Key Launch : Help online.

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Contents

• Introduction

• Aliases

• Built-in calculator

• Special commands

• Internal commands

• Utils folder (adding your own documents or programs)

• Key Launch and DNM Script (advanced)

• Parametrized aliases (semi-advanced)

• Other Tricks

• Portability

• Unistallation

Introduction

OK, so this icon (the one on the left) will appear in the taskbar after installing Key Launch. Wait a few seconds (Key Launch must load the contents of a few folders), then Click it (or hit Ctrl+Space). You should see a window similar to this:

With an empty edit box however. Now, start typing a few characters from a title of the program you know (and which has shortcuts in the start menu). For example enter calc and you should see "Calculator" in the first place. Now hit Enter and the first program will be open. Or hit Down key to select another one. (If this window doesn't appear after pressing Ctrl+Space, then change the hotkey in preferences).

You can enter one or more words.

Aliases

After entering those few characters it may happen that what you are looking for is not on the first place, which isn't something we like, or worse - it's not there at all (because it's not in the Start Menu).

This is why you can add "Aliases", that is words being alias for a program or folder. Click the Preferences button, you'll se something similar to this:

You can now add your aliases. Let's say you define that "ex" points to "MS Excel", from now on, you can hit Ctrl+Space (to bring the "finder" window), then type in ex  and hit Enter - the program will start.

Please note that the program learns - so, if you often open e.g. "notepad" after entering "n", then after some time Key Launch will learn what you mean when you enter "n".

Semi-advanced: You can also use parameters in your aliases, more: parametrized aliases.

Semi-advanced: For more portability (using Key Launch on USB flash memory) you can use environment variables like %DRIVE%: Portability.

Built-in calculator

To use Key Launch's built-in calculator function, simply enter a calculation, for example "2+3*2" (without quotes), although it is recommended to precede the calculations with a "=" character, e.g. "=2+3" or "=2+11/(2*2)" (without quotes).

You can also use built-in math functions, for example "=pow(2,20)*sin(20)" - see available Math functions

By the way - you can also enter: `adder to open a small tool which adds up all values entered into a list (the first character is a back apostrophe, on the left of keyboard).

If you don't like that Key Launch automatically recognizes calculations, and evaluates them instead of doing a search, look at the preferences.

Special commands.

By preceding your query with 'http:' you can open webpages, e.g. http://www.konradp.com will open konradp.com page - even if there is no such shortcut in indexed folders. Here's a complete list of protocols:

• http: - opens web pages, e.g http://www.konradp.com will open konradp.com website

• mailto: - opens your default e-mail client, e.g. mailto:someone@somewhere.com

• callto: -will open default VoIP application, e.g. Skype

Please note that it's is better to use Ctrl+Enter anyway - even though Enter works OK, because Ctrl+Enter will always open what you entered in the editbox - it doesn't matter what was found - so, by entering e.g. http://www.konradp.com and pressing Ctrl+Enter you can be sure that this website will be open, and not something what was found in indexed folders. To put it simply - if you want to simply open what you have entered into the editbox - use Ctrl+Enter.

Internal commands

Commands beginning with ` character (back apostrophe, on the left of keyboard) are internal commands, and these are:

• `info : brings a small window with all the aliases defined, as well as other information.

• `adder : opens a small spreadsheet, values entered there are added up.

• `nalias (or 'new alias) : creates a new alias

• `help : opens this page

• `exit : closes key launch

Utils folder (adding your own documents, programs)

Since Key Launch simply indexes folders chosen by you in the program's preferences (e.g. Start Menu is indexed by default), you can add new files to those folders, and they will be indexed, thus, you can create searchable links in this way.

Note that Key Launch comes with a folder designed specially for this purpose - "Utils" which resides in program's installation directory (usually "C:\Program Files\Key Launch\Utils" ) - you can add your files there, after that you have to "rebuild the index" (right click on Key Launch icon or application window - Rebuild index menu command).

To create a link to a program/document, drag&drop the file to this "utils" folder with 'Alt' down. To Create a link to a web page drag&drop a website's icon to this folder (in Firefox and IE the website's icon is on the left of the address bar).

Enter "kl utils help" (without quotes) in Key Launch to open a short text document about the folder.

You can also create DNM Script files (more info: below).

Key Launch and DNM Script

Advanced.

DNM Script is a simple procedural programming language. Key Launch since version 1.4 became "DNM Script - aware" which means the program can execute those scripts.

If you have used the built-in calculator, you already have used the DNM Script. You can do more with it, than calculations - for example enter (in the Key Launch edit box):

=strlen("Hello World!")*sqrt(4)

Which will take the length of given string ("Hello World") and multiply it by square root of 4. Obviously, completely useless, but shows what the DNM Script is.

Anyway - you can create files with ".dnmscript" extension (for example "test.dnmscript") in any of the folders indexed by Key Launch (e.g. the Utils folder), and then by typing the name of the script you can execute it (rebuilding the index is necessary).

Since v. 1.71 you can pass parameters to the Dnm Scripts. Everything after {tab} will passed to the selected Dnm Script as arguments, in the Dnm Script you can then get them via $_PARAMS variable. Example Dnm script:

MessageBox("Parameters passed by Key Launch:"+$_PARAMS);

Look at the "kl - mm-memo.dnmscript" in "Utils" folder to see how to use it.

