Set up a timed trigger to automatically run an action as soon as or shortly after a program launches. To illustrate - you could have a particular folder open each time you opened a certain application. I included an extra step that opens my InDesign Library each time I open InDesign.

With QuicKeys I don't even have to remember which program I'm actually using. I use the alias feature or the shortcut feature to standardize my favorite keystrokes from program to program (and version to version). For example: Control-K opens the color palette in all my graphics programs. I also set up a sequence to create PDF files for our printers. There are lots of steps that are easy to forget. It takes awhile to run so I use that opportunity to stretch my shoulders. Between my new ergonomic mouse and QuicKeys, I may never have to see my chiropractor again.

Use Clips to save, organize and store commonly used text and graphics which can then be recalled and inserted into any document at a moments notice.

"... one of the most practical and timesaving shortcuts is when I'm using either Fontographer or FontLab. With these applications, when constructing the outlines of a font character, I am constantly selecting different layers in which to work. There is no key combo or menu item to select a layer -- the 'Layers' window floats around on the desktop, and to select a layer the user has to manually click the layer in the Layers window.

So, I have constructed a Mouse Click for each layer and assigned each one an F-Key. Now it's so easy to switch between the layers -- F1, Outline layer; F2, Mask layer, and so on. It must have saved me hours and hours over the years.

And that's only one. Don't know where I'd be without QK ;-)"

"I do a large number of graphic files every day in Photoshop. The work it takes to take each image and size them accordingly, apply various filters, convert them to other formats, optimize them for the web, save them in a variety of formats in everything from bmp's to tif's etc, is mind boggling! This work used to be more than I could accomplish in a single day. With QuicKeys I am able to do the same work in just TWO HOURS!"

"I created a toolbar which I keep on top of photoshop. I then create a wide number of macros (55 total), that automatically set the focus to the image I am working on, and then each macro can accomplish different tasks.
For example, one macro does the following:"

1. Set the focus to the image
2. resize the image to the predetermined size
3. select a brightness and contrast filter and lighten the image by 3 settings
4. select the sharpen setting and sharpen the image by 2 settings
5. save the image to a bmp format
6. convert the image to 256 colours from true colour
7. save the image again to a bmp format with a second name - but now saved in 256 colour mode
8. optimize the image for use on the web as a .jpg,
9. save the image one last time - this time in .jpg format for the web
10. close the image out of photoshop
11. move the focus to the next image and then stop

"The time savings is nothing short of amazing. I have never missed a deadline thanks to QuicKeys and I am able to take on new clients for web work every day, since I have a lot more free time. QuicKeys has allowed me to save a single image in 3 different formats should I need to go back to either format again, all without touching more than one mouse button. Resizing an image took a great deal of work, but now with QuicKeys, every single image is exactly the size I need."

A suggestion by Steve Harley on the InDesign list: use an macro program (such as QuicKeys) to define a key on the number pad for the 'p' in dimensions set in picas and points. One suggestion was to remap "=" to "p" making it operative in just the apps that need it.

When putting documentation together with screenshots I often set up and snap ten or twenty screens, then open them all, crop them and save them as a group. QuicKeys makes this much easier by automating all but the screen area selection step. I simply count the number of screenshots to crop and hit my hot key to start the ball rolling.

"I actually use QuicKeys to help create the PDF product in my online publishing company www.praisecharts.com. I spent two days creating a script that compiles documents from several files and combines them into a PDF file, then creates a customized PDF with several bookmarks, javascript links, PDF "open" options, and passwords. The whole script takes about 12 minutes to complete, but it would take me a half hour or more doing it manually - it's actually my laptop computer's only job during the course of the day."