Author Topic: Selector 3.4.3.0 (Read 55821 times)

MilesAhead · « **on:** August 29, 2009, 09:46 AM »

Selector 1.0 is ready for general use I think. The idea is a hotkey app in the Tray that holds a few of your favorite programs that can take the command line param from selected text or the clipboard. One example would be a browser. Instead of relying on a plugin to open the current page in another browser hit the address bar to select text and hit the Selector hotkey(Shift-NumPadDiv by default.) Choose your browser and hit the Go button.

Currently adding programs to the list requires using a FileOpen dialog to browse to the .exe file. A short name is automatically generated but can be edited.

At the moment there's no provision for sorting the list or rearranging the order of apps. A later version should have a few more bells and whistles.

The program uses Glass if enabled on the system.
It requires Scripting.Dictionary object on the PC.
If you don't have Scripting.Dictionary I believe installing
the .NET 2.0 or later run-time will put it on but check the
MS web site for the correct download. If you have .NET 2.0
or later you should have it already.

FavesSoft Hotkeys Page

jgpaiva · « **Reply #1 on:** August 29, 2009, 10:39 AM »

I believe you're missing a link

MilesAhead · « **Reply #2 on:** August 29, 2009, 11:58 AM »

Selector 1.01 Double click of item in ListBox presses the Go Button.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #3 on:** August 30, 2009, 02:44 PM »

Selector 1.1 now accepts additions of programs and shortcuts to the ListBox via Explorer Drag & Drop.

For each item in the drag & drop a short name is automatically generated. Hit Enter to accept it or edit it as you prefer. Note that all entries in the ListBox are unique. If "MyEditor" is already in the ListBox, adding an item with the short name "MyEditor" will overwrite it with the path to the new program or shortcut.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #4 on:** August 30, 2009, 11:37 PM »

Selector 1.2 Fixed a bug where the input box for short name could be hidden by the popup window.

Xvarnah · « **Reply #5 on:** August 31, 2009, 09:13 AM »

Hello MilesAhead,

I just downloaded your software and used it as the selective browser launcher that I was looking for. I enjoy it a lot !

My favorite browser atm is Chrome Dev version (4.0.203.2) which I use with some extensions and bookmarklets. In order to launch it properly, I added "--enable-extensions --enable-sync" to its shortcut. Would it be possible to implement a feature that could add these commands in Selector 1.2 as well ? Or to create a bookmarklet fo your program that would include them ?

PS : Each of the 5 browsers that I surf with (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera, Safari) has a specific set of extensions (for example, let's say that Firefox is specialized in video browsing and downloading while Chrome has all the necessary features for grabing texts, bookmarking pages and saving the articles I'm interested in, etc.). Thus, I may keep each of these browsers with a limited number of extensions and plug-ins which doesn't slow them down badly.

Thanks in advance for your kind answer and suggestions.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #6 on:** August 31, 2009, 11:01 AM »

Xvarnah glad you like the program. I didn't realize it until I started playing with drag & drop that Windows would pass command line params onto the shortcut as well as a bare .exe program. I guess I should have because of the drag & drop "open with" when you drop a file on a desktop icon.

Please try deleting the browser entry and dragging a shortcut with the command switches filled in, onto Selector.

Also since only the Key value is unique, you should be able to have various shortcuts in the list for the same program as long as the short names are unique.

I just tried a shortcut to my TestCmdLine program with the icon having "/x=1 /y=2 /z=3" then in Selector I added the Text param "FakeFile.txt" and the command line tester showed all those in sequence. It should work.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #7 on:** August 31, 2009, 11:23 AM »

btw I'm glad you mentioned this topic. I updated the Readme file with a tip suggesting various ways to customize entries via the shortcut. I was considering having the entry remember switches that could be entered in an input line but since Windows already provides it I think it's better to keep the utility simple. Since when you drag a shortcut onto the ListBox the path is to that shortcut, to modify the behavior of that app you just need to edit the shortcut.

Xvarnah · « **Reply #8 on:** August 31, 2009, 11:27 AM »

Fabulous !

Many thanks, MilesAhead, it works perfectly : now I have both "Chrome" (without command switches) and "Super Chrome" (with the command switches) !!!

This tool is gonna save me time and so many useless clicks.

I'l send a link to your app to all my friends. Could bookmarklets be created for your app ?

MilesAhead · « **Reply #9 on:** August 31, 2009, 11:36 AM »

Glad you like it. You know when I started doing it I thought well, maybe I'll have a couple of browsers and maybe 3 text editors in it, so I made the Add button to just add one item. When I added drag & drop and realized it would pass the params onto shortcuts, that made it more flexible. I think I'll be using it a lot more than I expected myself.

I haven't used Bookmarklets much. I think I did one that backs up 2 pages if the history is 2 or more pages deep, one if not(iow even with those back arrows that have a history you have to click to open the history, so you don't save a click when going back 2 pages. I call it Double Back) Can you tell me more what you have in mind with the bookmarklet idea? I'm not sure I see how it would hook in.

mouser · « **Reply #10 on:** August 31, 2009, 11:45 AM »

(Moderator: which is the preferred etiquette? To update top post and update version number via edit or just do a followup?)

