CoolKeys v5.00 (Final)

CoolKeys is a small program which gives you several handy hotkeys to the Windows Operating System. These hotkeys provide functionality that is currently missing from all versions of Windows and which the author deems essential. A full explanation of each is given below, along with the situations and keys via which they are invoked. Hopefully you will agree that CoolKeys makes Windows a more convenient and easy-to-use environment!

Legal.

By using CoolKeys you agree to all these terms: CoolKeys is © Copyright 2002-2003 Paul Bowlay and is free software (although it is not "freeware" or "public domain"). Although carefully tested with no evident faults found, you agree that you will backup all important system data and settings before running CoolKeys, and agree that by running it you will hold the author blameless in the event of any unforeseen loss and/or problem(s) incurred as a direct or indirect result of its use. CoolKeys is not spyware or adware, does not send or receive data over any type of network, does not add or remove anything from your Registry, does not create any unauthorised new files on your system, and does not make any unauthorised changes (or deletions) to existing files on your system. The term "unauthorised" refers to doing something to your files that you didn't specifically initiate yourself. The author does not guarantee that any Internet-related Special Commands of CoolKeys will always be available; however he will endeavour to supply alternatives whenever possible. Any distribution of CoolKeys is permitted as long as its zip file is not modified in any way. There is no technical support provided for CoolKeys at this time; however if you find a bug you should report it and it might be fixed in any future updates (no promises).

Why Free Now?

Some older versions of CoolKeys were trial versions that required payment. Sadly, nobody ever paid, and I've been told this is probably partly due to CoolKeys having so many freeware alternatives out there. Probably true, I guess. Hence, this version (v5.00) is now free but unsupported. However, if you're interested, and for a small fee, I am willing to build you a custom version of CoolKeys with your own graphic icons to replace all the built-in ones. Just make sure they are 32x32 pixels in size and then place your order securely online by clicking here -- I will reply by e-mail with further instructions. Thanks!

Requirements.

CoolKeys runs on Windows 95 or later. No other special requirements apply.

Using CoolKeys.

CoolKeys is started simply by double-clicking its icon (no "setup" installation is required). For CoolKeys to work with its folder-related hotkeys (described below), the "show full folder paths" feature of Windows must be enabled. If you are unsure of whether this is enabled, then please refer to the Troubleshooting section at the end of this manual.

Here is an explanation of all the hotkeys (shown in purple), along with how and when they can be used. Please note that the term "the focus" simply means that the item or window in question is currently selected and therefore has an "active" title bar.

• PrintScreen
  Foreword: This function is very primitive (see Note below) you may prefer a far superior screenshot tool from elsewhere (click here to search Google).
  Action: Takes a screenshot of the entire Desktop and saves it as either a bitmap (*.bmp), jpeg (*.jpg), or png (*.png) image in a folder named Screenshots where CoolKeys is installed. The default save is in bitmap format to ensure full compatibility with older versions of Windows. If you'd prefer to save your screenshots in either jpeg or png format, then you will need to open the Settings.ini file in the Data folder and change bmp to jpg or png accordingly, and then exit and restart CoolKeys. The saved filename has the format of "dd-mmm-yyyy hh-mm-ss" so that multiple screenshots can be taken in succession, but note that rapid repeated screenshots is not always a possibility due to the time it takes to save the images.
  Applies: Anytime (except as noted by the restrictions below).
  Tip #1: Hold down Shift when pressing PrintScreen to delete the last saved screenshot from disk.
  Tip #2: This function and/or its error message can be disabled if desired (see Optional Tweaks below).
  Note: This function has the following limitations:
  • Any windows using DirectDraw (such as Media Player) can't be captured.
  • Screens using DirectX technology (such as games) can't be captured.
  • The entire Desktop is always captured (not just a single window).

• Control + A
  Action: Selects all text in the Windows 9x, NT and ME versions of "Notepad".
  Applies: When the Windows "Notepad" application has the focus on Windows 9x, NT or ME.
  Why: The "Notepad" application in Windows 9x, NT and ME doesn't support this hotkey.

