What’s new in Quick Access Popup v8.4 and v8.5?

In my view, every QAP user should upgrade to v8.5! This page tells you why. The v8.5 release fixes some annoying bugs. It makes available new features that I wonder why I did not code them before and it takes the recent Snippets feature to a more mature development stage!

Reopen Current Folder in Dialog Box

First, a new feature often requested: the Reopen Current Folder in Dialog Box. This new QAP Feature will instantly take your File Open or File Save (etc.) dialog box to the folder currently displayed in the active (or last active) Windows Explorer window (Directory Opus and Total Commander are also supported). This is so convenient! Before, you had to use the Reopen a Folder and select the active folder in the submenu. Now, it is a one click action!

This new QAP feature can be added to any menu: Add favorite, select the QAP Feature type and, in the features dropdown list, select Reopen Current Folder in Dialog Box. This menu item will be added automatically to the My QAP Essentials menu (as shown beside) for new installations ONLY. Existing users must add it themselves. I assigned the default keyboard shortcut Shift + Ctrl + C to this QAP feature (and reassigned the Clipboard menu shortcut to Shift + Ctrl + V).

New hotkey Menu key

QAP v8.5 now makes good use of the Menu key (also known as Context menu key or Application key) that can serve as keyboard trigger to popup the QAP menu or to launch any other favorite. Not all keyboard have this key (normally, it is somewhere to the right of the space bar). If all keyboards had this key, I would make it the default QAP menu keyboard trigger instead of Win + W. But I will let you decide if you want to use it for this menu or for other favorites. Note that this hotkey can be combined with one or more keyboard modifiers (Shift, Ctrl, Alt or Win).

To select the Menu key, in the Select Hotkey dialog box, click on the menu key (application) link below the key selector (as shown beside) and take note that this key is shown as “Application” in the key selector.

Snippets user interface improved

Text and macro snippets were introduced in QAP v7.2. I made some adjustment to this feature in the subsequent releases but, in my opinion, it was still at “first generation” stage. Now, with the improvements in release v8.5, this feature got some maturity.

The main areas of improvement is in the user interface by allowing you to choose the font size of the snippet content, giving to it a better readability. Developers using snippets to store pieces of code will also like the option to display the content in fixed width.

Finally, for snippets longer that a line or two, the possibility to enlarge the text box with the + sign (next to the font size selector) will give more screen real estate to your snippet content. Of course, the – sign will revert this and show the help text again.

Since each snippet is different, display options are saved with each snippet. Also, you can configure the default values for snippets in Options, general tab.

More info about snippets in these new FAQ pages:

• What are snippets? How can I use them to paste frequently used pieces of text?
• How do I create a snippet and paste it when I need it?
• How do I create a macro Snippet to send special keys to applications or insert pauses when pasting?

Changes in prevsion version (v8.4)

For those who missed v8.4, you will appreciate the Always on top option if you use frequently drag-and-drop to add favorites in the Settings window. Also, info was added about Shared menus in the Help window and help balloons now appear when you mouse over left column buttons in the Settings window.

Change log

Many other small improvements were introduced and bugs fixed in these releases. Here is the complete list of changes.

Version: 8.5 (2017-09-04)
  
Menu key
- you can now use the Menu key (also called Context menu key or Application key) to pop up the QAP menu or launch any favorite
- to select the Menu key, in the "Select Hotkey" dialog box, click on the "menu key (application)" link below the hotkey selector
- this hotkey can be combined with any modifiers (Shift, Alt, Ctrl or Win)
  
Snippets
- major improvements to make Snippets easier to create and edit
- a button in snippet add/edit favorite dialog box to enlarge the snippet content text box
- font size selector for snippet text box
- check box to display a snippet with fixed font (useful for code snippets)
- display preferences saved with each snippet
- default preferences for snippets can be selected in Options, General tab
- when launching a snippet with the "Prompt before" option, QAP also accepts Space to kick-off a snippet (in addition to Enter)
- change help link to new FAQ page about snippets (see improved FAQ content about Snippets)
  
Reopen Current Folder in dialog box
- a feature I should have included much earlier... Warning: to take advantage of it, existing users must add themselves this new feature to their menu
- new QAP feature "Reopen Current Folder in dialog box" allowing to reopen in a dialog box the current location in Windows Explorer
- the current location is the folder currently displayed in the active (or in the last active) Windows Explorer window
- current location is also detected in Directory Opus or Total Commander if one of these file magagers is enabled
  
Hotkeys
- set QAP feature default hotkeys for "Reopen Current Folder" to Shift + Ctrl + C  (of course, you can change it at any time)
- change QAP feature "Clipboard" default hotkeys from Shift + Ctrl + C to Shift + Ctrl + V
- this change is only for new installations - exising users must do this change themselves, if they wish
  
Various
- the "Ctrl + Ctrl" option has been moved to the "Alternative menu" tab in Options dialog box, and its presentation has been improved
- add a link beside the "Check for update" checkbox in the Options dialog box to check for update immediately
- check if the "Start in" folder location exists before launching a favorite and do not launch it if the location is not found
- offer to edit the favorite when one of these folder locations is not found: folder, document or application location, "Launch with" application location or "Start in" folder location
  
Language
- new! Dutch language is now available, thanks to Ric Roggeveen
- German translation update for changes since v8
- updates for Spanish, Italian and French language files, thanks to translators
  
Bug fixes
- fix an error in QAP 32-bit executable file preventing the Windows Explorer context menus to work with QAP installed in portable mode
- allow favorite location to be a UNC root path (like \\127.0.0.1\ or \\MyDomain\) assuming the location is online because Windows does not allow to check if an UNC root location is available (on my system, Windows 10 defaults to the "Documents" folder if the UNC drive is not mounted)
- fix bug when adding a QAP feature and when its default hotkey is already in use for another favorite
- fix bug when processing backtick (accent grave) in snippets (used for code snippets) and add help about backticks in add/edit dialog box
- fix bug Alternative menu hotkey reappearing after delete when returning to Options dialog box until QAP is restarted
- fix bug && displayed in Drag & Drop help window title instead of &
- add diagnostic code to track the "71 hotkeys limit" bug - if someone encounter this error message, please contact me

Version: 8.4.2 (2017-08-18)
- stop creating Windows Explorer context menu for Windows Shortcuts (.lnk files) because of potential security issue
- if you need to remove this context menu see the FAQ (https://www.quickaccesspopup.com/how-can-i-remove-the-windows-explorer-contextual-menu-for-windows-shortcuts-lnk-files/)
 
Version: 8.4.1 (2017-08-05)
- fix bug maximum of Live Folders items exceeded (500 items limit) by error
- fix bug last Live folder item duplicated when numeric shortcuts are enabled
 
Version: 8.4 (2017-08-01)
- add "Always on top" option to Settings window to ease drag and drop
- update drag & drop help message
- remember window location when drag & drop a folder favorite to Settings window
- add a tab about Shared Menus in Help window
- add tooltips over left column buttons in Settings window
- fix bug when icon resource filename includes a coma
- fix links in Options tabs and fix links to Shared menu FAQ page on website
- Spanish, Brazilian-Portuguese, Italian and French language updates