Feature Overview
Menu shortcuts are supposed to provide quick access to frequently used menu commands, but how many shortcuts do you know by heart?
KeyCue helps you to use your Mac OS X applications more effectively by displaying a concise table of all currently available menu shortcuts.
You no longer need to memorize and remember key combinations; just press the command key and KeyCue tells you what you want to know.
With KeyCue you get an instant overview of the overall functionality of any application
KeyCue "teaches you" the most frequently used menu shortcuts on the fly so that you automatically start working more efficiently by making regular use of menu shortcuts.
- Get an instant overview of all menu shortcuts in any application.
- Simple to use: just press the command key to see the menu shortcut table.
- User-definable custom shortcut descriptions reveal hidden keyboard shortcuts.
- Clickable shortcuts let you execute any shortcut instantly by clicking it.
- System-wide hotkeys made visible.
- Optional legend for keyboard symbols.
- Different themes for customizing the appearance of the shortcut table.
- Instant access to the KeyCue settings window by means of an extra keyboard shortcut.
- Configurable settings for activation.
- Open interface for 3rd party applications.
- Shows Keyboard Maestro, QuicKeys, and iKey shortcuts.
- Several options for adapting the behavior and appearance of KeyCue to your liking.
Words cannot fully describe the benefits offered by KeyCue.
We therefore invite you to see a video review of KeyCue from MacApper...
Just press and hold the command key, as if you were about to type a menu shortcut.
Within a configurable time, KeyCue comes to help and tells you which menu shortcuts are available right now in the current application.
Reveal hidden keyboard shortcuts with KeyCue 6.
Comes with 150 extra shortcuts for Adobe InDesign!
In older versions of KeyCue, the application shortcuts shown by KeyCue were limited to those that appear in menus. However, many applications offer further hidden shortcuts that are listed only in help documents or printed manuals.
Starting with version 6, KeyCue supports user-definable custom shortcut descriptions to reveal these hidden commands. KeyCue merges the additional shortcut descriptions with the shortcuts found in the menus to show the most comprehensive keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet ever.
You can import and export these custom shortcut descriptions to use them on multiple Macs or share them with other KeyCue users.
We are also offering extended shortcut descriptions for Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop, as well as for universal text editing and navigation shortcuts. The picture above shows 150 additional shortcuts for Adobe InDesign that were not listed in the KeyCue table until now. You can download the description files from our Download Extras web page and import them into KeyCue with just a double-click.
We will publish more shortcut description files in the future to further increase KeyCue's versatility. If you have compiled shortcut descriptions that you are willing to share with the KeyCue community, please let us know, and we'll be happy to add them to our Download Extras page.
Increased productivity through KeyCue
KeyCue takes your productivity boost to a new level. It brings menu shortcuts to life by making them clickable. Just locate the requested menu item and click it to instantly execute it.
You can activate all shortcuts by clicking – even those you cannot type.
This is a major step forward in unveiling the full power of menu shortcuts and boosting productivity of both novice and experienced users.
iKey lets you create macros of repetitive user actions and assign them to a hotkey.
The integration of KeyCue with iKey provides an additional boost in productivity, giving iKey users a way to see all their hotkeys in one place.
Starting with version 2.5 of iKey and version 5.2 of KeyCue, the two applications work together allowing KeyCue to show all currently active iKey shortcuts.
With QuicKeys, you can define shortcuts for specific tasks on your computer. As with menu shortcuts, when you have defined a lot of useful shortcuts, remembering all the shortcuts for invoking them becomes a challenge.
Starting with version 4.0 of QuicKeys and version 4.5 of KeyCue, the two applications work together allowing KeyCue to show all currently active QuicKeys shortcuts.
Keyboard Maestro is a powerful macro program that lets you define custom action sequences together with your own shortcuts to activate them. The more shortcuts you have defined the harder it becomes to remember them.
Starting with version 3.0 of Keyboard Maestro and version 4.2 of KeyCue, the two applications work together allowing KeyCue to show all currently active Keyboard Maestro hot keys.
Mac OS X comes with a set of useful shortcuts for keyboard navigation, taking screen snapshots, zooming, activation of Spotlight, Exposé, Dashboard, and more. KeyCue helps you to learn and remember these shortcuts by including them in the pop-up table.
You can decide whether the system-wide shortcuts should appear together with the menu shortcuts in a single large table or in a separate table (as shown to the left) by assigning separate activation keys.
An optional legend explains the meaning of symbols used in the shortcut table. Like the shortcut table itself, the legend is compact and context-sensitive; it displays only those key symbols that appear in the shortcut table right now.
KeyCue uses the same key symbols that are used throughout Mac OS X, but some of these are obscure and need an explanation - especially for users who are new to the Mac. Switchers will therefore particularly appreciate the new legend.
Of course, you don't have to remember that, as KeyCue itself will tell you the keyboard combination.
KeyCue sports different themes for customizing the appearance of the shortcut table.
These themes include the "Classic" look and a "Dashboard" theme that darkens the rest of the screen to attract attention to the shortcuts.
KeyCue also includes two large-print themes. If you are visually impaired or just above forty ;-) – you will like the big font size and high contrast of these themes.
You can control whether KeyCue should include menu and submenu titles, how to hilite shortcuts that match the currently pressed modifiers, and more.
You can define which modifier keys should display the shortcut table, how long KeyCue should wait before displaying the table, and which actions should cause the table to disappear.
Starting with version 5.0, KeyCue can display arbitrary shortcuts found in other applications, but it needs some support by these applications. We have defined a simple interface that allows other applications to tell KeyCue about available keyboard shortcuts.
We invite software developers to use this interface. It is easy to implement and leads to an immediate benefit for both application developers and KeyCue users, as arbitrary applications can use KeyCue to display a "cheat sheet", and KeyCue can display all shortcuts found in an application, not only those that are tied to menu commands.
If you are a software developer and wish to use KeyCue's shortcut interface in one of your applications, please download the interface specification (PDF).
This document contains detailed instructions with sample code. Check it out and you will see that it is fairly easy to connect your application with KeyCue. In a few steps, you can use KeyCue as a quickly accessible help page for your application's shortcuts.
If you have additional questions, please contact our technical support for more information.