Abracode Shortcuts is a Mac OS X app to assign hot keys to contextual menu items

Downloaded 5/12/06. I have so often wanted to do this… I assign hot keys to services and menu items with ease… apps, Quicksilver triggers, no problem. But nothing lets you get at contextual menu items, on which I heavily rely. Abracode is the group of very smart Mac OS X developers who’ve given us some of the richest contextual menu apps out there, including OnMyCommand and QuickAccess, so my expectations for this a pretty darn high. As with nearly everything they release, this comes with no monetary strings attached. And already they have an illustrated, 10-page documentation file online. I’m so glad they’re still working at it!

Update 6/18/06. No question about it… This software is the holy grail of contextual menu freaks like me. I’ve been busy making shortcuts since downloading it, and I already couldn’t live without it! The process of setting up a shortcut is simplicity itself… You can choose shortcuts for Files, Folders, or Text. First, select a representative sample of the object the contextual menu acts on. Then, select the contextual menu itself from within Shortcuts. And finally, select your shortcut.

For a software addict like me, a lot of my life is consumed with moving software packages around my hard drive: (1) Copy from DMG to “Demo Software” folder or its “Freeware” subfolder. (2) Copy updates to those folders… (3) Move software to a production Application folder or to a folder of old/unused software demos that I maintain (lord knows why!) I was already using another essential Abracode contextual-menu product–Quick Access–to move or copy these files and/or folders around, and life was good. But what if I could do the same thing with a keyboard shortcut?? Well, now I can. Now I just select Ctrl-F to copy stuff to “Freeware” and Ctrl-D to copy it to “Demo Software”.

Shortcuts works with a large number of contextual menus, but not all of them, unfortunately. I use the great $5 Icon2Image contextual menu, but it apparently doesn’t support Applescript, so no luck. On the other hand, all Automator actions are supported, so I’ve set up keyboard shortcuts for several of those now.

Now all I need to do is figure out the best way to keep all my keyboard shortcuts organized… Shortcuts will display all of the shortcuts you’ve set up through it, but I need something that works across all the various environments within Mac OS X.