ShortKeeper

Keyboard Shortcut Manager (AutoHotkey-based)

Tips & tricks

For those who need more than a few shortcuts, ShortKeeper can be used with an Enterpad device. With as many as 120 control keys, the Enterpad lets you accurately trigger dozens of well-identified shortcuts without having to bother with keyboard hotkeys.

For various reasons (e.g. an error condition) a shortcut may not finish running in the time expected, preventing AutoHotkey (the shortcut processor) from running other shortcuts. Just restart AutoHotkey to stop a stalled shortcut; this will let you run your shortcuts again. The Start/Stop AutoHotkey button in ShortKeeper and the Restart AutoHotkey command in the AutoHotkey menu (a small hand icon in the taskbar system tray, usually at the bottom right of the screen) are two ways you can restart AutoHotkey.

Like Microsoft Office applications that support VBA (e.g. Excel, Word), ShortKeeper lets you define shortcut keys to trigger VBA macros. However, ShortKeeper offers several additional advantages: consolidate and simplify the management of your shortcut keys outside MS Office, trigger macros other than VBA macros, use Enterpad keys to trigger macros, and more.

ShortKeeper’s folder can be moved. But AFTER moving it, it is important to update the desktop and startup shortcuts (if any). To do so, in the Options tab, just uncheck and check the options again. This will delete the old file shortcuts and create new ones.

It is easy to remove/uninstall ShortKeeper from your computer (you just need to delete the folder where it was installed), but first don’t forget to uncheck the three options “Start AutoHotkey automatically at Windows start-up”, “Create a desktop shortcut for AutoHotkey” and “Create a desktop shortcut for ShortKeeper” (if checked). This will remove the file shortcuts.

When editing a shortcut with ShortKeeper, pressing F1 on the keyboard will show the AutoHotkey generated code for the selected shortcut.

You do not have to be the administrator of a computer to use ShortKeeper on it. ShortKeeper can even be used with a Guest account on Windows. However, AutoHotkey (the shortcut processor) will need to be started in administrator mode if a shortcut needs to interact with an application running in administrator mode. One way to start AutoHotkey in administrator mode is to use a desktop shortcut with the “Run as administrator” option. ShortKeeper offers the possibility of creating a desktop shortcut to launch AutoHotkey (Options-> Create a desktop shortcut for AutoHotkey). ShortKeeper must also be started in administrator mode if it is to control (i.e. start, restart, stop) AutoHotkey in administrator mode.

Two files in the ShortKeeper folder, AutoExec.ahk and Functions.ahk, allow you to add code to the auto execution and function sections of the AHK script generated by ShortKeeper. Error(s) in these files could disturb ShortKeeper/AutoHotkey operations. A new or modified shortcut must be saved to include the edited file(s) in the generated AHK script.