About Global Hotkey 1.4

Source code Download

On the newsgroup de.sys.mac.misc some users where looking for a kind of hot key application which enables them to launch applications via pressing a key like F9.

This application stays in the background doing nothing. But if you press a key combination which matches one of the file names in the folders of the application, it will do something.

The text files in the AppleScripts folder will be executed as Applescripts Usefull if you want to quickly turn your Mac to sleep.
The items in the Applications folder can be launched. It works even for folders or documents.
Pictures and plain Textfiles in the Clipboard folder are copied to the clipboard.
Shell scripts are executed from the ShellScripts folder.

The application writes a lot of stuff to the console which you can watch for error messages. Just launch the console application from the utilities folder and read, but don't be scared: Far over 90% of this is to be ignored.

This application is freeware and provided as is.

Making donations

This application is considered donation-ware (uncrippled shareware). If you find it indispensable, please consider making a donation.

Donate 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 Euro/Pounds/US-Dollar

Please pick a value and purchase the quantity you like. This goes through share-it to make sure any required sales tax is collected.

If you'd rather not use PayPal, you can send something to me directly at:
Christian Schmitz, Plaidter Straße 31a, 56645 Nickenich, Germany

Source code

You find the Realbasic project file in the download. You can watch the source code online:

Global Hotkey 1.2 Source code

New stuff added in version 1.4:

Fixed problem with F15 and F16 keys.
Now an Universal application (for PPC and Intel!).

New stuff added in version 1.3:

Fixed problem with users of Script Debugger from latenightsw.com.

New stuff added in version 1.2:

Apple Scripts are now compiled only when needed so no longer iTunes launches when launching this application.

New stuff added in version 1.1:

Application is now a background application.
Fixed the F1 and F2 key.
The folders are watched for changes so hotkeys change dynamically.

New stuff added in version 1.0:

First Release.

Screenshot

The application folder with the items to open with their key combination:

Screenshot

List of key modifiers:

command
shift
option
control
right-shift
right-option
right-control

List of key codes:

esc
f1
f2
f3
f4
f5
f6
f7
f8
f9
f10
f11
f12
f13
f14
f15
tab
backspace
return
help
delete
page-start
page-end
page-up
page-down
cursor-up
cursor-down
cursor-right
cursor-left
num-lock
num-=
num-/
num-*
num-+
num--
num-enter
num-,
num-0
num-1
num-2
num-3
num-4
num-5
num-6
num-7
num-8
num-9