Freeze ! Put your hands on the keyboard !
I’m one of those guys who likes to use shortcuts for saving myself the honor of
remembering the path of every single program I use…
Problem
So here is my every day scenario (tell me if it sounds familiar) –
I’m looking for “Internet Information Services” in order to customize my Virtual Directory.
I’m starting to look at my “Programs” menu, but damn, I have only 3 programs there !
Oh yes, I need to click this ugly 
button to view all the programs.
button to view all the programs.OK, done that, now I’m searching for my Administrative Tools menu, but I can’t seem to find it.
Yes, I remember, I need to check “Display Administrative tools” in order to see this, SHI$ !
Finally, I’m able to view this menu and here I go, mission completed…
I bet that this case is quite familiar to you as well; So I’ve added the IIS shortcut to my taskbar to shorten this process a little.
The main problem is that my taskbar needs place, place I prefer to “waste” on my VS.NET instead
of 3-4 lines of programs shortcuts.
In addition, I don’t like to leave the keyboard and messing around with the mouse (sounds dirty, I know, let it go) !
Solution
I’m glad to introduce to you – SlickRun !!
This devil has a “magic keywords” mechanism which is absolutely brilliant !
In short, every magic keyword is a shortcut – to a site, to a document, to a program, ANYTHING !
Here are some shortcuts which I’m using for my every day work:
ggl [your search sentence here] – search in google.
iis – open Internet Information Services.
vss – well, need I say more ?
cs\vsnet – open vs.net
events – open the event viewer.
codesmith – open CodeSmith studio.
n2 – open notepad2.
msdn – open my latest version of MSDN.
regulator – open Roy Osherove’s Regulator.
ie – open internet explorer window.
mssql – open SqlServer 2000 Enterprise Manager.
reflactor – open Lut’s Reflector tool which I love (a MUST tool when working with CodeSmith 2.6)
lnbogen – opens my site ! COOL !
[myprojectname] – open the directory of my project (it’s much faster than writing Run->c:\path-to-my-project\ & Enter).
[company documentation] – the main directory which keeps your company[->application->] customer requests, application structure, code guidelines and every other thing you think is “every day” search program\directory\document etc.
[projecttodo] – my personal TODO.xls file (for every project).
Here is my taskbar (some of it anyway):
All you have to do is to create a magic keyword and with a single Ctrl+Q and your magic keyword – your shortcut is running.
The greatest thing is that my hands don’t leave the keyboard, which I find a lot faster
than moving the mouse, clicking on the keyboard, moving the mouse again, clicking the keyboard etc.
I can hear you till here – “this is a nice feature but certainly not a big time saver”.
Let me refresh your memory; Try to count the number of times a day your hands leave the
keyboard and wasting time searching this or that application\document and multiply this number by 15.
You’ll get a good evaluation of the number of seconds you’re wasting
every day for SEARCHING instead of DOING,
on trying to REMEMBER paths instead of being FOCUSED on the “real” work.
Even more – you can export\import your shortcuts, and share these definitions between
your home\work computers or even
between your teammates (assuming the installation paths are the same, of course).
This will keep your “easygoing” work environment in each computer you’ll use.
I’m hooked, tell me if you are also (share your every day magic keywords with us!).