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Review of ActiveWords by Hewie Poplock
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A few years ago, The Central Florida Computer Society had a presentation of ActiveWords from the company of the same name. I tried the program on my Windows95 or Windows98 machine and had some operating system issues and never really used the program. I have recently seen several references to the latest version in several of the top computer magazines. I decided to try Active Words version 1.9 on my WindowsXP machine.
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One of the favorite phrases that a former boss used was, "Work smarter, work better." This is exactly what ActiveWords allows you to do. I have found that I can work smarter, faster and better using
ActiveWords.
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The concept is hard to describe. I went to their website to get their description and found it to be more confusing than the program itself. I also feel the same about their well done tutorial that comes with the program. Once I installed the program and started to work with it, the tutorial made sense. Somehow, that is not what I usually expect.
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The program itself is great. There are times that I find it takes a long time and many steps to find the icon and start a program that I use often. Of course I could place a shortcut on the desktop or in the
Quick Launch Bar. My Quick Launch Bar has become cluttered and the word "quick" can be deleted. Have you tried to get to your desktop quickly, find the shortcut on your cluttered desktop, and then
return to your program? It does take much more time than should be needed
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With ActiveWords, you assign a given task a name. That name can be 1 or more characters. For example, I use a program called AcqURL to help keep track of new websites that I want to add to Hewie's Favorites . I don't use it often, but when I want to use it, I want it fast and easy. In ActiveWords I assigned the program an ActiveWord name of "q". At anytime that I want to start AcqURL, I can do so extremely fast using ActiveWords and in several ways.
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There is a key combination of Control plus the space key (Ctrl+Space) that can be used to activate the AW Action pad. I click that combo, type the letter "q" and then the enter key. The AW Action Pad
pops up, accepts my input, starts the program that I want, and then the Action Pad disappears. The program is now open with the other programs on my desktop. It is quick and easy.
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I could also have used the optional menu bar that can float or can be docked at the top of the desktop. There is an input box in the menu bar that makes it easy to type the "q" and press enter and
start the program. A third and amazing choice to use the ActiveWord, is to find any input box on a Web page. I type the "q" and click the "F8" function key. It starts the desired program and
removes the input from the box.
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The program includes a scripting language to set up some of your own wizards, free applications for the Plus! version, and a 60 day trial period of the full program. During the trial period "The
Active Words Team" has sent me 10 e-mail messages. These are not the usual nags to buy, but good solid tips and explanations of how to use the program. What a unique idea! Help the user,
don't nag. An ActiveWords Application is a set of pre-defined actions and associated ActiveWords. They are available free on the website.
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ActiveWords is only available from the website at http://www.activewords.com and requires you to download the program. There are 3 versions. The SE version is $19.95. The Plus! edition is $49.95, but includes scripting, agents and the free applications that aren't in the SE version. There is also an Enterprise version for multiple copies on a network.
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