Shortcuts 1.0: Contextual menu hotkeys
There are ways to assign hotkeys or keyboard shortcuts to just about everything.
Service Scrubber brings them to Services, FastScripts to AppleScripts, you can even roll your own for a Menu item in any app.
Now, using Shortcuts 1.0, you can add them to Contextual Menu items as well.
It only works with Contextual Menu items that are provided by plugins, like items Automator and Folder Actions add to the Contextual Menu by default.
Assigning the shortcuts is easy. The app’s window lists the items that can be assigned hotkeys. Here is a screenshot half-way through assigning one to the Automator action, “EmailObject” (something I used a lot before I discovered Quicksilver):
click on the image for a full-sized view
Another window pops up prompting you to define the keystrokes for that item, say, Command-Control-Option-E. That’s it.
Now all I have to do is highlight a file in Finder, hit the hotkey combination and the file is passed to a new message in Mail.app. Clever.
It comes with a plugin of its own, called “CocoaTextSelectionHelper” which is an optional helper to get text selection from the front text view in Cocoa applications.
Shortcuts is freeware and available from the developer’s web site 
where you can also find a fuller online explanation of how it works.
Similar Posts:
- Automator actions for Mail.app
- MailTemplate goes universal, editor improvements
- Automator Action to email files quickly
- A plug-in for emailing files from Finder
- Email a file directly from Finder
Tags: Automator, cocoa text, contextual menu, folder actions, hotkeys, keyboard shortcuts, Productivity, shortcuts
