Add Alt keyboard shortcuts to TextFX menus in Notepad++

Is there a way to add Alt keyboard shortcuts (usually shown as an underlined letter e.g. F̲ile > S̲ave) to the TextFX menus in Notepad++ 5.8.6 (the last version before the huge ugly Find dialog)?

As I prefer to leave my hands on the keyboard instead of reaching for the mouse, to use the menus, I currently need to press Alt+T then use the cursor keys or press T multiple times to navigate to the relevant item.

I know that I can bind keys to specific items, but don't use any individual item often enough to devote a whole set of shortcuts to them. Additionally, I would need to remember what the bindings are, whereas the underlined letters serve as a clear reminder.

I found that adding an ampersand before a character in the localization XML file makes it an Alt shortcut, but TextFX is obviously not in these files.

Answer

Using HEX-Editor plugin, search in ANSI mode for

Viz S

and add ampersands before letters to make shortcut (strings are null-padded, so you can use extend the length of the string by similarly reducing the nulls after it).

To change "TextFX Characters" menu label, search in hexadecimal mode for

43 00 68 00 61 00 72 00 61 00 63 00 74 00 65 00 72 00 73

and modify non-zero characters. As this string cannot be extended, you could "annex" a character from another part of the string, say, the "s" to make "TextFX &Character".