Tag: mouse

  • Freeware Launcher: Mouse Extender

    Freeware Launcher: Mouse Extender

    Mouse Extender is a freeware launcher for mouse users, it seems that its development has stopped but at its last or current version (1.9.9.3) it is still a useful tool.

    Mouse Extender

    The default method of opening the program is the middle mouse button (or the F4 key) but this can be changed via the program’s settings.

    Mouse Extender can launch files, folders, programs or web sites – it features proxy support for the latter. It also comes with (double click) buttons for the system control panel, reboot, shutdown, hibernate or sleep.

    Right click on the program’s interface to add shortcuts or to add a tab (see image) to organize shortcuts. Right click on an icon to edit its target – to add arguments, to change its icon or working directory. The same right click can move or send shortcuts to different tabs to reorganize them. The option to ‘Add Running Program’ makes it easy to add a shortcut from a list of open windows, to save clicks.

    The exclude option is also very useful, for example adding Firefox to the exclusion list frees the middle mouse button for Firefox’s use.

    If the program was being further developed one suggestion would be add captions to shortcuts since in the case of a folder one must rely on its tooltip to remember which is being launched.

    When starting the program’s its update check fails, presumably because the program is not active, but this can be ignored. Mouse Extender does not require installation, it does however require .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Works on XP and newer.

  • Clipboard Master: Freeware Clipboard Enhancement

    Clipboard Master: Freeware Clipboard Enhancement

    Clipboard Master

    Clipboard Master is a freeware Windows clipboard utility that enhances and makes copying and pasting more useful. Instead of the native Windows’ one clipboard item at a time Clipboard Master can hold up to 10,000 items, including images, and with a few key strokes paste them into any active application or program window. It uses the Windows + v keys to show a list of clipboard items it is holding, each identified by a number. For example to paste the 4th item into an active window press the Windows + v keys plus the 4 key (or alternatively use the mouse method, ie left click the program’s tray icon and navigate to the required clipboard and click on it). It can retain formatting or not when pasting text, the toggle being holding or not holding the Ctrl button when using either the keyboard or mouse methods just described.

    Clipboard Master comes with a set of extra tools to insert date, remove spaces – clicking on a clipboard item presents this and other ‘convert’ features – and create folders to keep any number of clipboard items together as a related group. It also has what it calls collections, here when successive Ctrl + c clicks are done quickly – less than five seconds in between each by default – they can be added to one collection and pasted altogether using the Win + Alt + F1 keys or via the program’s tray icon.

    Note that as of this review Clipboard Master is in beta (version 0.9.7) which will expire “3/2011” and therefore is not fully complete and some features like creating folders and exclusion rules (in the program’s settings) seem to either be buggy or not ready yet. Clipboard Master runs on Windows 2000 and newer versions including 64 bit ones.

  • MadAppLauncher: Minimize Mouse Clicks When Launching Applications

    MadAppLauncher: Minimize Mouse Clicks When Launching Applications

    MadAppLauncher

    MadAppLauncher is a free and simple launcher that gets out of your way when not needed. It strives to minimize mouse clicks when launching not only programs but files and folders too.

    Other than using its File menu MadAppLauncher supports dragging and dropping anything (files, folders, programs, shortcuts, etc.) into squares to create a launch space. Its interface is divided into 10 tabs numbered one to 10 each with 30 spaces with their own letter or symbol. To launch any of the shortcuts start MadAppLauncher, either using the tray icon or by using a hotkey (assigned in the Settings menu) then click the number to activate the corresponding tab and then the letter (or symbol) assigned to the shortcut to launch it.

    MadAppLauncher can stay open when working to add shortcuts but go into auto hide mode when in actual use. Another useful feature in its settings is the option to auto activate tabs by hovering the mouse over the tab numbers, this is probably most useful because it may be difficult to remember which tab contains which shortcut and it is a welcome feature to be able to more easily navigate tabs.

    A more advanced feature is the ability to create what MadAppLauncher calls cascading groups. By creating a configuration file one can open any number of programs, files or folders at the same time. A somewhat incomplete but useful explanation is given on the author’s site. Don’t forget to save any current (*.mal file created by using the File menu’s save option) setup before proceeding to create another series of shortcuts or a cascading group. MadAppLauncher is also hosted on sourceforge but I was not able to find its source files. It requires Windows XP at a minimum and is in early stages of development, however it works well.