• Control + F
  Action: Displays the "Find" dialog in the Windows 9x, NT and ME versions of "Notepad".
  Applies: When the Windows "Notepad" application has the focus on Windows 9x, NT or ME.
  Why: The "Notepad" application in Windows 9x, NT and ME doesn't support this hotkey.

• Control + S
  Action: Saves the current document in the Windows 9x, NT and ME versions of "Notepad".
  Applies: When the Windows "Notepad" application has the focus on Windows 9x, NT or ME.
  Why: The "Notepad" application in Windows 9x, NT and ME doesn't support this hotkey.

• Shift + Control + C
  Action: Copies the path of the current folder to the clipboard.
  Applies: When the Desktop, Explorer window, or an open folder, has the focus.

• Shift + Control + D
  Action: Performs a bulk deletion of matching files in the current folder.
  Applies: When the Desktop, Explorer window, or an open folder, has the focus.
  Warning: This function deletes items permanently (they are not sent to the Recycle Bin).
  How: When prompted, specify the criteria in the format: PartName. Thus, to delete all text files you would specify .txt.
  • Specify /all to delete all files in the current folder (can sometimes successfully delete problematic files).
  • Specify /empty to delete all empty folders in the current folder and its sub-folders, without deleting any that contain files.

• Shift + Control + E
  Action: Toggles the display of all file extensions on and off.
  Applies: When the Desktop, Explorer window, or an open folder, has the focus.
  Tip: If extension toggling doesn't work then you will most likely need to change the method CoolKeys uses. Exit CoolKeys (see Special Commands below), then open the Settings.ini file inside the Data folder and edit Extension_Toggle_Method so that default becomes alternate. Save the file, restart CoolKeys and try the toggle again. If it still fails, then please contact the author by e-mail to discuss your PC's setup, as you seem to be a special case. ;)

• Shift + Control + F
  Action: Creates a new folder (or bulk folders) inside the current one.
  Applies: When the Desktop, Explorer window, or an open folder, has the focus.
  How: When prompted, enter a valid folder name, or just press Enter to use a default name based on the current date and time.
  Tip: Hold down Shift when pressing Enter to auto-open single folders when created.
  • Enter /exe to create a single new sub-folder named after the first executable (*.exe) found in the current folder.
  • Enter /name*number to create number folders with name as their prefix.

• Shift + Control + L
  Action: Creates a list of matching files in the current folder.
  Applies: When the Desktop, Explorer window, or an open folder, has the focus.
  How: When prompted, press Enter to create a listing of all files, or type IncludePartName or -ExcludePartName to keep or deny certain files. For example, specify .txt to list only text files, or -.txt (note the leading dash) to exclude all text files. Use a comma to separate multiple inclusions or exclusions, but note that you can't combine both. The generated file list has a filename format of "FileList dd-mmm-yyyy hh-mm-ss.txt" so that you can create as many lists as required, and see when a list was created without actually having to open it.
  Tip: Hold down Shift when pressing Enter to auto-open the filelist when created.

• Shift + Control + O
  Action: Performs an organization of matching files in the current folder. This means that any matching files are moved into a new folder named as the match text. For example, if you specified .txt as the match criteria then a new folder named '.txt' files would be created and all text files would be moved into it.
  Applies: When the Desktop, Explorer window, or an open folder, has the focus.
  How: When prompted, specify the criteria in the format: PartName.
  • Specify /all to move all files into a new folder named in the date/time format of "dd-mmm-yyyy hh-mm-ss".
  • Specify /ext to automatically organize all files into new folders named after their extensions (files without extensions are unmoved).

• Shift + Control + P
  Action: Opens a command-line prompt for the current folder.
  Applies: When the Desktop, Explorer window, or an open folder, has the focus.

