This information is moving... In my effort to improve the docs, I'm trying to put together good organized information on Hotkeys... when I started there were at least 4 pages, all of which contained good info, but it was hard to know which one to look in... This page, as well as the Hotkeys page and the info from the old wiki will all be combined in due time into a nicely setup 'hotkeys' subsection of the wiki. Sorry for the delay, but I am unable to complete this change at the moment.

This is a guide to setting up GeoShell so that you can launch any application you regularly use with two keystrokes or less. The intent is to teach about hotkeys and menus, and how these can be combined to allow "arpeggio's" to launch applications.

Some Definitions

chord (kôrd) noun

1. Music. A combination of three or more pitches sounded simultaneously.

ar- peg- gi- o (är-pej'e-o') noun

1. The sounding of the tones of a chord in rapid succession rather than simultaneously.
2. A chord played or sung in this manner.

Skip to The Good Stuff.

Chords and Arpeggios on computers...

Well, the term "hotkey" has often been used in substitution (even by me) for what is rightly called a chord on a computer keyboard: the pressing of two or more keys simultaneously. Usually, in the context of a Hotkey, we are speaking of keys with a special significance to the computer. For instance, pressing "Shift" and "U" is just an uppercase "U," and doesn't constitute a hotkey. Pressing "Alt" + "F" to access the "File" menu in an application may be considered a chord, but is typically called an "access key," because of the way the computer handles things internally, rather than a "hotkey."

For the sake of the GeoShell discussion then, let's clear up our terminology.

We will use chord to denote pressing one or more modifier keys with a regular key. Modifiers are: Shift, Ctrl, Alt, and Win. All other keys are "regular." Examples of chords you may be familiar with are pressing Ctrl+S to save a document, or Ctrl+P to print, Alt+F to open the file menu is also a chord.

A GeoShell HotKey is any keystroke (even without combination, for instance, you could register "E" as a hotkey, although it would be a bad idea) which has been registered globally for certain functionality. None of the chord examples above would be hotkeys, because they are not global, they are local to the particular application that is active. A good example of a hotkey you may know is the "Win" + "R" chord which opens the Run dialog.

An arpeggio is the pressing of the keys of a chord in sequence... on a computer, an arpeggio will always start with a chord. You may use arpeggio key sequences regularly without thinking about it: Alt+F (to open the file menu) and then "P" to print, or "S" to save, or "X" to exit... Without the Alt+F at the begining, the "P" key has no special meaning, but after an Alt-F, it becomes part of the special sequence used to print a document.

The Good Stuff: How does this make you more productive?

In GeoShell, you can add menus in many ways: using the GeoMenu plugins (GeoMenu, GeoMenuLaunch, GeoFlexiMenu - if you're stuck, see loading a plugin), or by entering them in the registry the way you do for the [desktop]. Any of these menus can be configured to pop up on a hotkey, and the first letter of each menu item can be used to access it, similar to most menus in Windows... creating an arpeggio to launch your most common applications.

Let's walk through the processes of setting up an "internet" menu this way with a GeoMenuLaunch menu. The simplest way is not, in this case, the best, so follow these steps (you may want to read about Editing the Registry first):

1. Create a folder to hold our new menu
   • On your hardrive somewhere, create a new folder. I typically put them in my Start Menu folder, because that way they are accessible if I boot into the Explorer shell.
   • For our example, I will use C:\Documents and Settings\Joel\Start Menu\Internet
2. Put a few shortcuts in this folder to your favorite internet applications. You don't want to go overboard here, anything more than 10 will probably be confusing at first, since you will want to remember that these are "Internet" applications, and be able to name them so that the first letter of each is unique (so you can use it as the last part of the arpeggio )
3. Create a menu key in the registry for your new menu.
   • In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Geo\GeoShell\Services\Menu create a new "Key" and name it "Internet"
   • In this new key, create a new "String Value" but instead of naming it "New Value #1", name it "0" (that's the number zero, without the quotes).
   • Double click the 0 value and put in the path to the folder as the "Value Data," without quotes around it, and without a trailing slash: C:\Documents and Settings\Joel\Start Menu\Internet
4. Recycle your shell (usually by pressing Win+C)
5. Load up a menu plugin (either GeoMenu or GeoMenuLaunch will do) on one of your bars by right-clicking the edge of the bar and selecting "Load Menu" and then the plugin name from the menus that pop up.
6. Set the settings for the menu plugin.
   • On the current version of the plugin, having created the menu key and recycled, you can hold Ctrl down while you right-click the plugin, and on the menu that pops up, choose "System Folders" and then select the name of the Menu key: "Internet" – Note that you should now be able to pop up your internet menu by clicking on the Menu plugin, and you'll be able to select items on it by pressing the first letter of their name, or by clicking on them with the mouse.
   • Choose an icon (using the Ctrl+Right-click menu)
   • I suggest, for the sake of your memory, that you set the tool-tip to include your hotkey information. Sadly, you can't do this from the Ctrl+Right-click menu yet, so you'll want to delve into the registry again.
     • Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Geo\GeoShell\Plugins\GeoMenuLaunch4_2. The numbers on the end may be different, but you'll know it's the right one when you find one where the "Button Caption," "Menu," and "Tooltip" values are all the name of your menu key: Internet
     • Change the tooltip value by double clicking it. I suggest you name it with the chord you will use, like so: Internet (Ctrl + Alt + I)
7. Set the HotKey chord in the registry:
   • Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Geo\GeoShell\Services\Hotkey\uIDs
   • Add a DWORD value, and name it "Menu_Internet." Set it's value to 1. Setting the value to 1 is the magic that lets GeoShell know this HotKey is a menu.
   • Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Geo\GeoShell\Services\Hotkey\szIDs
   • Add a String value and name it the same as the DWORD in the previous step: "Menu_Internet." Set it's value to your chord, and the name of the menu key: Ctrl+Alt|I|Internet. The stuff to the left of the first pipe (|) are the modifier keys, the stuff to the right of the last pipe is the menu name, and in between the two pipes is the name of the key you will press with the modifiers to cause the menu to pop up.
8. Recycle your shell (usually by pressing Win+C)

You should now be able to pop up your internet menu by either clicking on the Menu plugin, or by pressing the hotkey. In either case, you'll be able to select items on it by pressing the first letter of their name, or by clicking on them with the mouse.

At this point, hopefully it's obvious that with a little creativity, you can organize all your frequently used applications into a few categories like development, internet, office apps, utilities or tools, games, etc ... such that you can instinctively remember which category an application is under, and access it with the press of a chord and one key. I frequently use generic names like "mail" for my email application, so that if I change applications, the key stays the same, and in some cases I rename things like my extra browser to "zilla" so that I can differentiate them by first letter.

You should be able to set this up in such a way that you would only need to go to your full Programs menu a couple of times a week --when you needed an application that you don't normally use, or when you install a new application that hasn't been added to your chord-accessible menus yet