Shortcuts 2.0

Shortcuts 2.0 is a useful utility designed to assign hot keys to contextual menu items. It works only with menu items added by contextual menu plug-ins. It allows you to assign a hot key combination to chosen menu item so you can select some object (file in Finder or text) and hit keyboard combination to execute the task normally performed by choosing that menu item.

Ever wanted to assign a hot key combination to contextual menu item? "Shortcuts" is the answer. It allows you to assign a hot key combination to chosen menu item so you can select some object (file in Finder or text) and hit keyboard combination to execute the task normally performed by choosing that menu item.

Shortcuts works with contextual menu plug-ins only.  It does not work with menu items added by the application which shows the menu. For example, when you ctrl-click on Desktop in Finder you have "New Folder" and other items added by Finder. You cannot assign shortcuts to those items. But the same contextual menu also shows some items added by plug-ins — in default Mac OS 10.4 installation it would see Automator and folder actions items which are added by Apple-provided plug-ins — and you can assign shortcuts to those items. Of course you probably need to have some third party contextual menu plug-ins installed to make good use of "Shortcuts". But even if you used it only for one frequently used item it would be worth installing and getting the benefits of much faster execution.

Unfortunately not all contextual menu plug-ins will work with "Shortcuts". Only contextual menu items which play by the rules will work. So what are the rules? The rules are: when the context information (selected text of file information) is passed to the contextual menu plug-in, it should advertise available commands by returning the menu item name. It seems obvious but some plug-ins do it in a different way. They do not provide the names of their contextual menu items when asked and they try to add those items to menu later. You will not be able assign shortcuts to those items because in most cases they will not show up at all when "Shortcuts" tries to query all plugins. Another class of problematic plug-ins are those which restrict their visibility to certain applications only — for example some plug-ins may show only in Finder. In such case "Shortcuts" will not see their items.

Enhancements:

• Added the ability to show contextual menu with plug-in items with a keyboard hot key or from services menu
• 64 and 32 bit versions for Snow Leopard.

Requirements:

• Mac OS 10.5 or higher.
• Some useful contextual menu plug-ins highly recommended.
• In Mac OS 10.6 Shortcuts is the only method to use contextual menu plug-ins in 64 bit applications.