What Is It?

Qliner Hotkeys provides a very intuitive and easy way to add and view existing hotkeys using the Windows Key

It is cleverly implemented, visually attractive and has lots of options for setting up new hotkeys including the ability to drag and drop programs onto the keyboard with automatic assignment of the program icon.

Why Would You Want It?

If you like to use Windows hotkeys or just would like to use them more but can’t remember where they are assigned then this is the program for you.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Displays the existing hotkey assignments
• Allows new hotkeys to be set
• Allows existing hotkeys to be moved
• Allows certain properties to be changed
• Handles multiple instances of a program
• Has additional tools (Screens Capture & ZIP Utility to add on)

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

• Simple and Intuitive
• Good options
• Visually attractive
• Multiple Keyboard layouts supported
• Multi Lingual
• Additional Tools

Cons:What’s Not So Good?

• Limited to Windows Key modifier only*

*You can only use hotkeys that are associated with the Windows key – combinations such as Alt-Ctl-x cannot be viewed, changed or added.

More About What it Does in Detail:

The developers site Qliner gives the following information:

Qliner hotkeys is a free and open source keyboard productivity environment. It is the first product of its kind that is usable by computer geeks and non geeks alike.

Hotkeys builds on the concept of Windows shortcut keys but takes this concept to a whole new level. Do you think key combinations are hard to remember? Just hold the Windows key for three seconds and up pops a on screen Keyboard with icons on the keys that are configured. This you can use , not only to remind you of hotkey combinations, but also for Drag and Drop Configuration.

The Main Keyboard Window

(Click on images to display full size)

Holding down the Windows key for 3 seconds (can be set to other times) or pressing the Widows key + z disp[lays the keyboard layout. \this shows all the currently assigned hotkeys complete with icons and tooltips when the mouse cursor is hovered over the key \(which also is given a blue outline)

Left clicking on open space (i.e. not on key) displays the following menu:

Various sub menus allow:

• The keyboard colour to be changed
• The keyboard layout type to be set
• The language to be set (over 100 listed !!)
• Delay time to show on pressing Windows key

Other options are self evident

Assigning New Hotkeys

These can be assigned by menu and window options or by dragging and dropping.

Right clicking on a modifiable* button shows the following menu:

*Some buttons such as the Windows Key (obviously) but also the Alt and Ctl keys plus some others cannot be modified, right clicking on these does not display the menu.

You can use:

• The Wizard
• Browse for a file or shortcut
• Choose from the Tools Options menu and sub menus

The Wizard

You can choose a tool from the Wizard or

Browse for a file or shortcut.

Having chosen the shortcut you can then set the Tooltip name and also choose a different key from the dropdown.

In this case Firefox Portable was assigned:

Using the Browse or Tools from the right click menu allows the key to be more quickly assigned.

Modifying Existing Hotkeys

Right clicking on an existing assigned hotkey shows the Properties option at the bottom of the menu.

Clicking on this displays the Hotkeys Properties window:

The window changes depending whether the Hotkey assigned is a tool as above or a program as below.

Instance Handling

Qliner Hotkeys handles the situation where an existing program started by a hotkey is already running (an instance). Where the program is already running on its own (a single instance) it brings the program to the front. If more than one instance displays a menu as shown below:

If a single instance is running and you want to start a new window then holding down the Alt Key while pressing the hotkey combination will start a new instance. All very nicely done!

What are the Technical Details & Compatibility?

What is the My Free Review Experience?

I have only just started to use this but I really like the graphics and the ease of use. As a quick reference for existing hotkeys and as a way of quickly setting a new hotkey it works brilliantly. As it is only used for setting/displaying hotkeys it does not need to be running as a background process so the fairly high memory use is not important.

A useful utility, particularly if you need to have different profiles to change your monitor settings for different applications or day and artificial light settings.

Personally I rate this as:

Very useful and well put together – Easy to Use

What Could Make it be Better?

• Allow use of Modifier keys (Ctl, Alt, etc.)
• Extend to all hotkey combinations
• Profiles for individual users or different tasks
• Save settings to file

What Other Posts are Relevant?

TaskSwitchXP – So Much More Than a Task Changer

PortableApps Menu – Start All Your Portable Applications with 2 Clicks

Daphne – Modify, Control & Kill Processes with Your Mouse

Why I decided to Write this Blog

What are the Tags?

Technorati Tags: Hotkeys, Shortcuts, Freeware, Programs, Software, Utilities, Windows, Windows XP, WIndows Vista, Windows Server

Popularity: 19% [?]

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 6:38 am and is filed under Freeware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.