LaTeX.org

miktex? (I thought I was posting in that forum, anyway)
using TeXworks, if that's what you mean.

I recently started using latex again, and it struck me that it would be somewhat convenient if it were possible if a menu was added in which you could define key bindings to certain actions (like macros, I suppose).. For instance, I would find it very useful to be able to select one or more words ...

Well probably everyone works around lack of Unicode support like that - but that's a nuisance too.. how often have you forgotten to switch back to your notepad++ or whatever and edited in TeXnic to realize that you messed up.

actually, because both texniccenter and np++ tell you if the file has ...

well, an interim solution that might work well for you might be to use an unicode-enabled 'feature-rich' text editor (personally, i use notepad++), set the encoding type to utf8 without BOM, and do the actual typing inthere.
While TeXnicCenter won't display the characters correctly, it should be ...