Great tip, Gina! I should note that I've tried this using VMWare Fusion, and it works great. That way you don't have to lose as much productivity when you have to use a few windows programs on your mac!

tnoetz01

Looks good! I'm going to try this out.

Love the "As seen on Lifehacker.com" on GetFingertips.com though!

waleed.z

Gina, How is the memory footprint ?

geek22

Are those words at the bottom supposed to be buttons? Good grief, that shop needs some UI help. And the less said about that horror at the top ("1 Commands", "2 Hotkeys", etc.), the better.

Rhywun

Much of this functionality is available without installing third-party software. Simply create a shortcut to Outlook on your desktop or quick launch bar, and append some of the following codes to the shortcut target:

[office.microsoft.com]

[www.poremsky.com]

These codes allow you to compose emails, add tasks/appointments/notes etc. without even opening Outlook, and much more...

aeleth

@geek22 - on my machine it uses 13 MB, including all features.

@Rhywun - yes, you're right: the User Interface for setting the Options needs some serious work. Any ideas are welcome.

The numbers at the top are there for quick access, they make it real quick to use these tabs. Not nice, but very effective.

TacoOosterkamp

Hi Gina,

Thanks for pointing folks to Fingertips and nice to meet you in Amsterdam last week!

I built Fingertips to make it real easy for myself to use Outlook as my trusted system for Getting Things Done.

With one Fingertips command I can add items to my Waiting For, Someday/Maybe list or any other list - without losing my flow and focus. I can stay fully involved in the application I'm currently using while still adding stuff to my system.

You may be happy to know that the next version of Fingertips will automatically scan your Start Menu and will support variables in Fingertype, for instance to insert the clipboard contents or the current date/time.

We're actively developing this free tool to make it as useful as possible.

Kind regards,
Taco Oosterkamp (don't think Mexican food ;-))

[www.meereffect.nl]

TacoOosterkamp

@Taco0

Just look at the options pages for other (popular) programs--especially Microsoft programs--and do what they do. And remember that buttons should look like buttons, tabs should look like tabs, etc. etc.

I think you could drop the numbers from the tabs and make the initial letters mnemonics instead. Just be consistent with programs other people use! One of my big pet peeves is that so much Windows software doesn't follow any guidelines at all. And recent stuff from Microsoft is making things worse.

Rhywun

@Rhywun - thanks for the ideas. As soon as we start working on the UI of the options dialog we'll definitely think about your suggestions.

There used to be a style guide for Windows applications, but I haven't been able to find it anymore.

Kind regards, Taco

TacoOosterkamp

Strange, when I attempt to install this I get a Virus error from Trend Micro

Visut/Malware Name: Mal_Infostl
Infected File: C:\Program Files\Fingertips\is-E2CS0.tmp

Anyone else get this?

Coldmiser

I downloaded this app.. But, what is odd is that when I create a new e-mail, I don't get my Signature.

Kent

kdyer

@Coldmiser, Trend Micro is the only virus scanner that I know of that reports this as a virus.

The problem seems to be with the .dll that is included with Fingertips that is used for the Fingertype functionality. Trend Micro will delete the .dll file to the quarantaine, which makes Fingertype (not Fingertips) unusable.

This is not a virus. Many, many people have downloaded and used the current version of Fingertips without any trouble. It is just that Trend Micro detects it as a virus, which it is not.

We on our side are looking into how we can modify our code so that Trend Micro doesn't think it is a virus anymore. For the time being you can set Trend Micro to trust Fingertips or ignore the folder that Fingertips is installed in. That would fix the problem.

TacoOosterkamp

I like this very much so far I use run Robot becouse the more popular ones like launchy dont work on my box Fingertips picks up the ball on somethings RR wont do .Magic.

rtipping

Just to add to what aeleth said, if you put those shortcuts in the c:\windows folder, you can run those shortcuts from the Run Dialogue box. I think this was featured in LH.

Chino

I can no longer open a .wav file from my Inbox. I get a message that the file cannot be created. I tried reloading Outlook, still the same.

ndinstl

The program looks good to me, but when I tried to install it on my pc, my virus scanner said it was infected. Has anyone else had this problem? I would really like to try this one out.

menza

@kdyer, unfortunately Outlook doesn't use the default Signatures and templates when another application (like Fingertips) asks it to create a new mail. I do not know a quick workaround to fix that.

TacoOosterkamp