Tag: Documents type

What are favorites advanced settings?

Advanced Settings give more control on how favorites are launched.

  • Launch with this application: Normally, folders and FTP sites are opened with Windows Explorer (or your custom file manager), documents are open with their default application and links are accessed with your default browser. With the advanced setting Launch with this application, you can choose to launch your favorite with another application. See Placeholders, below.
 
 
  • Start in: This advanced setting available for Application favorites allows to set the default working directory for the application. Take note that not all applications will comply with this Windows setting. See Placeholders, below.
 
  • Auto-open sub folder: When you open a favorite folder, you can ask QAP to automatically open the most recently created sub folder in this favorite folder. QAP could also open the most anciently created, or the most recently/anciently modified or accessed sub folder. More info here: What are the advanced options for favorite folders?
 
  • Encode FTP URL: When you specify a user name and a password for a FTP favorite, these values are added to the URL and sent to the FTP server. When enabled, this options make sure login name and password are properly encoded. Some application (like Total Commander) may prefer the values to be sent without encoding. For these apps, uncheck the option.Take note that this encoding is not encrypting. It does not prevent the password from being saved in the settings file and sent on Internet in clear text. Be cautious if your password protects sensitive data!
 
  • Sound played when launching the application: Set the file name or the codes of the sound to play. The sound is played immediately after the favorite is launched or the group is executed. You can play a sound file, a system sound or your own custom sound sequence. See also: Can I play a sound when I launch a favorite?
 
Placeholders and User variables

You can use placeholders and user variables in Launch with this application, Parameters and Start In fields. These placeholders can be replaced with:

  • the location or part of the full path and file name of the favorite’s location;
  • the folder where the QAP menu was opened;
  • the file selected when the menu was opened;
  • the content of the Windows Clipboard;
  • user input;
  • parts of the current date or time.

For all the details, see:

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Can I create favorites on network drives?

Yes. Quick Access Popup menu can include favorites from network drives using UNC locations (like \\MyPortablePC\c\SomeFolder\…), a network drive letter (like N:\SomeFolder) and WebDAV locations (like https://sharepoint.server.com/SomeFolder). However, you have to pay attention to some situations that can occur when using network drives with QAP.

Network drives online or offline

In IT environments, corporate servers are normally always online. But in other environments, it can happen that network drives are temporarily offline. For example, if you attach your portable PC drive to your desktop PC, this network resource can be offline if the portable is on the road or just turned off.

When you use folders or files on a network drive, Windows remembers them in its Recent Items system folder. QAP reads this folder to add these resources to its Frequent and Recent menus. When QAP refreshes these menus, it normally accesses the resource’s drive (to check if a file exists or to read a menu icon, for example). If QAP was not protected against offline drives, accessing a network resources when a QAP background task refreshes its menus could cause a long delay before the menu is displayed (see: Why does QAP sometimes look frozen or takes time to show its popup menu?).

Starting with v11.0.7, QAP adds more robust protection against offline drives and add new options in Options, Menus Advanced Options.

If network drives can sometimes be OFFLINE

Keep the checkbox Network drives (“\\” or with drive letters) can sometimes be offline selected. QAP will avoid actions that could cause unexpected delays when refreshing its menus.

If you use drive letters to attach your network drives, enter the letters of these drives in the Drive letters for network drives text box. For example, enter “NSW” for if drives N:, S: and W: are sometimes offline (in fact, you could also enter “N: S: W:” if you prefer since non-letters characters in this field are ignored). Resources on these drives will be treated as network resources.

Of course, if you try to launch a favorite from a network drive when it is offline, expect a delay (that could be as long as 20-60 seconds) during which QAP will be not responding as it waits for a response from Windows.

Also, avoid using Shared menus and Live folders on network drives that could be offline.

Note about USB drives and USB keys

USB drives and USB keys assigned to drive letters do *not* cause a delay when QAP refreshes its menu. This is because Windows “knows” rapidly when these resources are unplugged and does not cause a delay when accessed by QAP. For this reason, these drives letters for these USB resources do not need a special treatment and do not have to be considered in this option.

If network drives are always ONLINE

If your network servers are normally always online, uncheck the checkbox Network drives (“\\” or with drive letters) can sometimes be offline (you do not need to specify network drive letters). In this case, QAP will check if files or folders exist before including them in its Recent and Frequent menus, retrieve custom icon folder and display the network drive’s label and free space in the Drives QAP feature (under My QAP Essentials).

Various notes

Password protection

If a network location is password protected, you may need to be logged in manually *before* navigating to it using Quick Access Popup.

HTTP locations

HTTP locations (URL format) will be automatically transformed to network path (UNC format) for compatibility with Windows Explorer. For example, http://abc.server.com/folder/subfolder/My Name.doc will be replaced by \\abc.server.com\folder\subfolder\My%20Name.doc.

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Can I use system environment variables in favorite settings?

Yes. Tech support, sysadmin and other power users love it!

In any file path (folder, document or application), the system environment variables like %appdata%, %public%, %temp% or %userprofile% (etc.) are supported in favorite location (for example: “%appdata%\Microsoft\Templates” will take you to the folder “C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates”).

System variables can also be inserted in favorite advanced settings Parameters, Launch with this application and Start in. See What are favorites advanced settings?

You can also enter a location without path. In this case, the file is searched in the PATH environment variable directories or in app paths in the Windows registry. See Can I use relative paths in favorite settings?.

Finally, you can enter environment variables in favorites name. For example, a favorite name could be “Docs of %username%”.

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Can I use relative paths in favorite settings?