• Shift + Control + R
  Action: Performs a bulk rename of matching files in the current folder.
  Applies: When the Desktop, Explorer window, or an open folder, has the focus.
  How: When prompted, specify the criteria in the format: OldPart=NewPart. Thus, to convert batch files to text you would specify .bat=.txt.
  FAQ #1: Can MP3 files be renamed based on their ID3 tags? No. Renaming via user-specified text (full or partial) is the only intention.
  FAQ #2: Does bulk-renaming support an "Undo" function? No. CoolKeys is a "power app" that assumes you know what you're doing.
  Note: Bulk renaming may fail if existing files already have the name that the old files are being renamed into, and no error will be reported.
  • Specify /clean to rename all filenames to "clean" format (upper-case first letter and lower-case rest of name, including extension).
  • Specify /ext to convert all filename extensions alone to lowercase.
  • Specify /lower to convert all filenames to lowercase (including extensions).
  • Specify /upper to convert all filenames to uppercase (including extensions).

• Shift + Control + T
  Action: Creates a new text file in the current folder.
  Applies: When the Desktop, Explorer window, or an open folder, has the focus.
  How: When prompted, enter a valid filename for the text file, or just press Enter to use a default name based on the current date and time.
  Tip #1: Type a name with a specific extension to create a file with that extension. For example, RunMe.bat will create an empty batch file.
  Tip #2: Hold down Shift when pressing Enter to auto-open the file when created.

• Shift + Control + W
  Action: Makes all files in the current folder (and optional sub-folders) writable.
  Applies: When the Desktop, Explorer window, or an open folder, has the focus.
  Notes: Handy if you have copied files from a CD to hard drive, because such files are unwritable after the copy.

• Shift + Control + Z   (Can be changed)
  Action: Executes several useful special commands (intended mainly for "power users").
  Applies: Anytime.
  Tip: This hotkey can be changed by editing the Data\Settings.ini file. Valid key names are 0-9, A-Z, and F1-F12.
  How: When prompted, enter one of these commands, bearing in mind that all commands are case-sensitive:
  • Enter actor name to search the Internet Movie Database for details of the actor/actress specified. *
  • Enter big text to copy text to the clipboard in large letters. Novelty value only, but great fun. :)
  • Enter dic word to open a web page with a dictionary definition and/or spelling of word. *
  • Enter dt to minimize all open windows and therefore show the Desktop.
  • Enter kill match to close all windows that contain match in their title bar.
  • Enter killall to close all windows. Important: Make sure you've saved all your work first!
  • Enter killie to close all Internet Explorer windows (handy when being swamped by pop-ups).
  • Enter logoff to run Plug-Ins\LogOff.bat, clear the Documents menu, and log you off.
  • Enter movie title to search the Internet Movie Database for details of title. *
  • Enter nodocs to clear the Documents menu of all recent documents.
  • Enter note text to append text to the end of the Data\Notes.ini file.
  • Enter notes to view (and therefore also edit) the Data\Notes.ini file.
  • Enter oldsite site to view the Internet Archive snapshot of site. *
  • Enter ontop to make the previous window be on top of all others.
  • Enter pics data to find pictures of data on the Internet. *
  • Enter run app to execute app as if done from the Run menu.
  • Enter savebmp to save new screenshots in bitmap format.
  • Enter savejpg to save new screenshots in jpeg format.
  • Enter savepng to save new screenshots in png format.
  • Enter thes word to open a web page with alternate words meaning the same as word. *
  • Enter usenet data to find Usenet (newsgroup) postings that contain data in them. *
  • Enter web data to search the Internet via multiple engines for data. *
  • Enter quit to quit CoolKeys (shame on you!).

  * All Internet-related commands above may become unavailable at any time due to the dynamic nature of the Internet. For example, you might try a special command of actor schwarzenegger and nothing about Arnold Schwarzenegger is shown. Usually this is due to the URL of the special command changing, and a simple tweak in the Data\MyCommands.ini file will fix the problem; however the author does not guarantee this possibility (see Legal at top).

Creating Custom Special Commands.

In addition to the special commands listed above, CoolKeys offers you the ability to create your own custom commands, and this is one area where CoolKeys really shines. Note that you'll need to be a "power user" to create custom commands, as they can be quite complicated if you don't understand the concepts. There are 5 types of custom commands that you can currently create (referred to as actions below):

• Explore -- Opens any folder on a hard drive in Explorer.
• Open -- Opens any folder on a hard drive in "normal" mode.
• Run -- Run any command as if done from the Run menu.
• Type -- Types user-defined text into the window with the focus.
• Visit -- Opens a web page of your choice, with or without dynamic data.

