Today, 3rd August 2006, sees the release of the final version of Direct Access 1.0.

I would like to thank all the people at ASP, OISV and Business of Software Forum for all their suggestions and criticisms and, in particular, Martin, of The Documentation Doctor, who is a highly skilled and talented technical writer who did a fantastic job correcting and organizing the website and the Direct Access manual.

Direct Access enables you to set up meaningful keyboard commands for

• Opening applications, folders, and websites
• Composing emails
• Inserting autotext
• Open customized menus containing your commands

When it recognizes a command, Direct Access uses a tooltip to suggest an action, and goes ahead if you hit F1, the confirm key. You don’t even need to have open a word processor or editor. Just type a command and hit F1.

For example, typing “note” F1 could open Notepad. Typing “myname” F1 could enter your name as autotext in any application, even one without built-in autotext!

Learn more about Direct Access or download a free 30-day trial.

The last beta version of Direct Access (0.9.6) has been released today.

Compared to the latest beta, it contains mainly bug fixes. The interface has been polished to make it easier to use. Now, aliases are called commands. The major new feature is the ability to edit the parent group of an action, directly from the edit window.

The manual has been completely reworked by the Documentation Doctor who’s a very experienced technical writer (more about that in an upcoming post). Now it’s more schematic and easy to understand.

You can order Direct Access from the order page for $39.95 (this is a time-limited introductory offer) or download a free trial.

The final release is expected for the beginning of August.

A new beta version of Direct Access has been released today.

This will be last beta with new functionalities. From now on only bug fixes will be done. The final release is scheduled for the mid of July.
The interface has been improved (now adding an action is a more straightforward process) with a new dialog showing the available action types. Larger buttons make it easy from the main window to create new actions or modify existing ones.
The Screenshots tour has been improved and all the documentation, in HTML format, has been added to the website so that you can fully inspect Direct Access features before downloading it.

The price of the product has been set to 39.95 US$ and the order page will be online in a couple of weeks and will be active with the release of the final version.

If you provide feedback during the beta testing you will be eligible to a 30% discount (beta testers’ price will be 27.95$).

Here’s an animation of how Direct Access can help you to automatically enter a piece of text in notepad.

I’m pleased to announce that a new improved version of Direct Access (release 0.8 BETA), containing almost all the features of the final version, has been released today. Thanks to the feedback received from beta testers, special attention has been placed on the redesign of the user interface to make it more user friendly and easy to use.
Direct Access offers a new way of working using your keyboard allowing you to trigger actions typing a word (called alias): type word to start Microsoft Word, sign to enter your mail signature or cnn to open the CNN site. You can easily define actions and assign alias to them, to have your applications, data, favorite web sites and text clips always a few strokes away.

Here’s a list of the main new features:

• completely redesigned user interface (two panes) to make it easier to organize actions (dockbars and notify icons have been removed to simplify the interaction with the application)
• new action types: ‘open website’ and ‘Send e-mail’ actions have been added to let you quickly open web sites and fire your mail application with a pre-addressed email
• default actions: Direct Access comes with a list of default actions so that you can get started immediately
• ‘Add Current Application’ button to add the active application to the list
• improved interface for adding actions: aliases can be automatically assigned to actions
• action execution can be confirmed using a hotkey or a separator character (TAB, SPACE, ENTER)
• toggle confirmation request for each action so that you can define which actions will be executed immediately after an alias is typed
• tooltips now display an icon and remind you of the actions associated with a certain alias without disturbing your workflow.

Direct Access works with Windows XP.

You can download a fully functional version at http://www.nagarsoft.com

Any feedback during the beta testing is greatly appreciated and will be rewarded with a 30% discount on the final version.