Yes. You can enter path such using the .. (parent directory) and \ (root directory) symbols in favorite locations or advanced settings. Relative paths are “expanded” based on the current QAP working directory (see What’s the QAP working directory?).

In the following table, the relative paths are expanded as if the working directory was “M:\MyTools\QAP\”.

Relative path Expanded path
..\Editor\MyNotepad.exe M:\MyTools\Editor\MyNotepad.exe
..\..\setup.ini M:\setup.ini
\MyTools\MyDocs M:\MyTools\MyDocs

That way, a user having to run various tools on a host PC can carry a set of apps on a USB drive or key and use Quick Access Popup to easily launch these tools regardless of the drive letter assigned to the USB device by the host system. Combined with the use of system environment variables and special folders to easily access host PC’s system folders and user’s data, this make QAP the perfect tool for tech support users.

Relative paths can be used in favorite locations,  advanced settings Parameters, Launch with this application and Start in. It can also be used for icons with the Edit icon resource link in the Menu Options tab of the Add/Edit favorite dialog box.

For favorites of types Application and Document, you can also enter a location without path. In this case, the file is searched in the PATH environment variable directories or in app paths in the Windows registry. In these examples, the folders in the resolved path column are assumed to be in the PATH variable. If you enter a location without a file extension, it is searched with all executable extensions in the PATHEXT variable: .COM; .EXE; .BAT; .CMD; .VBS; etc.

File without path Resolved path
Shell32.dll C:\Windows\System32\Shell32.dll
Notepad.exe C:\Windows\Notepad.exe
Notepad C:\Windows\Notepad.exe
System.ini C:\Windows\System.ini

 

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What are the different types of favorites?

Types of favorites proposed when you click the Add button

An example menu with one favorite of each type

In your Quick Access Popup menu, you can add favorites of any of these twelve types:

  • Folder: Add your most frequently used local or network directories to reach them in a snap in a Windows Explorer, a file dialog box or a custom file manager, or turn them into a Live Folder.
  • Special Folder: Add Windows system folders from a list of more than 50 special folders, for example: Libraries, Recent items, Recycle Bin, Startup folder, History, Favorites, Quick Launch, Downloads, Cookies, Temporary files, etc.
  • Document: Insert your day-to-day documents in you menu and launch them in their native application from any window.
  • Application: Add your favorite applications and get full control on their execution (with command line parameters and working directory).
  • Link (URL): Add your preferred web pages and open them in your default browser at any time or in a specific browser if specified in advanced settings. Links are open in a new browser tab by default or in the current tab if you select it in Options, Various Advanced Options. 
  • FTP Site: Open FTP sites in Explorer, Directory Opus or Total Commander, with login name and password inserted in site address (take note that the password is not encrypted, is saved in the settings file and sent on Internet in clear text – be cautious if your password protects sensitive data!).
  • Snippet: Insert sequences of characters that can be typed in a flash when you need to insert them in any application using an hotstring, a shortcut or the menu (snippets help).
  • QAP Feature: Insert Quick Access Popup features like Current Windows, Reopen a Folder, Drives, Add Active Folder or Web page, etc. in any submenu and assign them the shortcuts and icons of you choice.
  • Submenu: Gather related favorites in a submenu; submenus can be nested at will and each of them can be assigned shortcuts or icons.
  • Shared Menu: Manage the content of a submenu in an external file that can be saved on a network drive or a cloud drive (like Dropbox) and used on different PCs. Shared menu can be used in three flavors:
    • Personal shared menu;
    • Collaborative shared menu for team or workgroup;
    • Centralized shared menu.
    • See shared menus help.
  • Group: Launch a group of favorites of any type in one click or one shortcut; the menu label shows the number of items in the group.
  • Text Separator: Insert a text menu separator at the current menu position.

To add these types of favorites, see How do I add a favorite to my menu?

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How do I add favorite document to my menu?

To add a document to your menu, in the Basic Settings tab, click the Browse button to choose the document in the file dialog box. If the Short name for the menu is empty, it is automatically filled with the file name of the selected document (without its extension).

In the Menu Options tab, the icon is automatically set with the system default icon for this type of document (based on the document’s file extension). You can customize this icon. As for other favorites, you can also select the submenu, position in the menu, shortcut or hotstring for this favorite document.

When you click a document favorite in the menu, it is automatically launched with its associated application (based on its file extension). In the Advanced Settings tab, you could choose to launch the document with another application. In the following example, the document would be open with a application named “Translate”.

 

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Can I use my own documents icons instead of those configured in Windows?

Default document icons shown in QAP menus are normally those configured in Windows. But, starting with QAP v11.5.7, you can override these default icons with your own custom icons. These icons will be displayed in QAP dynamic menus (like Recent Files) and will be suggested as default icons for your new Document favorites.

Each line must start with the type extension (e.g. docx for Microsoft Word), followed by the equal sign “=” and the “file,index” or image file of the default icon. The “file,index” is the path to the file (.ico, .dll or .exe) containing the icon, and the index is the position of the icon in this file, e.g. “C:\Icons\MyFile.dll,1”. You can also use square image files (.png, .bmp, .gif, .jpg) as long as their size is between 16×16 and 64×64 pixels.

You can set the same icon for multiple extensions by joining the extensions using the “+” character. For example:
mp3+wav+acc+aiff=c:\MyIcons\Music.png
xlsx+xlsm=c:\MyIcons\Excel.png

Note: Replacing a custom icon will be immediately reflected in QAP dynamic menus but not in regular favorite documents. To replace the previous custom icon in existing favorites, you can use the Tools, Manage Icons to quickly select the new default icons.

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