Question

This question was asked on Super User but I didn’t get any response so I moved it here…I believe it is relevant and important…
I’ve been using Netbeans on Mac OS X for sometime it has some really good features but it doesn’t support most of the macros and that sucks. I’m not only talking about complicated emacs macros but even the most basic are not supported like C-e for the end of the line or C-a for the beginning of the line.

Can somebody help to activate macros ?

Answer 1

I’m not sure if you really mean macros. When I think of macros, I think of a series of commands and keystrokes being issued. In any case, single commands (shortcuts) like the ones you mention (end of a line and beginning of a line) are certainly supported by Netbeans by default with the home and end keys. You can replace those with the key combinations of your choice or add them as alternates.

In fact, Netbeans allows you to create entire profiles of shortcuts and ships with one for Emacs users and contains the exact shortcuts you mention. This functionality is accessed from the Tools > Options menu, Keymap tab.

If you are looking for actual macro capability, that is supported in Netbeans as well. You might have to do some digging for documentation and Netbeans only comes with 3 build in macros. You can define them directly or have Netbeans record your activities to a macro. Macros can be accessed from Tools > Options menu, Editor > macros tab.

Netbeans supports templates as well, which are pieces of predefined code or text that can be generated by entering an abbreviation in the editor and then hitting tab.