4.7.1 Using the keyboard
The Integrated Development Environment (IDE) allows you to use the keyboard to perform a number of
actions. See the list below for more information:
Editing text .
Manipulate menus .
Manipulate dialog boxes .
Keyboard short-cuts .
4.7.2 Editing text
The main action you can perform with the IDE is editing text (i.e. editing pascal source code), and this
action is primarily performed using the keyboard. Using the IDE to edit text is very similiar to using other
Windows programs to edit text, so this process will not be described in detail.
One thing you may not be aware of, although many other Windows programs support it, is that you can
select text using the keyboard (see Selecting a section of text for more information). Also worth
mentioning is that the IDE allows you to indent and unindent selected text using the Tab key, as long as
the selection starts at the beginning of the first line (see Indenting a section of text and. Unindenting a
section of text for more information).
4.7.3 Using menus
Windows provides a standard menu keyboard interface that allows you to manipulate menus using the
keyboard instead of the mouse. This interface allows you to use the keyboard to enter and exit menu bar
mode, activate menus and menu items, and to choose menu items. NOTE: Choosing a menu item with
the keyboard has the same effect as choosing the menu item with the mouse.
Menu Bar Mode
The IDE is in menu bar mode whenever one of the top-level application menus is selected but the menu
has not been activated. The Alt and F10 keys, allow you to toggle in and out of menu bar mode. When
menu bar mode is on, the following keys behave as described below:
The LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys change the selected top-level menu.
The UP and DOWN arrow keys, and the Enter key activate the currently selected menu.
The Esc exits menu bar mode.
Menu access keys activate the menu in which they are located.
When the IDE is in menu bar mode, the title of the top-level application menu selected is usually
highlighted to give a visual indication that it is selected. However this is not the case if the title of the
selected menu is an icon rather than text. NOTE: This means that if you enter menu bar mode when the
editor windows are maximized, no menu is initially highlighted. This is because, if you enter menu bar
mode with the editor windows maximized, the intial menu selected is the system menu of the active editor
window, and since the title of the system menu is an icon it is not highlighted. In this case, even though
no menu is highlighed, you can still see that you are in menu bar mode because the caret in the editor
window will either stop blinking or disappear entirely.