In the Key Launch's editbox enter "kl utils help" (without quotes) to bring a short document about 'utils' folders and DNM Script.

More about DNM Script:

• DNM Script (general information)
• DNM Script functions

Parametrized aliases.

Semi-advanced.

Since version 1.5 you can add parameters to your aliases. As an example, in the finder window, you can enter "g {tab}  something" (without quotes), Key Launch will open Google.com with "something" as a search query.  (Note: this may not work if you used previous versions of Key Launch before, in this case you will have to implement this trick by yourself). This is an example of a working parametrized alias, but how it is done? The following examples will show you how to create parametrized aliases for website URL's.

Right - click the window, go to "preferences", double click the "g" alias. In the "command" edit box you will see "http://www.google.com/search?q=$params" - "$params" is a token, which is simply being replaced by whatever you type in after {tab} key. So, in our example, when you enter: "g {tab} something", Key Launch will finally execute: http://www.google.com/search?q=something. The thing is, that this is how the URL looks like, when you search something in Google. You can also look at other predefined aliases, like "amazon" or "imdb".

Simple enough? So, let's create our own "parametrized alias" (yeap, this is going to be an exercise!) . We'd like to open a definition in Wikipedia after entering "wiki {tab} some definition" (without the quotes of course):

1. First, how the URL should look like? I have no idea - let's check it out. Open http://en.wikipedia.org in your favourite browser, now in the "search box" enter e.g. firefox and press Go. You should see an article about "Firefox" - but we're interested in in the URL which has been opened. Look at the address bar, you should see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox so we know - the URL schema is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/  followed by an article title. This title will be parametrized:
2. Go to "preferences" (right - click the window and choose "preferences"). Click "+" button to add an alias. In the "alias" edit box enter e.g. wiki . In the "Command" box enter this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$params. Press OK. That's all, let's test it:
3. In the finder window (Ctrl+Space), enter: wiki {tab} beer and press Enter. Key Launch will simply open the following url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer. Note: if you will enter two words (e.g. wiki {tab} John Kennedy) then capitalize first letters, this is how wikipedia works. If you want, in step 1, instead of using "Go" button,  press "Search" and use the appropriate URL schema for "Search".

Remarks

The above example is OK for website URL's or other URL's (like mailto:, callto: etc). If you want to open applications with parameters (arguments) - everything is the same, except that instead of putting the $params in the "command" edit box, put it in the "parameters" edit box (in edit alias dialog).

"$params" token will be replaced by everything after {tab}. But, in the finder window, you can also enter something like this: command {tab} parameter 1 {tab} parameter 2 - i.e. many parameters. In this case you can use $1 and $2 and $3 and $4 and so on, to reference these parameters when creating an alias. Example: create the following alias: name: gs, command: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:$1+$2  (this is an URL (simplified) which Google uses when you search a given site only, eg. site:konradp.com some query). Now, in the finder window, enter: gs {tab} konradp.com {tab} newsletter and press Enter, Key Launch will open http://www.google.com/search?q=site:konradp.com+newsletter because $1 will be replaced with konradp.com and $2 will be replaced with newsletter i.e. the two parameters entered. You can use up to 9 parameters in this way.

Of course you can use the parametrized aliases not only to open URL's, you can use them to create aliases opening programs (applications) too.

Other Tricks

Key Launch as Run Dialog

In the "finder" window, press Ctrl+Enter to open the program, which name you typed in, it doesn't matter Key Launch found something or not. This works just like the "Run" dialog (Win+R).

Opening programs or document via hotkey

Key Launch is not supposed to launch applications via hotkey. First of all, if you have Windows XP or higher, you can do it without any programm - simply go to the Start Menu, right-click a link, choose "properties" and set a hot key. Second, you may want to check out Ka Firetask a freeware application which can do just that - start up applications or dnm scripts via hotkey or on a regular basis.

Rebuilding index

To rebuild the index (so newly added files will be searchable) right-click the Key Launch's icon (or the program's window) and select 'Rebuild Index' menu command.

More

Drag&Drop - you can drag&drop a file from the result list.

Right click an item in the finder list to create an alias for it.

Portability

If you want to use Key Launch on a USB stick (in "portable" mode) then first install the application to your program files on your system drive, then copy its folder (usually C:\Program Files\Key Launch) somewhere on the USB stick, and finally uninstall Key Launch from your system drive. What's left is portable Key Launch on your flash memory.

Now, while adding "folders to index" (prefernces | folders to index) or aliases, use environment variables like %DRIVE% (which matches the drive on which Key Launch is starting up), for example, if Key Launch starts up from USB stick on Drive F:\ then:

• %DRIVE%\SomeFolder will match F:\SomeFolder
• %DRIVE%\SomeFolder\SomeFile.exe will match F:\SomeFolder\SomeFile.exe

Other useful variables: %SYSTEMROOT%, %PROGRAMFILES%, %SYSTEMDRIVE%, %USERPROFILE%, %WINDIR% - their meaning is quite self-explaining I hope.

Unistallation

Through Control Panel, or go to the program's installation folder and open unins000.exe

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