What’s new in Quick Access Popup v10?
(2019-08-12) Here is a summary of new features and improvements in v10.
Customize window improvements
The Settings window renamed Customize has been lightened to give close to 50% more room to the favorites list. Many commands previously available from buttons has been moved to a new menu bar. The File, Favorite, Tools, Options and Help menus giving access to all QAP commands are available at the top of the Customize window and in the QAP system menu (right click on QAP icon in Notification zone).
Also, to give more space to the favorites list, the Search box has been moved “under” the submenus dropdown list and can be revealed using the Search button when you need it. Finally, new keyboard shortcuts has been added. Press F1 in QAP to see the complete list of shortcuts.
Other enhancements of the Customize window include:
- you can now edit QAP features names in menus allowing, for example, to insert keyboard accelerators in menu with the ampersand (&) character also in QAP features items;
- the Search box now filters items from the menu currently displayed in the Customize window instead of from the top menu (Main);
- in the tree views, when adding or editing QAP Features and Special Folders favorites, new nodes at the end display All Special folders or All QAP Features in alphabetical order.
Revamped Options window
Over time, the QAP Options window has become quite busy. The new Options window now provides an improved usability thanks to sections tabs displayed on the left hand of the window. Existing options has been regrouped under the tabs: General, Settings Window, Menu Icons, Menu Appearance, Popup Menu, Popup Hotkeys, Alternative Menu Hotkeys, File Managers, Snippets and Hotstrings, User Variables and Database.
More advanced options and some previously found only in the quickaccesspopup.ini file are now available under the Menu Advanced Options, Launch Advanced Options and Various Advanced Options tabs.
Various improvements
- a new option under the Customize Window section opens the Customize window automatically at startup. This option is enabled by default for new users and off for upgrading users;
- for new installations, the default Settings Folder is now under
My Documents\Quick Access Popup
(instead of user’sAppData
folder); - the Settings Folder can now be changed in Options, General section, with a dialog box asking if user wants to copy actual settings to the new folder or use the settings already found in this new location (or create new settings in this folder if it contains no settings files);
- refresh dynamic menus (Clipboard, Current Windows, Reopen a Folder, Drives, Repeat Last Actions, Frequent Files, Frequent Folders, Recent Files, Recent Folders, Directory Opus Favorites and TC Directory hotlist) when they are part of a submenu open using a keyboard shortcut or an hotstring;
- support environment variables (like
%TEMP%
) in location for temporary folder, working folder and backup folders.
New donor code
If you made a donation for Quick Access Popup v9 (or earlier), first, thank you again ! Now, you will have to upgrade your code for QAP v10. This new code is now matched with the sponsor name displayed in the message at the bottom of the Settings window.
To receive your new code, send me an email following these instructions.
Internal changes
Finally, you won’t see it but the internal data structure of favorites and menu has been completely rewritten using “object oriented data model” techniques (using classes, etc.). This took most of the time devoted to QAP v10 but this will make code maintenance and addition of new features easier in the future.