Even though my friend Bren of SlackerManager fame has tried selling me on Activewords, I never bit...and here's why: gaming.

Seriously! I'm an avid (ok, maybe rabid would be a better term!) PC gamer...but I'm HORRIBLE at remembering keystrokes. I'd much rather program macros into my 256 joystick button slots; easier to remember.

However, it looks like I'm going to have to give Activewords a try now. :-)

Thanks for the blog, David; I enjoy reading it for precisely this kind of content.

This app looks pretty similar to Quicksilver on the Mac. I just recently (over the weekend) actually got around to digging into Quicksilver, but Merlin over at 43 Folders has been quite the evangelist about the program for some time now. After only two days of using Quicksilver, I'm already starting to feel more like the machine is truly an extension of my mind.

"Oh, I need to add that laundry task to my next actions list."
Keyboard shortcut..."Next"...Enter...Start typing my task.

Of course everyone's mileage may vary. I'm a computer programmer who spends most of his life at a Unix or TSO command line. Hands on the keyboard is my default position while at the computer.

While I've never used ActiveWords, I can certainly vouch for the functionality it appears to provide. If you own a Mac and you're not using Quicksilver, I would recommend that you make a project to download it and learn about it at your earliest convenience.

Is there any way to offer a feed w/o comments in it? I know there aren't a ton of comments, but it is a bit annoying to get a new copy of the entry for each comment left - you should consider offering a separate feed for comments.

In the meantime, I've changed newsgator to not treat modified as new, but I WOULD like to get YOUR updates!

Tim, not sure what the tech is about what you're asking, but I'll pass on to Robert and Eric and see if they have any suggestions. Thanks. - David

Ok, thanks. Just tell them that, within the RSS 2.0 feed, every new comment is added to the body of your message.

If they have any further questions, feel free to contact me through my weblog.

How do the rest of us get Buzz to come do a seminar for us so we can truly "get" this ;-)?! I'm reading so much about Activewords, and I think I grasp the principle, but I need some functional demonstration to really get how to make use of the tool.

Yeah, Buzz rocks! We really enjoyed his demo at the university when he was in town. Great guy, great application!

Hi David,

Thanks for posting this - I have ActiveWords a try, and it's simply awesome. It's going to easily become another one of those little PC things that I can't live without!

Jim

Like most Americans with eyes and a pulse, I’ve gotten the demo from Buzz (when will he come out of his shell ;-) ).

It’s a strong program, for sure. I’m reluctant to compare it to Quicksilver, since QS really forms “functional sentences” based on the “subject,” “verb,” and “object” you choose in its 3-pane interface.

But, based on what I’ve seen of ActiveWords, it’s a huge timesaver. The autocomplete/abbreviaion explosion stuff is ace, for sure. If I were on a PC, it's what I'd be using, I suspect.

The PC world currently has nothing approaching Quicksilver's flexibility, but AppRocket seems to be closer than ActiveWords, at least in its overall operation. AppRocket's floating window appears when you hit alt-spacebar, giving visual feedback when needed without taking up valuable real estate. It then offers the closest-matching application, URL, folder or document name depending on the few characters you give it - it doesn't have to be explicitly taught a list of keyboard shortcuts. Plus, I just like the idea of deliberately invoking AppRocket using alt-spacebar versus ActiveWords "listening" for words that have been typed into an application's text field and then erasing them if they trigger an action. Finally, AppRocket's brilliant cursor-key file browser makes it ultra-easy to traverse folders up and down, back and forth.

I'm resistant to programs like ActiveWords, even though I'm a power user, because I use LOTS of different computers on a regular basis, and installing ActiveWords on all of them is not practical. Becoming reliant on a program in one place would actually cause me to lose efficiency in other places where it isn't available.

For that reason, I tend to stick with a relatively limited set of add-on tools; the vast majority of the ones I use are free and so can be installed on any computer from the web in seconds.

I've seen you write elsewhere about the substantial productivity increases you get from using keyboard shortcuts, and I completely agree.

The "program launching" ability of Activewords is similar to Dave's Quick Search Taskbar Toolbar Deskbar. I highly recommend this free utility. It has changed the way I interact with Windows.

Activewords' scripting ability looks more interesting. I've always had my eye out for a way to record a macro that could work across applications to automate repetitive tasks. I'll have to try it out.

Thanks for the pointer.

Macro Express (www.macros.com) seems to do what ActiveWords does plus more. It watches your keystrokes, looks for keywords you've set up, pays attention to context, and so on. Furthermore, your macros can run on a schedule if you like. (E.g. launch my timesheet at 4 pm each weekday, or when I type Timesheet, or when I press Windows-T.) It can launch or set the focus on a particular application and just the appearance of a particular control or window title can cause a macro to run.