I don’t need to use my mouse to access high impact things such as workflows, universal actions, search
I don’t need to remember keyboard shortcuts (mental gymnastics and finger contortion - control/option/shift - who thought that is a good idea?)
often, most frequently utilized objects show up towards the top of search lists
When it comes to Hookmark, there is generally miminal friction when it comes to access a hook since it is associated with a individual item (such as an OmniFocus task). Although see my recent enhancement request ( Enhancement: AppleScript/Alfred Tag ) for situations where there is friction in this area.
However, I would say there is some friction when it comes to hooking to either new or existing objects. Examples:
I have an underlying OmniOutliner document and I want to create a new OmniFocus task around it. I hit my hotkey to bring up the Hookmark window, use either the complicated hotkey (which I can’t remember) or use my mouse to go to “Hook to new” and then scroll down or use my mouse to go near the bottom to choose OmniFocus. And yes, I know I can customize the “Hookmark to New” default option (but that’s only one application)
Let’s say I want to copy all links. I do not remember the shortcut (though I do remember the shortcut for copy link command-C because that is consistent across all apps). Again, I need to use my mouse and go to the menu item.
Ways to minimize the friction:
Think about Alfred - the most common utilized things often show up first. In my workflow, I only link to OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, DEVONthink, Finder documents/folders. When I click “Hook to new”, all of the initial destinations (at least to me) that show up such as Microsoft, Finder projects/mindmap/contacts are things I just do not use. I just want my specific destinations (OmniFocus, OO, etc) to show up first to make them easier to access.
Again, think about Universal Actions in Alfred, you don’t need to use your mouse or hotkey to access important actions such as moving files, sending emails, etc. I know within Hookmark, there is a hotkey ^M to access the drop down menu and then you can use a combination of arrow keys and enter to get to the correct item. This can result in lots of keystrokes. However, most people use the same actions frequently (copy link, hook to new) within their workflows. Having these show up in the main Hookmark window under the “hooked documents” where it currently says “To access the Action menu, type ^M” would greatly reduce the number of keystrokes/mouse usage. In my case, my list would be “Copy Link”, “Copy All Links”, “Hook to new OmniFocus”. I figure this could either be configured and/or determined “smartly” by Hookmark (which is how Alfred does it) by determining how often certain actions are selected (such as copy link, hook to new omnifocus)
I think the easiest thing to do first is : `Hook to New…` menu items (apps) should be sorted by recency (most recently used first).
The other suggestion, to present recently used commands requires more thought. I am quite familiar with launchers UI. How to merge that with the current UI requires a more detailed design. I don’t think we want to use the current scaffolding which works for newbies and for users who remember the command key shortcuts. The launcher and current design are very different such that we might need different modes of the context window, an additional window that is more like a launcher, or a widget in the window to filter commands (like Google Docs has for searching its help menu using ⌥/ [ opt-/]).
In fact there is already something similar to this in the Bookmarks window in foreground mode, and in all Mac apps, where one can search for commands from the Help menu. I think you’re essentially asking for the same functionality to be in available from the context menu. We could have a toolbar button for this but that would consume space. Also a bit difficult to get this right given in particular how Hook to New works (it’s tricky implementation-wise).
putting the list of matching commands in the status bar wouldn’t quite work because the status bar can be very low if there are many hooks and related items to show. So it would likely need to be an entirely new overlayed component. just thinking out loud here…
Yes, and please consider using dynamic hotkeys (e.g. ⌘1, ⌘2, etc) for the sequential items in the list, like Alfred. Point, there is friction using my hotkey button to open the Hookmark window, then going to the mouse to open the menu, mouse again to go to “Hook to new”. I just can’t remember the hotkey ⌃⌘N., It’s enough for me to remember my Alfred and Hookmark hotkeys to open up the Alfred window and Hookmark windows respectively, especially for commands that a person does not run ever single day. I mean I use ⌘C and ⌘V all the time so those are second nature at this point. Will discuss more below.
I didn’t consider the number of hooks making the status bar too low so that makes sense. This is very much a design decision. But importantly, the end goal is to avoid having to memorize hotkeys and avoid utilizing the mouse.
I personally don’t enjoy needing to navigate into submenus. The power of tools like Alfred allow you to navigate into submenus without really even realizing it. For instance, you could have a “Hook to new…”, click “Return”, and this would bring up a submenu with a list of destinations (again with the most frequent ones at the top). And even more powerfully, the selected destination (such as OmniFocus) could then show up in the parent menu in the future so you would not even need to dive into the submenu to choose it.
I think the important thing is that the most recently used / more frequently used items always got sorted to the top of the main menu and possibly submenus.
I think there are multiple ways to get there. I looked at the google docs hotkey you mentioned and that is reasonable. Maybe you just use the → (right arrow key) to invoke a menu. Maybe you build an Alfred workflow to incorporate the functionality, but I don’t think you want to reinvent Alfred within your software.
