ShortcutGuide Blog

Broke 100 applications mark

July 3, 2008 – 2:25 am
A day or so ago, ShortcutGuide broke the 100 applications mark (watch the stats).  This is a relatively large accomplishment since we started in December of 2006 with our first application (gmail).  Gmail keyboard shortcuts stayed on the front page and was later replaced by Vista keyboard shortcuts, subsequently the main page is now more informational.  We hope to break the 1000 mark, ten times what we have by the end of the year.  We hope to grow our information base though a variety of techniques; if you are a developer and want to add shortcuts to your own application on ShortcutGuide, just click Add Shortcuts.

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Hosting upgrade

July 1, 2008 – 10:31 pm
The site was down for an hour or so today as we upgraded the current hosting plan.  ShortcutGuide is now on a virtual private server instead of shared hosting.  There is a significant performance increase in page load time.  Additionally, instead of static HTML pages that were pre-generated, we've gone to completely real time database driven site; updates to shortcuts should be seen immediately instead of a 24 hour waiting period.

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Main site refresh - Introducing Tabbed Shortcuts

June 29, 2008 – 1:41 am
No need to fear for those that love the Virtual Keyboard--it's still accessible.  There are several updates to the main page 1) All shortcuts are now tabular (based on categories).  The default is "All," but you can filter as you like 2) Upper right hand corner is an Add This button, you can share on any major social networking site, or just add the current page as your favorites. 3) Virtual Keyboard can still be accessed via the link next to the name of the shortcuts 4) search function is minimized to have more retail space for the current page. 5) Because of these changes the load time of the site has improved as well.  Any feedback is appreciated (info at shortcutguide dot com) -mike

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Add Shortcuts AutoComplete

June 29, 2008 – 1:40 am
The most difficult problem facing ShortcutGuide is data acquisition (sourcing).  If we can create a UI that allows people to enter shortcuts faster, I would venture to guess that more people would 1) enter in  shortcuts 2) enter more of them.  Hence the UI change below.  When Adding Shortcuts to the site, you have to select the publisher/company. Previously there was a drop down, but a AutoComplete seems more natural in this context.  Additionally, if the company isn't there, now there's a simple button at the bottom to add a new one.

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ShortcutGuide path forward

June 29, 2008 – 1:38 am
In the last four months feature development stopped and the site was put on hold until some other activities I've been working on could be completed (moving to a new place, ISACA conference talk, IP3 security seminar I delivered, etc.).  So enough excuses.  I plan to slowly roll out some UI changes on the site, modify the site to be more user friendly, and add some really interesting features along the way.  I always look forward to suggestions for new UI, features, integration with other sites, so feel free to send me a note (info at shortcutguide dot com). -mike

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UI update - no need to search (just complete)

February 13, 2008 – 8:39 pm
I've updated the UI so it's easier to find application you seek using AJAX style "autocomplete."

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UI change - find even keyboard shortcuts faster

February 8, 2008 – 10:16 pm
We're working hard to improve the UI. After scoping some alternatives we've settled on a new AJAX control from Yahoo's UI framework. Hope you like it.

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Quickly Add Shortcuts

February 6, 2008 – 1:13 am
We've updated the site so you can now add shortcuts to each application using the link above shortcut listing (see red circle below).

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Shortcut Recommendations - site update

February 5, 2008 – 10:44 pm
Sifting through 90 shortcuts can be relatively tedious if you are looking for a quick way to improve your productivity with a particular application. We have introduced a recommendation system across all applications, that let's users provide a star rating for shortcuts they find particularly useful. We look forward to your feedback on this feature. -mike

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Finding shortcuts fast

February 5, 2008 – 2:46 am
We've designed the site so you have basically 4 ways to easily find shortcuts: Using the drop down menus (which most people use) Using the Search box on the main page Using your preferred search engine (Google, Yahoo, Live, etc). Just type in "shortcutguide" and the name of the application (e.g. "shortcutguide windows xp" or "shortcutguide gmail"). Google's I'm Feeling Lucky will likely work as well. Using ShortcutGuide Search Engine Provider. Just add it using one of the links at the bottom of the page.

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