to give the newer macro the same shortcut, Nisus informed me that this particular shortcut was already taken … although the file that Nisus was referring to didn't exist anymore.

2.png (96.86 KiB) Viewed 101 times

Show All Shortcuts macros.zip

(8.12 KiB) Downloaded 4 times

[samuelmuindi]

Wow, color me impressed. What great info. I'm looking forward to trying this out.

Ps. My Apple wireless keyboard has an fn key, not that I'm using it.

Thanks again!