15-Minute Reviews :: Direct Access v1.5.1.0

Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Direct Access version 1.5.1.0 by Nagarsoft – An application designed to increase productivity by allowing for typed shortcuts to applications and files, as well as preformed text insertion.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“Direct Access speeds up your personal computing experience by reducing time consuming, repetitive task through the use of abbreviations. Type an abbreviation in any application and Direct Access will detect it and perform the task you desire.

Imagine typing a piece of correspondence in your favorite word processor and then typing the abbreviation ‘sign’ to affix your closing and signature to the document. You can also use the abbreviation shortcuts to open applications, websites, your email client and do web searches. You can invoke abbreviations from any program.”

Quick Pros

• Interface is easy to use; Handy little orb (The Hub) for access to the application
• Can set commands to require confirmation (Default F12) or perform the task immediately
• Commands can be sorted into groups for easy management
• Few macros are handy; ‘Cur’ macro very powerful
• The Hub offers drag and drop support (Including text, links, applications

Quick Cons

• No way to get rid of System Tray icon while the Hub is up
• Key selections for confirmation less than stellar
• Random lock-up of the keyboard, losing all typed data for a few moments
• Memory footprint is massive at 50MB
• Lacking some features that I have with other applications
  • No auto-correct functionality for universal support
  • No auto-indexing functionality of your common applications and files

Expansion

This application is quite interesting among a sea of similar applications. The interface is easy to use and with the use of the Hub for making ‘commands,’ it eases the creation of new commands. You can drag and drop applications, files, folders, text snippits you’ve highlighted or even hyperlinks, which is something very unique. This feature is very handy for those who figure it out early in the game. One aspect of this application that is nice over other applications is that each command can be set up to require confirmation (requiring you to hit a hot key, which defaults to F12) or it simply does the task you type in. This is handy for if you want something to fill in on the fly without even a second thought about it. How it might be a nuisance is if you don’t build them well, you’ll end up triggering them as you go (IE:- set word up to launch Microsoft Word, and every time you type word it pops up on you to terrorize you.) You need to make sure if you turn confirmation off, that the trigger you select is not easily triggerable with day to day usage. One issue with the confirmation aspect, is that the selection of keys usable is very small and can be a productiveness hamperer. I find F12 out of the way for me; I like Smart Type Assistant’s method by simply looking for the ‘Enter’ key at the end of the trigger.

It is nice that the commands can be organized into groups and sub-groups. It helps to manage your commands, something most other applications overlook (Including applications such as Keybreeze or Smart Type Assistant.) I find that I get lost in the list of commands in these other applications due to a sheer lack of any major sorting functionality.

A nice aspect of this over some of the competitors’ applications is the light macro support. There is (from what I can see) four macros; They all have their usefulness, but two really stands out. ‘cur’ macro allows you to position the cursor in the middle the freshly-inserted text where you want it. The example the helpfile gives is in between www. and .com for easy address input. While it may seem simple, it could be easy. Canned messages with quick relocation to a key area, say, for quotations or similar. The other helpful macro is ‘input’, which allows you to stick a dialog box in the middle of a text portion and ‘prompt’ for what should go at that location. It would be nice to see more macros or an external access to the macros for independant macro creation.

There are a few features from other applications that I wish were here and would have encouraged me to use this application full-time including automatic indexing of applications of some form, allowing you to, say, predefine a ‘structure’ to how the commands are made; IE: all commands are make from a backslash and the first four letters of the application. As well, as since it is already in place for autotext, it would have made sense to include an auto-correct feature to unify the auto-correct functionality across Windows much like what Smart Type Assistant.

One suggestion though is that if the Hub is up, make an option available to disable the System Tray icon. This will help many clean up tray clutter that this day and age is getting too heavy and losing its effectiveness for which it was originally intended.

The other comment is the memory usage; It sits at a staggering 50MB of memory usage; That’s approximately 10% of 512MB systems (affordable laptops, for example) and even approximately 5% of 1GB. This is a LOT. I hope this is because of .NET 1.1 being a memory and resource hog as usual. Unfortunately, if it is because of .NET, short of reprogramming in another language from the bottom up, this application is likely to be a memory hog forever. In comparison, Smart Type Assistant uses only 6MB.

All didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped though. For some reason, when I got this application up and running, I started having an issue. Every once in a while (Happened three times to this point in the review.) Where my keyboard would stop responding totally; All of my keystrokes eaten totally for a few moments. I clicked outside the window and back in and that appeared to correct the issue. I do not know if it is a conflict with something else on my system, but it is a bother.

Final Verdict

While this application does show promise, it does still seem a little ‘light’ on features, considering the price of it at $39.95. I would have hoped for a little more dynamic control over the commands, as well as the auto-correct functionality found in some other ‘macro text’ applications. There is some features in this application that makes it unique and while free, may make sense for someone to get ahold of and see if it does what you want it to do. As for paying $39.95, I was kind of shocked at the price, considering its competition on the market is a good portion free or at most half that price. For this price to be viable, I would hope to see more ‘coverage’ of other applications of a similar application; IE: Ultimate application (For the market;) And it definitely (Fourth lockup of text here) would have to clean up its memory usage. 50MB for a ‘utility’ is way too much.

Posted by BladedThoth on Thursday, May 03, 2007