  • Freeware Quick Cliq Is An Innovative Launcher And More

    Freeware Quick Cliq Is An Innovative Launcher And More

    Quick Cliq, packed into a single executable, is an interesting launcher and productivity tool. It incorporates launching files, folders, URLs and emails with an enhanced clipboard utility and the ability to keep text snippets as memos. It also supports a number of Windows manipulation features.

    The program interface is launched by choosing the Add/Change item via its tray icon or via – the configurable – Win+Z keys. The options for configuring hot keys and mouse gestures are found under the settings menu. Other settings include enabling features such memos and setting colors and such things as adding the program to the Windows context menu.

    The program is divided into four main sections or features each launched in it own configurable way. They are described below.

    Accessing the Main menu: hold right mouse button and move mouse down or the aforementioned Win+Z if using the keyboard. Here you can create quick launches by adding folders, files, URLs, and email addresses in a sort of a list that will then be available for using the same mouse gesture or key combination.

    Windows menu: hold right mouse button and move mouse right or Win+C keys. The Windows menus allows you to hide or show windows and a few others settings like choosing to keep a window on top. When windows are hidden any one of them can be previewed by hovering over their name in the windows list while pressing the Ctrl key.

    Memos menu: hold right mouse button and move mouse left or Win+A keys. Add as many memos as you need and then send them to clipboard or automatically add them to the current open window.

    Clips menu: hold right mouse button and move mouse up or Win+X keys. This is where the program is on the innovative side of things. In addition to holding up to nine clipboard items it is possible to append or add data to any one of the existing clips. As the tutorial video on the developer site shows suppose a user needs to copy only certain paragraphs from a long page or text into a new clip. Using Quick Cliq instead of repeatedly selecting the text and then pressing Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V while going back and forth between the long text and the new clip or document the user can press Ctrl+1 (the 1 represents the numbered clip item so it could be any of 1 to 9) to copy and then press Alt+1 to paste, all without leaving the original long page or text. Then to append or add to the clip (clip 1 in this example) other text can be selected and added to that clip or document simply and only by pressing Ctrl+Win+1.

    Quick Cliq is in active development and in addition to the video tutorials it is also a good idea to follow the developer blog. It requires Windows XP as a minimum.

  • TyperTask: Tiny System Automation

    TyperTask: Tiny System Automation

    TyperTask is a small freeware executable that automates many common tasks. The most notable and perhaps immediately useful feature of TyperTask is that in can expand text. Often typed or repeated phrases can be automated with fewer typed letters. As a simple example one can define the “~hth” abbreviation for “Hope this helps!” (see image) saving several key strokes. This is what the program calls a Trigger. Any number of triggers can be defined and saved one per line in the program interface. The other example in the image is a trigger for an email signature. Triggers can be used to correct common misspellings by adding a trigger like “recieve=receive” and also auto completing single words like “compl=completely”

    TyperTask does more than just simple text triggers and can act as a launcher with such definitions or triggers as “{Control}{Shift}{Alt}G=RUN: http://www.google.com”, where special or non-alphanumeric keys are sorrounded by {}. TyperTask also supports delays like “{Control}{Shift}{Alt}N=RUN: notepad.exe{Delay=1000}Hello! {Delay=500}World!”, here notepad is opened and the text typed in it after the specified delay (in milliseconds). This can be useful when one wants to make sure an operation (a fully loaded notepad in this case) is completed before doing anything else. The WINDOW operator brings an already open window in front or into focus, for example “{Control}{Shift}{Alt}C=WINDOW: Calculator” brings the calculator into focus. Mouse clicks are also supported, this is perhaps most useful if one wants to use a program but make sure the mouse is clicked inside of it so that its Window is activated.

    A more thorough explanation is given in TyperTask’s help file (accessed via the Help menu) which includes a list of special key codes and other features such as the support for environment variables (%TEMP% for system’s temporary files folder for example) and the Remove Clipboard Formatting feature.

