Shortcut for “vertical space” in LyX

Question

Has someone got an idea what the shortcut is/where I can create one for the \medskip{} command (or any other command, that generates a vertical space in my document)?

I looked in Tools/Preferences/Editing/Shortcuts, but I couldn't find any command of this type there.

P.S. I'm using Lyx 1.6.5

Answer 1

Short answer:

The following command sequence inserts a \medskip in your document, you just have to bind it to the shortcut you prefer: inset-insert vspace medskip.

General answer:

At times it is a bit tricky to figure out what LyX commands one actually has to bind to a shortcut to achieve the desired behavior. While for most commands LyX shows the last executed command in the status bar, this does not help for commands that open a dialog for further settings. In the following, I describe the approach I used to figure this one out, so you could apply it for other questions in this respect:

(1) Start Lyx with the -dbg action option (that is, run /path/to/lyx-binary/lyx -dbg action from a console window).

(2) Execute the command for which you want to figure out the command sequence. LyX lists the actions in the debug output in the console. The following shows the relevant output for "Insert->Formatting->Vertical Space... with MedSkip":

LyXFunc::dispatch: cmd:  action: 219 [dialog-show-new-inset]  arg: 'vspace' x: 0 y: 0
LyXFunc.cpp(771): 
LyXFunc::dispatch: cmd:  action: 218 [dialog-show]  arg: 'vspace vspace defskip' x: 0 y: 0
LyXFunc.cpp(1842): dispatch msg is 
LyXFunc.cpp(1875): verbose dispatch msg (dialog-show-new-inset vspace)
LyXFunc.cpp(771): 
LyXFunc::dispatch: cmd:  action: 224 [inset-apply]  arg: 'vspace medskip' x: 0 y: 0
LyXFunc.cpp(771): 
LyXFunc::dispatch: cmd:  action: 225 [inset-insert]  arg: 'vspace medskip' x: 0 y: 0

(3) Usually the last command executed by some dialog-based action is the one you are looking for. In this case it is the line with [inset-insert] and the arguments vspace medskip.

(4) Use the LyX Mini-Command Buffer (View -> Toolbars -> Command Buffer) to manually test the command: inset-insert vspace medskip

If the result is what you want to achieve, you are done and have found the command sequence to bind to the shortcut. Otherwise you have to experiment more :-)

Answer 2

From what you ask a simple solution would be to add in ERT \vspace{xcm}, where x is the vertical space required.