Now, what about the aforementioned Visit action (with or without dynamic data)? What this means is you can specify a command to open a specific URL with your own on-the-fly data. Look at MyCommands.ini again and you'll see: dic = visit http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=###. Any Visit command that contains three hashes (###) will replace the hashes with your own data after the command part. So, if you pressed the Shift + Control + Z hotkey and entered dic word, then the web site of Dictionary.com would open at the entry for word (because http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=### would actually open in your web browser as http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=word). Understand? I hope so -- it's a bit hard to explain. :(

The last hard type of custom command to learn is the Type action, used to type pre-defined text into the window with the focus. Looking at MyCommands.ini you'll see type = type This was typed by CoolKeys.{ENTER}Isn't it groovy? ;){ENTER} in there. What this means is, if you open a Notepad window and then press the Shift + Control + Z hotkey and enter type, then the following text will be typed directly into Notepad:

This was typed by CoolKeys.
Isn't it groovy? ;)

As you can see, you can type a mixture of normal text and "untypable" keys such as {ENTER}. Here is the full list of available "untypable" keys for your reference:
{ALTDOWN} {ALTUP} {BACKSPACE} {CONTROLDOWN} {CONTROLUP} {DELAY}* {DELETE} {DOWN} {END} {ENTER} {ESCAPE} {F1} {F2} {F3} {F4} {F5} {F6} {F7} {F8} {F9} {F10} {F11} {F12} {HOME} {INSERT} {LEFT} {PAGEDOWN} {PAGEUP} {PRINTSCREEN} {RETURN} {RIGHT} {SHIFTDOWN} {SHIFTUP} {TAB} {UP}
* Specify {DELAY} to pause the typing for one second.

That's it for the custom special commands tutorial. Please note that no support can be given for these commands. Good luck!

Troubleshooting.

If the hotkeys or features of CoolKeys don't seem to be working for you, please check all the following:

• Have you carefully and fully read this documentation all the way through?
• Don't run any applications that change the text of your window titles -- they'll confuse CoolKeys.
• An application might be incompatible with CoolKeys -- try CoolKeys after booting in Safe Mode.
• Are the same hotkeys being used by another application? If so, you must change them in that application.
• All folder-related hotkeys only work on the Desktop, Explorer window, or when an open folder has the focus.
• Is Show Full Folder Paths enabled? This option is found as follows when any open folder has the focus:
  Windows 95: Select View menu, Options, View tab, and tick Display the full MS-DOS path in the title bar.
  Windows 98 (SE): Select View menu, Folder Options, View tab, and tick Display the full path in title bar.
  Windows NT: Select View menu, Options, View tab, and tick Display the full path in the title bar.
  Windows ME, 2000, XP: Select Tools menu, Folder Options, View tab, and tick Display the full path in title bar.

CoolKeys has a few minor problems that do not affect its usability in any major way. These are:

• Windows 95 and NT: File extension toggling on the Desktop isn't possible (but can be done everywhere else). No fix is currently planned.
• Windows NT: Creating new nested folders on the Desktop gives an error -- this is a Microsoft bug listed in their Knowledge Base (article Q169226).

Known Problems.

CoolKeys currently has the following unfortunate problem:

• The file list function reports incorrect sizes for files that are larger than 2 GB (2048 MB).

Optional Tweaks.

There is a file called Settings.ini in the Data folder which contains several tweakable settings that affect the way CoolKeys works. Take a look if interested, but note that if you make any such tweaks you will need to exit and restart CoolKeys for them to come into effect, since CoolKeys only reads the file on startup. You should leave the file alone if you are perfectly happy with the way in which CoolKeys works.

Uninstalling.

If you want to remove CoolKeys from your system, simply end it and then delete its folder. That's it!

The Future.

CoolKeys currently does all that I desire and is therefore considered "complete".

Acknowledgment.

Many thanks must go to John Klofac for his valuable bug-testing and useful ideas. John was also the designer of the CoolKeys icon so please visit his web site at www.dmpro.com.au for your own image design needs, as well as professional audio/video production at competitive rates. Tell him "Otser" sent you! ;)