Tag: Hotkeys

What hotkeys or shortcuts are set by default when QAP is installed and how can I change them?

During installation, shortcuts are created for two types of hotkeys: popup menu hotkeys and favorite hotkeys. These hotkeys are always available, regardless of the active window. If whenever they interfere with your existing hotkeys, you will see below how to change or remove them.

Note: There are also a set of hotkeys available only in the Customize window. These hotkeys are covered in the Customize help page.

Popup menu hotkeys

By default, the QAP popup menu can be triggered by the Middle Mouse Button and the keyboard shortcut Windows + W. A second popup menu called Alternative menu is triggered by default by Shift + Middle Mouse Button or Shift + Windows + W. You can change these settings in Options dialog box, Popup Hotkeys tab.

Favorite hotkeys

Mouse or keyboard hotkeys can also be assigned to any favorite in your menu. This allow you to launch a favorite without having to open the QAP popup menu and locate your favorite.

At installation time, only some QAP feature favorites are assigned to shortcuts. They are in the My QAP Essentials menu. This menu is created at installation in the Main popup menu. It includes keyboard shortcuts for the following menu and QAP features:

  • Shift+Ctrl+Q for Quick Launch
  • Shift+Ctrl+U for Reopen Current Folder in Dialog Box
  • Shift+Ctrl+F for Reopen a Folder

Two other QAP features shortcuts are also inserted in the Main menu during installation:

  • Shift+Ctrl+C for Customize
  • Shift+Ctrl+A for Add Active Folder or Web page

You can change all these shortcuts by editing each favorite separately or you can edit all of them in the Hotkeys dialog box: select Tools, Hotkeys in the Customize window menu bar. See also Can I launch my favorites with keyboard or mouse shortcuts?

 

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How do I display the Quick Access Popup menu?

QAP has various types of triggers to open two different menus. Each menu can be open with a mouse button, a keyboard hotkey or an icon.

1) Main QAP menu mouse and keyboard triggers

The default mouse trigger is the Middle Mouse Button and the default keyboard trigger is Windows+W.

  • These triggers show the QAP popup menu over any window (except those excluded, more info about exclusion list).
  • In the QAP menu, the favorite you choose is launched in a new window.
  • But, if the favorite is a folder and the target window where you open the QAP menu supports folder navigation (Windows Explorer, Console or other file managers), the window location is changed to the favorite folder.
  • Folder navigation is also available for file dialog boxes (Open, Save As, etc.) but this has to be enabled in Options window (see the Options window, General tab, first checkbox).

Using a touchpad
Most of the touchpads can be configured to emulate a click on the middle mouse button (for example, by doing a three fingers tap). Check the documentation of your touchpad. You will find more info in this How-To Geek article.

Open the Alternative menu with Shift + Middle Mouse Button or Shift + Windows + W

 

2) Alternative menu mouse and keyboard triggers

The default mouse trigger is Shift + Middle Mouse Button and the default keyboard trigger is Shift + Windows + W.

  • These triggers show the Alternative menu over any windows.
  • In the Alternative menu, you select the actions to apply to one of your favorites (see the list of Alternative menu features in: What are the Alternative menu features?).
  • Then, in the main QAP menu, select the target favorite on which the Alternative menu feature will be executed.

Clicking on the Notification zone icon

You can open the menu by clicking the QAP icon in the Notifications area (right part of the task bar). More info here.

Using Explorer Context menus

You can also show the popup menu from the Explorer context menu (right-click menu). On the Desktop, right-click anywhere except on icons and select Show Quick Access Popup menu. To use the Alternative menu, hold Shift key while you right-click the Desktop and select Show Quick Access Popup Alternative menu.

Using the Ctrl+Ctrl hotkey

You can also open the main QAP menu by pressing twice the left or right Control key. Enable this feature in the Options, Popup Hotkeys.

From the command line or a batch file

Finally, you can open the menu from the command line, a batch file (or any script) or from a file shortcut using the QAP companion executable QAPmessenger.

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Can I call the Quick Access Popup menu from an AutoHotkey macro?

Yes, but there is small trick you need to know.

First, for those not familiar with AutoHotkey (AHK): this is the programming language used to develop Quick Access Popup. It is also a macro scripting tool. AHK developers could write scripts in which they could integrate a call to open QAP menu by “sending” the QAP menu hotkey (by default Middle mouse button) as if it was pressed by the user.

To call an AHK hotkey in one script from another script using the Send command, in some situations, you must insert the SendLevel, 1 command before the Send command. For example, the script below will call the QAP menu (assuming the mouse trigger for QAP is the default Middle Mouse Button).

#NoEnv
#NoTrayIcon
#SingleInstance Off
SendLevel, 1
Send, {MButton}

If you remove the SendLevel, 1 line, the call will not work. For more info about SendLevel, see AHK doc.

6) Automating your work

Can I block the QAP keyboard shortcuts if they interfere with one of my apps?

Yes. There may be some applications where the user does not want the QAP favorites keyboard hotkeys to interfere with the app’s normal behavior. QAP allows to block its hotkeys based on other app’s the window title, window class or process name.

Under Options, Launch Advanced Options, you can list the applications where QAP will disable (Block) all its favorites keyboard shortcuts: favorites shortcuts and Alternative menus features shortcuts. When the shortcuts are not allowed on an application, they are sent to the target window as if QAP was not running.

Note 1: This option does not affect the Main and Alternative menus keyboard shortcuts and the Main menu mouse trigger (see this page to block the Main menu mouse trigger).

Note 2: You can also do the opposite and select the only applications where the keyboard shortcuts will be allowed by clicking the Approved radio button. In the following explanation, we assume that you kept the Blocked option.

To add an application to the list, enter any part of the its window title. You can enter multiple applications, one per line. In the example above, QAP hotkeys will be inactive in any window including the name Resolve. You can also add applications by their class name or process name (EXE file name). In the example, the application Photoshop Elements having the executable file PhotoshopElementsEditor.exe will run with QAP hotkeys disabled.

See also Can I block the QAP menu trigger (Middle Mouse Button) if it interfere with one of my other apps?

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