Hi Miles! another cool little utility.
I prefer having the top post updated with version info when there is a new release.
The top post should also have an image (as your does) for easier adding to the coding snacks page.
And the link to the download should go to your web site (either a page or direct download) and not to an attachment, and should not change over time (i.e. dont make it link directly to myapp_v1.0.1.zip). Those guidelines are all so that the place to get the file will be the same over time.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #11 on:** August 31, 2009, 11:47 AM »

Ok, thanks mouser.

Xvarnah · « **Reply #12 on:** August 31, 2009, 11:51 AM »

Well, I think of a bookmarklet that would be an equivalent of the hotkeys. This might sound silly but as a matter of fact when I'm browsing most of the time I use mouse's clicks to do this or that. All browsers encourage such a behavior by providing buttons for the extensions or plug-ins, etc.

I guess such a feature would quickly become very popular (many of the common bookmarklets are available for multiple browsers : for example, I use the same "Share This" bookmarklet with Chrome, Opera and Safari; Firefox has an ".xpi" extension for this app and IE has a toolbar).

MilesAhead · « **Reply #13 on:** August 31, 2009, 12:01 PM »

I'm very mouse-oriented myself. 'cept for mouse gestures. Too much stuff to remember.

I guess what you are saying is have a bookmarklet launch the other browsers instead of using an exe file? I'm still not sure what happens when you click the bookmarklet you envision.

edit: ok, if I get this right, you are just saying launch Selector using a bookmarklet instead of a hotkey? Sorry for being dense. Lots of times stuff goes right over my head that's obvious to everyone else. I claim it's due to genius but that could just be PR heh heh heh.

Xvarnah · « **Reply #14 on:** August 31, 2009, 12:23 PM »

Never mind, MilesAhead !

I understand very well this confusion because I was hesitating myself between several possibilities. As a first step, I thought, well if I could keep my hand on my mouse this would be great : a click for to launch the Selector's window and one more click in this window to lauch another browser : great !

[ Nevertheless, we do feel the same about "mouse gestures" !

]

A further step would be to launch both Selector and its selection window, may be. Saying this, I think of the tight management of my RAM. I've got 4Go but when you run aside such apps as Photoshop and/or Illustrator, not to speak about PersonalBrain and MindManager, you quickly become quite cautious about it !

PS : I have sent you 9 bucks (I wanted to give 10 but I forgot about the greedy Paypal's x-rates, please excuse me), so that we could virtually share a drink together. Cheers !

MilesAhead · « **Reply #15 on:** August 31, 2009, 12:57 PM »

Instead of Bookmarklets there is an easy way to map mouse clicks to hotkeys. This AutoHotKey script is an example:

[Select]

MButton::
Send +{NumPadDiv}
Return

In the example, every time you press the middle mouse button, it would send the Shift-{NumPadDiv} hotkey to open the Selector window. If you download AutoHotKey look in the help under Hotkey and it has the various ones for the Mouse. Just change "MButton" for the mouse click or wheel action you want. Once you have it the way you want you can compile it to exe. You can even have it launch Selector using the Run command, so that you only need to have one icon in the Windows start folder.

You might find it fun. There's an AutoHotKey forum too where people will help with fixing your scripts.

Thanks for the donation. It helps keep my web site going.

Xvarnah · « **Reply #16 on:** August 31, 2009, 01:32 PM »

Thanks for these suggestions, MilesAhead, I will give them a try and let you know about it.

It's dinner time here and I must make a pause, but I'll be very glad to chat again with you about all this.

Have a nice day.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #17 on:** September 01, 2009, 02:54 PM »

Selector 1.3.0.1 Added Go " Button (Go with a quote symbol after it) to wrap the param in double quotes and launch the selected item.

This is handy for file paths with spaces especially.

Also fixed a bug where a duplicate short name could be added to the ListBox. The old one was filtered out on the next window popup. Now the ListBox is checked and the old entry removed before a new entry with the same short name is added.

Xvarnah · « **Reply #18 on:** September 01, 2009, 07:56 PM »

Hi MilesAhead,

I just downloaded the updated version of Selector. Thanks for this handy new feature.

I also downloaded AutoHotKey as you suggested (what a piece of software !) and atm I'm learning how to use it properly – I copied your script : it will be my first ".ahk" file !

More info tomorrow : I will have some free time then to play around with my new Xmas's toys !

Have a nice day.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #19 on:** September 01, 2009, 08:29 PM »

Xvarnah glad you are enjoying experimenting. Please download latest version of Selector (1.4). As noted in the next post, I fixed a few minor bugs.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #20 on:** September 01, 2009, 08:32 PM »

Selector 1.4 Fixed bug where empty param was double quoted when Go " Button pressed.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #21 on:** September 03, 2009, 12:54 PM »

Selector 1.5 As you can see in the screenshot in the first post, I've enlarged the popup window. More items can readily be seen in the ListBox. Also I got rid of the Minimize and Maximize Buttons on the window frame.

Selector 1.51 Added code to prevent the hotkey from opening the popup window while the About Dlg is showing.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #22 on:** September 05, 2009, 01:02 PM »

Selector 1.6 Same fix as above but without the "doink" Window alert I was getting in Vista64.

Xvarnah · « **Reply #23 on:** September 12, 2009, 05:59 AM »

Hi MilesAhead,

I've been quite busy lately, but I wanted to thank you for these updates which I downloaded and enjoyed.

Keep up the good job !

MilesAhead · « **Reply #24 on:** September 12, 2009, 06:30 PM »

You're welcome. Glad you enjoy the program. Selector and ReOpen are the ones I use myself all the time. The other's I use here and there as needed.