Edit (Menu)

NAME

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 “Edit Menu Choices” 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, CtrlZ, AltBackspace
Recommended	R	Repeat/Redo	ShiftUndo, CtrlY, AltShiftBackspace

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

Required	T	Cut	Cut, CtrlX, ShiftDelete
Required	C	Copy	Copy, CtrlC, CtrlInsert
Optional	K	Copy Link
Optional		Copy Special ...
Required	P	Paste	Paste, CtrlV, ShiftInsert
Optional	L	Paste Link
Optional		Paste Special ...
Optional	I	Insert ...

Optional		Primary Copy	AltCopy, AltCtrlC, AltCtrlInsert
Optional		Primary Move	AltCut, AltCtrlX, AltShiftDelete
Optional		Primary Link

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

Recommended	S	Select All	CtrlA, Ctrl`/`
Recommended		Deselect All	Ctrl\
Optional		Find...	CtrlF
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.

Guidelines for Specific Menu Entries

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.