    One notable example from the help file is very interesting for those who write (HTML) code manually. “<b=<b></b>{left}{left}{left}{left}”,  here the bold tags are completed faster and automatically but furthermore the cursor returns to in between the HTML tags ready to type the bold to be text.

  • Pitaschio: Multipurpose Freeware Utility For Windows

    Pitaschio: Multipurpose Freeware Utility For Windows

    Pitaschio, not Pistachio!, is described by its author as

    Pitaschio is a freeware which makes it convenient to use Microsoft Windows

    Pitaschio is a utility that enables a user to automate many tasks or to simply be more efficient with the keyboard and the mouse. At the same time it can be perhaps too much since for example upon launch it disables a few things, notably the Windows key and the option to maximize a window. These behaviours can of course be turned off in its settings but nevertheless they are perhaps not the most needed of default actions. Some other keys that can be disabled include F1, Insert and Caps Lock. The latter is perhaps most relevant as many prefer to use the shift key when capitalized letters are required.

    Pitaschio Freeware

    Some of the features in the Configuration section of Pitaschio can be seen in the image accompanying this review. They include the following:

    • ‘Snap’ makes sure windows are placed side by side, and not overlapping, on the screen.
    • ‘Place a window only in the screen’ restricts the move and resize options so that no part of a window can move out of screen view.
    • ‘Use small icons’ reduces icon sizes both on the desktop and inside Windows Explorer
    • ‘Send to under-cursor-window’ is one of the more interesting settings. It allows the mouse wheel to operate (scroll) the window it is positioned on and not the foreground window.
    • ‘Parent folder by double click’ creates a pseudo-breadcrumb effect where double clicking an empty area in Windows Explorer opens the parent folder.

    The Windows settings or section work on any open windows (which are always listed in the text area near the top of the settings window (see image)). Among others, one can minimize and hide windows, make them transparent, resize them and bring them to the foreground.

    The Mouse shortcuts settings, accessible through the program’s system tray icon, provides a long list and choices affecting the desktop, title bar and task bar. Many options are included like, but not limited to, Show Desktop, Open Task Manager, Toggle Topmost State and others. Each option is assigned to key combinations like double click and shift+double click.

    Disabling the keyboard and/or the mouse is one additional helpful feature of Pitaschio. It is beneficial because it can prevent a child or pet accidentally entering characters onto a document and it makes cleaning the keyboard and mouse easier too.

    Pitaschio’s manual page has a fuller explanation of each setting but using the program itself may be enough as well.

    It is possible to add the names of programs that do not work or one does not want to be affected by Pitaschio to the Ignore.txt file that resides in the program’s folder. Since Pitaschio happens to not require an installation its folder can reside anywhere. It should run on Windows 2000, XP and Vista (it is not tested on Windows 7).

  • StartUp Is A Launcher…And An AppManager?

    StartUp Is A Launcher…And An AppManager?

    StartUp is described by its author as

    WPF tool to help you launch your programs easily.

    To start off the developer page does not mention the name ‘StartUp’. The only place this program’s name is visible is in the solitary screenshot. One can easily confuse its name to be ‘AppManager’ as that is the domain URL and also the title of page. That minor quibble aside, on to the program itself.


    StartUp

    Upon installation StartUp looks up or indexes the system’s start menu, quick launch and recent documents entries and presents them in a rectangular interface (see image) and also groups them into areas. Right clicking anywhere on the program window or clicking the + icon one can create groups for additional shortcuts. The program supports dragging and dropping shortcuts, executables or almost any file to create links to them. It is also possible to drag a file over a program icon, while holding the Alt key, to force the file to be opened with that particular program.
    The program is minimized to the system tray using its X or close icon or by just pressing the Esc key. By default the program window can be maximized by using the Alt and ~ keys or by what it calls “mouse activation”. To activate the program using the mouse single click the top left hand edge of the screen. This activation feature can be turned off using the program’s preferences.
    Perhaps the best part of StartUp is the integrated search feature. Click anywhere on the program interface and just start typing, a search box narrows your choices as you type (see image).
    StartUp requires, at a minimum, the .NET 3.0 framework and is a 164KB download. It is released under the Microsoft Public License.