The menus configuration property in Zed encodes the arrangement of menus and menu items that appear on the Math menu. The standard configuration file provides an extensive collection of predefined menus containing menu items for invoking virtually any of the editing transformations available to the user.

The expression encoding the menus configuration property consists of a list of menus. Each menu is itself a list, whose first element is the keyword menu, whose second element is the name of the menu, and whose remaining elements encode the subordinate menus and menu items that are to appear on the menu. The menu items are themselves represented as a list with two elements: the first is the text to appear on the menu items, the second is a symbol identifying the template rule to be invoked by the menu item. The text label for the menu item may contain special characters by enclosing the text in either single or double quotation marks. The template rule to be invoked may also be identified by giving a specification for a keyboard accelerator whose action will be invoked by the menu item.

The menus configuration property includes two special elements. The first special element is a specification for the empty menu named unknown that is used as a default menu under certain circumstances. The second special element is a specification for the structure of the Math menu. Typically these two entries are the only items appearing in the menus configuration property.

The menus configuration property can be accessed using the Zed Custom API methods using the section keyword menus.

The palettes configuration property in Zed encodes the arrangement of each named palette, including the array of buttons that appear on the palette, and the editing transformation invoked when you click on the palette button. The standard configuration file provides an extensive collection of predefined palettes containing buttons for invoking virtually any of the editing transformations available to the user.

The expression encoding the palettes configuration property consists of a list of palettes. Each palette is itself a list, whose first element is the keyword palette, whose second element is the name of the palette, and whose third element is the description of the palette buttons. The palette buttons are specified as a list of lists, where each list starts with the keyword list, and where each element of the inner lists is either a symbol identifying the template rule to be invoked by the corresponding palette button, or a specification of a keyboard accelerator whose action is invoked by the palette button.

The palettes configuration property includes two special elements. The first special element is a list beginning with the keyword palette, the keyword Palette and followed by the names of each of the palettes that are to appear on the Palette menu. The second special element is a specification for the empty palette named unknown that is used as a default when an unrecognized named palette is requested through the Zed Custom API.

The palettes configuration property can be accessed using the Zed Custom API methods using the section keyword palettes.

The layout rules configuration property in Zed encodes the layout transformations used to convert MathML content to MathML presentation. The standard configuration file provides an extensive collection of layout transformations that include rules for converting each of the content elements defined in MathML for presentation on the screen.

The expression encoding the layout rules configuration property consists of a list of layout transformations, encoded as rewrite rules. Each layout transformation begins with the keyword eq, followed by an expression encoding the left-hand side of the transformation, followed by an expression encoding the right-hand side of the transformation.

The left-hand side of a layout transformation consists of a pattern expression that specifies when to use the layout transformation. This pattern may take one of several forms. The pattern may be an empty list, matching any expression, which is used to supply a default layout transformation to use if no other rule matches. The default layout transformation in the Zed standard configuration creates an empty <mrow> element. The pattern may be the keyword unknown, which matches any atomic expression, and provides a default rule for creating character data. The pattern may be the keyword symbol, which matches any alphabetic atom, or number, which matches any numeric atom. Typically symbol and number atoms create character data that will be enclosed in either <mi>, <mo> or <mn> elements as appropriate. If the pattern is any other atomic symbol, the layout transformation provides a rule for displaying the symbol when it appears in operator position in an expression, usually as an <mo> element.

If the pattern takes the form of a non-atomic expression, a more general matching process is used to determine whether or not to use the layout transformation. The name of the operator must match exactly, as must the number of arguments, unless the special keyword * is used in place of the argument list, which matches all possible arguments. Other symbols in argument position in the pattern match a single child element of the current expression. Simple matching on attribute values can be achieved by replacing the operator name with a list consisting of the operator name, the attribute name, and the desired attribute value. Multiple attribute values may be matched by putting additional attribute name/attribute value pairs at the end of this list. Using the keyword * in place of the attribute value matches any expression where the attribute is explicitly given, regardless of its value.

