The application edition of the editor provides a standard Windows multiple document interface allowing you to open, close, load and save several MathML documents within a common frame window. The frame window provides support for frame menus and toolbars, as well as providing a title bar identifying the application. Many of the operations for working with documents can be found on the File menu, which is also described in more detail in the Basic Editing section.

Each of the MathML documents currently open in the editor is displayed in its own child window, and all of the child windows appear within the frame window. Each child window can be separately maximized or minimized within the frame window using the button controls on the upper right corner of the child window. Additional operations for working with child windows can be found on the Window menu.

One of the more prominent features of the application edition is the presence of the menu bar at the top of the frame window. On the menu bar are a number of frame menus that contain menu items used to invoke features of the editor. Initially, when the application is first opened and no documents have yet been opened, only a few menus are present on the menu bar. These menus provide menu items for features that concern the overall application, like access to toolbars, configuration options, and documentation. Once a particular document has been opened, a much more extensive set of menus becomes available for manipulating the expression in the document.

The menu items on the frame menus are commonly activated using the mouse to pull down lists of menu items under each menu. These menus may also be activated by using the appropriate keyboard accelerator for the menu. Holding down the Alt key and pressing a letter will activate the menu item beginning with that letter. Pressing additional letters navigates down the menu tree to select the ultimate menu item to be invoked.

Each of the frame menus is described in the Menus section, and where appropriate, elsewhere in the documentation in somewhat more detail. The File menu and the Edit menu are described in the Basic Editing section, and the Math menu and the Palette menu are described in the Inserting section. The Toolbar menu is described below, and the Window menu is described above. Information about the Source menu can be found in the Basic Viewing section, while the items on the Option menu are detailed in the Configuration section. Finally, the Help menu is mentioned in the Quick Start section, as allowing access to the documentation you are now reading.

In addition to the frame menus that appear at the top of the application edition, access to many of the features of the editor is also provided through a collection of context menus that are activated by clicking the right mouse button within a document window. The same context menus are available in both the application edition and the component edition, and in fact the menu items on the context menus are a subset of the menu items on the frame menu in the application edition.

The context menus can be activated and navigated using keyboard accelerators in much the same way as with the frame menus, as described above. Typing Alt+Z while a Zed document window has the focus raises the top-level context menu.

See the previous subsection for links to other sections describing the menu items on each context menu in more detail.

Positioned just under the menu bar at the top of the frame window in the application edition of the editor are a collection of zero or more toolbars that provide one-click access to commonly-used features of the editor. There are four toolbars available for use: the Standard toolbar, the Format toolbar, the Source toolbar, and the Option toolbar. Each of these four toolbars can be made visible or invisible independently, by using the menu items on the Toolbar menu. These menu items each work as a toggle switch; when the corresponding toolbar is visible, a check mark will appear next to the menu item.

The check marks, indicating which of the toolbars are visible, are collectively known as the toolbar state. The editor remembers the toolbar state from session to session by recording information in the system registry.

Many of the menu items on the frame menu and on the context menus are associated with a keyboard accelerator, that is, a key combination that activates the associated menu item. Most such assignments are fairly standard across Windows applications, and are inherited by Zed. The editor also uses a few custom key bindings for operations specific to editing MathML elements, such as the insertion of elements, attributes, and entities.

Zed also provides a general mechanism for associating keyboard accelerators with named templates. A fairly large collection of such bindings are included in the default configuration for the editor, and can be customized as desired.

The complete list of keyboard accelerators that arise from standard menu items, from custom bindings in Zed, and from template assignments in the default configuration are listed in the Keyboard Accelerators paragraphs of the Events section.