by Don Herion

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They sunk my battleship! Sorry, for a second I drifted back to my childhood.

I'm sure you're familiar with some these. They're called keyboard shortcuts. If you're familiar with carpal tunnel syndrome you know why they are important. For those unfamiliar with the term it's an injury due to repetitive stress placed on the human wrist and hand when chained to a mouse for hours on end. Keyboard shortcuts are also an underused method for improving performance.

The problem using keyboard shortcuts is each program has its own command set. Like most Web designers I use several programs, including; Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, Word and occasionally Illustrator. Often I have several of these open at the same time. Learning the shortcut commands to each of these programs is not an easy task. Thankfully, most software companies provide Quick Reference cards that list the programs keyboard shortcuts. Unfortunately you may need the Hubble telescope to read them. Some companies allow the user to edit existing keyboard shortcuts or create new ones. Some even empower you to have separate keyboard shortcut command files. This enables designers to have their own keyboard shortcut lists for the same program. Adobe Illustrator 9.0 has this capability.

Quick Reference cards are a big help. But while running some laps with Flash I got tired looking constantly down at my card then back to my screen. I finally decided to develop my own keyboard shortcut system. My goal was to create a handy tool that I could place above the application I was using. It had to be somewhat unobtrusive but still easy to read. After some initial thought and development I completed my Flash Shortcut tool (saved as a projector file - no plug-in required). Here is a screenshot:

Flash Keyboard Shortcut tool

I place the tool above the Flash application. I can click any link and see the associated keyboard short cuts (I have not listed commands without shortcuts). Underlined words link to a third level of shortcuts. If I am editing frames I set my tool to display the Edit - shortcuts. If I am modifying elements (like text) within a Flash project I display - Modify. Of course my ultimate goal is to design in Flash without it. But for now it's a handy reference.

The tool is downloadable. Check it out and let us know if it's useful. If it is I might get around to creating additional short cut tools for programs like Dreamweaver and Photoshop.

Download Flash Shortcut Tool