Wednesday 4 July 2007

Windows hotkeys and vbs

RSS is a modern abbreviation with many possible meanings. One is "real simple syndication" which probably brings my blogs to you, another one is "repetitive strain syndrome" which I am going to fight with today's blog. I am encouraging you to use your keyboard rather than your mouse!
Windows has a cool feature that can save us a lot of time. I am talking about Windows shortcut keys. I don't want to go into the details, a lot has been written about it already (e.g. here; a little warning).
I'd rather like to explore how you can use it in combination with vbs scripts. Say, you want to see your Outlook contacts every time you press the key combination Ctrl+Alt+C.
You also want it to open the Find box, so that you can start typing the name of the person whose phone number you want to look up. Here is how I do it:
I have a vbs script that does all of the above. Now I need to assign the key combination Ctrl+Alt+C to that script.
1. Place the script in My Documents/Productivity scripts (or any folder you like).
2. Create a folder "Hotkey shortcuts" in either of the following locations:
  • your desktop
  • your "programs" folder
  • your taskbar
(it won't work in any other location)
3. Create a shortcut to your script and place it in the folder "Hotkey shortcuts".
4. Rename the shortcut (remove the part "shortcut to").
5. Right click on the shortcut, choose "Properties" and go to the tab "shortcut". Place the cursor in the field "Shortcut key" and simultaneously press Ctrl+Alt+C. Press OK.

VoilĂ  le travail.


You might want to read my other articles on Windows custom hotkeys
  • Repair a bug that comes with Windows custom shortcut keys.
  • list all your custom Windows shortcut keys.

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