3. Edit menu

Tip

A simplified Edit menu will popup if the right mouse button is clicked anywhere in a document view. Some of the menu items of this popup Edit menu have more accurate titles than those of the menu bar Edit menu (example: "Undo Convert" instead of simply "Undo").

Undo

Undo last command.

Redo

Redo last undone command.

Repeat

Repeats last repeatable command.

Commands requiring the user to specify an argument (e.g. Replace, Insert Before, Insert, Insert After, Convert, Convert [wrap], Change Processing Instruction Target, etc) are repeatable.

Command History

Displays a dialog box listing last ten repeatable commands from newest to oldest.

Cut

Cuts

  • text selection

  • OR explicitly selected node or node range

  • OR implicitly selected element

to system clipboard.

Tip

It is possible to cut and paste nodes between two instances of XXE (of course if the DTD or schema allows it).

Copy

Copies

  • text selection

  • OR explicitly selected node or node range

  • OR implicitly selected element

to system clipboard.

Tip

Selected characters are automatically copied as system selection on platforms supporting system selection (X-Window) and automatically copied to an internal clipboard on other platforms.

Paste Before

Pastes the content of system clipboard before

  • explicitly selected node or node range

  • OR implicitly selected element.

The system clipboard may contain one or several nodes or just plain text. The content of system clipboard, is parsed as XML if it begins with "<?xml" otherwise it is considered to be plain text.

Paste

Pastes the content of system clipboard replacing

  • text selection

  • OR explicitly selected node or node range,

OR if there is no explicit selection, pastes the content of system clipboard into

  • element containing caret, at caret position.

The system clipboard may contain one or several nodes or just plain text. The content of system clipboard, is parsed as XML if it begins with "<?xml" otherwise it is considered to be plain text.

Tip

Clicking with mouse button #2 (middle button or mouse wheel) can be used to paste the content of system selection on platforms supporting system selection and can be used to paste the content of an internal clipboard on other platforms (if allowed by grammar constraining the document, of course).

By default, this very handing feature is not enabled. You need to enable it using the Options dialog box.

Paste After

Pastes the content of system clipboard after

  • explicitly selected node or node range

  • OR implicitly selected element.

The system clipboard may contain one or several nodes or just plain text. The content of system clipboard, is parsed as XML if it begins with "<?xml" otherwise it is considered to be plain text.

Delete

Deletes

  • text selection

  • OR explicitly selected node or node range

  • OR implicitly selected element.

Force Deletion

Like Delete except that deletion will be performed even if the grammar constraining the document forbids to do so.

Example 3.1. A use case for command Force Deletion

The content model of element <a> is child element <b> or a sequence of child element <c> followed by child element <d>.

A new <a> is by default created with the simplest possible content model, that is <b>. Then how to replace <b> by the sequence <c><d>? Deleting <b> is forbidden because it would give us an invalid <a>.

The answer is:

  1. Force the deletion of <b> using the command described here. This makes <a> temporarily invalid but also relaxes the constraints on it.

  2. Insert a <c>.

  3. Insert a <d>. Element <a> is now valid.


Replace

Displays the Edit tool. This dialog box can be used to specify an element or a text node replacing

  • explicitly selected node or node range

  • OR implicitly selected element.

Insert Before

Displays the Edit tool. This dialog box can be used to specify an element or a text node to be inserted before

  • explicitly selected node or node range

  • OR implicitly selected element.

Insert

Displays the Edit tool. This dialog box can be used to specify an element or a text node to be inserted

  • into the explicitly selected element, after its last child node

  • OR, if no element is explicitly selected, into the element containing the caret, at caret position.

Insert After

Displays the Edit tool. This dialog box can be used to specify an element or a text node to be inserted after

  • explicitly selected node or node range

  • OR implicitly selected element.

Convert

Displays the Edit tool. This dialog box can be used to specify an element or a text node replacing

  • text selection

  • OR explicitly selected node or node range

  • OR implicitly selected element.

Unlike Replace which creates an empty new element, Convert transfers the content of the selection to the new element which is the result of the conversion.

More precisely, in the case of the node selection:

  • When a single element is selected, all its children, and also all compatible attributes, are transferred to the result of the conversion.

    Example:

    <simpara id="p1">The <emphasis>little</emphasis> lamb.</simpara>

    converted to para gives

    <para id="p1">The <emphasis>little</emphasis> lamb.</para>

  • When several nodes or a single non-element node are selected, all these nodes are given a new parent element which is the result of the conversion.

    Example:

    <simpara>Once upon a time,</simpara>

    plus

    <simpara id="p1">the <emphasis>little</emphasis> girl.</simpara>

    can be converted to blockquote and that gives us

    <blockquote>
      <simpara>Once upon a time,</simpara>
      <simpara id="p1">the <emphasis>little</emphasis> girl.</simpara>
    </blockquote>

See also Wrap a variant of Convert.

Convert [wrap]

This command is a variant of Convert. The unique difference between Wrap and Convert is that, with Wrap, when a single element is selected, the selected element is given a new parent element.

Example, with Wrap (and not with Convert), it is possible to give a <blockquote> parent to the following <simpara>, when this <simpara> is implicitly or explicitly selected:

<simpara id="p1">The <emphasis>little</emphasis> lamb.</simpara>

That is, selecting blockquote using the Edit tool gives:

<blockquote>
  <simpara id="p1">The <emphasis>little</emphasis> lamb.</simpara>
</blockquote>

Split

Splits explicitly selected element in two parts, the split point being specified by caret position.

Unlike almost all other commands, this command requires the element to be explicitly selected.

Keyboard shortcut (not displayed in menu): Esc+Enter.

Tip

A less generic form of the Split command is often bound to key Enter (for example, this is the case for XHTML and DocBook).

Typing Enter inside a paragraph (that is, <p> for XHTML and <para> or <simpara> for DocBook) will split this element in two parts.

Example: <simpara> is explicitly selected and the caret is in the middle of word "little". Splitting

"<simpara>the <emphasis>little</emphasis> girl.</simpara>"

gives us

"<simpara>the <emphasis>lit</emphasis></simpara><simpara><emphasis>tle</emphasis> girl.</simpara>"

Tip

Therefore, typing Enter at the end of a paragraph will create an empty new paragraph after it.

Typing Enter at the beginning of a paragraph will create an empty new pagraph before it.

Join

Joins explicitly selected element to its preceding sibling, an element of same type. This gives a single element containing the child nodes of the two joined elements.

This command is the inverse command of Split.

Unlike almost all other commands, this command requires the element to be explicitly selected.

Keyboard shortcut (not displayed in menu): Esc+Backspace. It is also possible to type Esc+Del to join explicitly selected element to its following sibling, an element of same type.

Tip

A less generic form of the Join command is often bound (for example, this is the case for XHTML and DocBook) to

  • key Backspace when the caret is at the beginning of a paragraph

  • and to key Delete when the caret is at the end of a paragraph.

Typing Backspace at the beginning of a paragraph joins this element to the preceding paragraph.

Typing Delete at the end of a paragraph joins this element to the following paragraph.