The right-hand side of a layout transformation is essentially a Zed presentation expression that may contain MathML presentation elements, references to parts of the current expression, or one of a collection of other special forms used to express the rule for creating the presentation of the expression from the presentation of its child elements.

The layout rules configuration property can be accessed using the Zed Custom API methods using the section keyword layouts.

The template rules configuration property in Zed encodes the editing transformations used to transform one content expression to another during the course of editing operations invoked by the user. The standard configuration file provides an extensive collection of editing transformations that include templates for creating one or more variant forms for each of the content elements defined in MathML, plus additional editing transformations for associating keyboard accelerators with the editing transformations they invoke.

The expression encoding the template rules configuration property consists of a list of editing transformations, encoded as rewrite rules. Each editing transformation begins with the keyword eq, followed by an expression encoding the left-hand side of the transformation, followed by an expression encoding the right-hand side of the transformation.

The left-hand side of an editing transformation consists of a pattern expression that specifies how to invoke the editing transformation. This pattern may take one of several forms, but will always be a list. In its simplest form, this list may contain a symbol and the keyword +, where the symbol assigns a name to the editing transformation, which can be used to invoke the transformation by name. The transformation name may be preceded by a keyword such as infix that specifies that the editing transformation is only to be invoked when the current expression is in an infix editing context. Such keywords may be combined by enclosing them in a list; each of these context-specifying keywords must apply before the editing transformation is applicable. In place of the name of the editing transformation, a specification of a keyboard accelerator may be used to associate an editing transformation with an appropriate key binding which will invoke the transformation. Finally, the keyword + may be replaced by an expression pattern (as described above) that must match the current expression for the editing transformation to be applicable.

The right-hand side of an editing transformation is essentially a Zed content expression that may contain MathML content elements, MathML presentation elements, references to placeholder elements, or references to special built-in editing transformations described in the Operator Reference.

The template rules configuration property can be accessed using the Zed Custom API methods using the section keyword templates.

The traversal orders configuration property in Zed encodes, for each operator, the order in which its arguments are visited in an inorder traversal of the expression. Since the default traversal order for virtually all of the operators used by MathML can be successfully inferred from the presentation of the operator, the standard configuration file only overrides those operators for which the default traversal order is clearly inappropriate.

The expression encoding the traversal orders configuration property consists of a list of permutations. Each permutation is itself a list, where the first element is the name of an operator, and the rest of the list consists of integer indices encoding a permutation. The permutation will be applied to any expression using the named operator that has the correct number of child elements appearing in the presentation of the expression; the permutation determines the final order in which to visit each child element in an inorder traversal of the expression. A zero appearing in the permutation allows the permutation to be used for an expression with a given number of child elements, where one or more of the child elements is to be omitted in the traversal order.

The traversal orders configuration property can be accessed using the Zed Custom API methods using the section keyword orders.

The other properties configuration property in Zed encodes, for each operator, any special property that applies to the operator, with its value, as appropriate. The standard configuration file includes operator precedence information where needed, as well as information on which operators are to be considered as nary operators, associative operators, or array operators.

The expression encoding the other properties configuration property consists of a list of properties. Each property is itself a list, where the first element is the name of an operator, the second element is the name of a property, and the rest of the list gives the value of the property.

The properties assoc, nary, and array assert that the corresponding property is true of the operator, and require no additional information. The nary property, however, accepts the additional keyword binary declaring the operator will be treated as a binary operator taking two or more arguments, or two additional integer arguments detailing the minimum and maximum number of arguments accepted by the nary operator due to optional arguments. The properties prec, lbp, rbp, olbp, orbp all describe operator precedence information that can be specified with a single integer argument; higher numbers imply stronger binding power and therefore a greater need for parentheses in the presentation of child elements. The olbp and orbp properties concern the binding power of log-like operators in their enclosing context. The addop property declares that the named operator should be treated for purposes of display much like the additive operator <plus>; the single additional argument specifies the corresponding additive inverse operator that will be treated much like the additive inverse operator <minus>.

The other properties configuration property can be accessed using the Zed Custom API methods using the section keyword bindings.