Day 16 of the Ghacks Christmas Giveaway means that we pass the 2/3 mark today. We handed out lots of popular applications in the last 16 days thanks to our sponsors who donated their software products for the good cause. We got readers with new Kaspersky Internet Security, Bitdefender or Cyberlink packages. Today’s application is Direct Access, a speed typing application that can help tremendously in day to day activities on the computer.
Speed Typing is but one of the aspects of Direct Access, it is more of a workflow optimizer. At its core is the ability to identify commands that are entered by the user. This can be Microsoft Office 2007, Firefox or Notepad. Direct Access displays an overlay when a command gets recognized to provide a visual signal to the user. The command could then be executed by the user by pressing the associated hotkey.
Here are some examples: You can use Direct Access to create text abbreviations. To write Best Regards you could simply type br and hit the confirmation key which will automatically expand the text. Other possibilities include automatic spell checking as it is possible to define commands that do not a confirmation.
Text manipulation is but one of the possibilities that Direct Access offers. It can also be used to launch applications or websites. It is for example possible to launch an email client, Wikipedia or Skype with short commands that can be initiated anywhere. Commands are recognized anywhere, they just have to be typed on the keyboard. To make it clearer, no text input form is needed to write and start commands.
Want to startup the Windows Calculator? Just type calc and press shift afterwards anywhere. Want to display the Network Places in Windows? Type netw and shift to load that interface. Want to start the email client Thunderbird? Type tb and hit shift to load the email client.
Direct Access comes with a set of default commands that can be imported easily to help the user understand the software program. These default commands add all kinds of commands to the software. All examples given above are included in the default command set.
Before we explore the custom command creation we would like to let you know that you can download additional command packages from the website. This includes an html and control panel command set but also auto corrections for various languages like Spanish, German or French.
One of the main ways to increase the workflow is the custom command creation. It is possible to edit a default command in case you want to change the way the command is launched. Commands use various parameters depending on their purpose.
Auto-correction commands require only four parameters while application commands make use of seven. There are four types of commands that can be added to the software program: Autotext, Launch Application, Open Website and Send e-Mail.
To create a new auto-correction command one would simply add the correct phrase, the mistyped phrase and a description. Applications on the other hand require additional work. You need to specify the path, window style, abbreviation, option parameters and run in commands and if you want to use a confirmation key.
Direct Access makes use of a few shortcuts to streamline the process. Shortcuts are available to add the current application, the last executed command or to create a new autotext.
You can further optimize commands with the use of macros. Think of macros as advanced commands that do more than the execution of just one software program. Some examples include positioning the cursor after executing a command, inserting special characters or clipboard contents or nesting commands. The excellent online documentation explains all concepts extensively.
Direct Access increases the workflow almost instantly. The default command set that can be imported makes for a good start but the real strength is the ability to add custom commands that suite the needs of the user in front of the computer monitor.
The software program requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 and is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista.
You can win one of eight licenses that have been donated by Andrea Nagar, the software developer. Just leave a comment and let us know how you would use this software.
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Hey Martin, great initiative, this Christmas Giveaway, unfortunately no need for this application. keep on giving, all the best.
This would be totally awesome! Tried this other autocomplete sw that totally “the opposite of blows”.
Andreas the software is excellent, especially the fact that you can just type anywhere, even without form, and launch applications or commands.
GIMME! This would be awesome since I send alot of standard mails but with different signatures.
And since I don’t have Outlook 2007 in my Remote Desktop, this could easily compensate that function.
Looks awesome! I would love to win this one :)
Outstanding app – One aspect of my job is to respond to emails requesting approvals for performing some variant of upgrade or update. The responses are varied and never standard. This app would be perfect in this situation.
Another aspect of my work is to write evaluations of customer systems – another perfect fit for this app.
Keep up the great work.
Another aspect would be when forwarding PDF’s from Adobe Reader, when you get that hideous text in your mail. Could with ease replace that with a short abbreviation. Can’t stop thinking about how much easier my life would be with this =)
wow brillant i would love this count me in please,
merry xmas everyone
looks great
I would like to try it.
Thanks Martin
I see so many ways to make use of this software, that it is hard to describe it in just a one small comment. The main use cases would be:
- pasting commonly used part of a source code while programming in a text editor only,
- using standard shortcuts described in this article, ie. to start applications or
- writing macros to get specific files from FTP server fully automaticly
- controlling external PC via remote desktop by just putting simple commands
Il looks awesome. I would like to try.
This sounds great, I spend much of my spare time entering competitions (can’t you tell!) and this sounds like it would make the whole process much faster for me, hey, maybe I could win something good with this……………would you guys want a cut if I did though?
Very fine giveaway, guys! Please count me inn!
Sorry to say but
1. This is a old version. They have released a new version and don’t give free upgrades.
2. DirectAccess seems to be a poor rip-off of a Freeware as shown in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVQGAidwv8k
Korrek
I have newer tryed this but it sounds great !
@Korrekt
Hate to say this but… PhraseExpress sucked, @least on my installation of Vista, and that’s why I’m putting my hopes into this app instead.
would like to attempt to win this.
i hope to be able to use this for speeding up my computer useage :)
I think this is a brilliant idea and a fantastic giveaway. Can think of so many ways this would save me time during my working day. If I don’t win it will definitely go looking for this. Thank you Martin and Ghack. xxx
This sounds just like what I need…
Thank you in advance…
would be nice to give it a try
Sounds like an interesting program!
Wen i win this i am going to use it as a workflow, thrue the custom command creation optimizer, for program’s as there are Office 2007, Firefox or Notepad by creating macros.
@Andreas: I run Windows XP but as it seems, PhraseExpress seems to work fine on Vista as you can see in their video demo at http://www.phraseexpress.com
You may rather want to check your system.
DirectAccess is such a memory hog. The installer is 3x bigger and it requires you to load .NET every time you run this tool. Naah.
This sounds like (for me anyway) one of the most useful apps given away so far. I haven’t entered for a lot of them, as they would have been of limited use for me, and thought they’d be better appreciated elsewhere, but this sounds incredibly useful. I would definitely use the app launcher – the number of programs I use regularly is ridiculous, and have shortcuts on the desktop, but still faffy. I’d also love the autotext function for online form filling etc. I’ve tried quite a few FF add-ons with varying amounts of success, but this sounds perfect!
First of all i want to thank you very much for making me the winner in your previous giveaways! :-) Regarding this program, i never knew that a program like this exists. Thanks for informing us about this usefull program, and the icing on the cake is you’re giving it away today! ;-)
the kind of thing that will only mess with my favourite IDE with autocompletion (Netbeans. No, not eclipse).
I’d use this to replace my use of AutoHotKey. It’s just too much work to code your own shortcuts and automation when you can use something like this!
This looks nice … no need to remember a bunch of shortcuts for most of the capabilities.
This would actually be incredibly useful for me on a day-to-day basis… and not just ‘cos I’m so lazy! :p