Last updated: March 20, 2013
Welcome to the Shortcat public beta! There are a few things that you need to know before you get started. You can bring this back up by clicking on the Shortcat icon in the menu bar and clicking Help. You can also view this in your browser of choice at http://shortcatapp.com/readme.html.
Changelog is viewable at http://updates.shortcatapp.com/changelog.html.
Shortcat is in beta. Bugs are to be expected, and it may crash.
It’s strongly recommended you read Usage to get the most out of Shortcat. Please read Compatibility before asking any questions about compatibility and Known Issues and Filing a bug before reporting bugs.
Cmd+Shift+Space to activate
2.1 Enter a few letters of what you want to click. Examples:
lt for Language & Textlang will also worksa for Show All. to show all elements.Space, i.e. <query> <shortcut>.Enter to click.
Command+Click, simply hit Command+Enter.Enter twice in quick succession.Control.Enter. If you know the shortcut or are reasonably confident the query you enter will match the element you want, simply activate Shortcat, type it in, and hit Enter. The best match that would be highlighted in green will be clicked.The default activation shortcut is Command+Shift+Space. This brings up the Shortcat query window. You can change this shortcut in the Preferences. Preferences can be accessed via the menu icon or Cmd+, while Shortcat is active.
To query, simply type (in lowercase) a few letters of text from the element you would like to click on. These letters can be sequential or an abbreviation for the element.
For example, to click Desktop & Screen Saver in System Preferences, you can either type desk or dss.
Shortcat will highlight visible elements that match your query, with the green highlighted element being the top match.
If you want to click on an element that has no visible text, you can type . (period) and Shortcat will highlight all elements that it can detect and the corresponding shortcut for each element.
The top match in the green highlight will be clicked when you press Enter. You can use modifiers like Shift, Option, Command and Control while pressing Enter to click with the modifier. For example, Control+Enter becomes Control+Click, which is right click.
To click elements that are not the top match, simply press Space and type in the letters displayed on the highlight. The letters on the highlight are a shortcut for quickly clicking on that particular element. These shortcuts tend to be fairly stable. An exception is they have no guarantee to be stable within a web view.
To double-click an element, double tap Enter.
To mouse over the active element, double tap Control.
To perform a click at the current cursor position, simply press Enter with no query. You can also double-click at the current cursor position by double-tapping Enter.
Shortcat has the ability to scope your query to regions. Right now, regions are generally any area that is scrollable, so most lists and web views.
To scope to a region, activate Shortcat, then hold Shift. This will highlight scopable regions. While holding Shift, press the corresponding key for the region you wish to scope. Shortcat will then update the blue focus ring, and your next query will only search within that region.
Example: In Textual, searching everything can be slow. Activating Shortcat, then Shift+A will scope your query to the channel listing on the left.
Shortcat works with any application that properly exposes accessibility attributes. Standard OS X controls expose these attributes by default, so Shortcat works with most native applications on OS X. If applications implement custom controls (for animations, etc) and don’t implement accessibility attributes, Shortcat will not work for that application.
Below is a known list of applications classified by how well they work with Shortcat. If you find a popular application works particularly well, please let me know at http://shortcat.userecho.com/
open -a "/Applications/Google Chrome.app" --args --force-renderer-accessibility. Chrome has performance issues on DOM-heavy with this flag on, so it’s not recommended to use Chrome with this flag. The tabs are picked up by Shortcat even without this flag. Please see http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=137057Before you report a bug, please make sure you read the Known Issues above first, then the really important section below.
.Due to the way Shortcat currently hooks keystrokes, it is unable to catch keystrokes if an application has requested secure input. This generally occures when you are in a password field, however there are known bugs Google Chrome where it sometimes does not relinquish secure input. 1Password may have issues also.
Please try restarting Chrome and 1Password and try again. If it’s still not receiving input, please file a bug report.
Please search for existing topics/reports before you create a new one.
The feedback site is at http://shortcat.userecho.com/.
Please include the following when you make a bug report:
If you just wanna say how much you love Shortcat, tweet @shortcatapp! Otherwise, general feedback can be submitted at http://shortcat.userecho.com/. If it’s a feature request, please hold off on it until it goes 1.0.0, because I have a massive feature roadmap as it is :)
TL;DR: Shortcat is provided “as is”. Use at your own risk.
Shortcat is provided by Sproutcube “as is” and “with all faults.” Sproutcube makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the safety, suitability, lack of viruses, inaccuracies, typographical errors, or other harmful components of Shortcat. There are inherent dangers in the use of any software, and you are solely responsible for determining whether this Shortcat is compatible with your equipment and other software installed on your equipment. You are also solely responsible for the protection of your equipment and backup of your data, and Sproutcube will not be liable for any damages you may suffer in connection with using, modifying, or distributing Shortcat.