Feature Overview

Menu shortcuts are supposed to provide quick access to frequently used menu commands, but how many shortcuts do you know by heart?

KeyCue helps you to use your Mac OS X applications more effectively by displaying a concise table of all currently available menu shortcuts.

You no longer need to memorize and remember key combinations; just press the command key and KeyCue tells you what you want to know.

With KeyCue you get an instant overview of the overall functionality of any application, plus you automatically start working more efficiently by making regular use of menu shortcuts.

Words cannot fully describe the benefits offered by KeyCue.

We therefore invite you to see a video review of KeyCue from MacApper...

tutorial movie

... and download a fully functional trial version.

See also a video tutorial of KeyCue at Butterscotch.

Shortcut table

KeyCue showing shortcuts of all applications

You can also configure whether you want to see menu titles and submenus.

Just press and hold the command key, as if you were about to type a menu shortcut.

Within a configurable time, KeyCue comes to help and tells you which menu shortcuts are available right now in the current application.

Clickable shortcuts


"Increased productivity through KeyCue"

KeyCue takes your productivity boost to a new level. It brings menu shortcuts to life by making them clickable. Just locate the requested menu item and click it to instantly execute it.

You can activate all shortcuts by clicking – even those you cannot type.

This is a major step forward in unveiling the full power of menu shortcuts and boosting productivity of both novice and experienced users.

Clickable Shortcuts

Open interface

Starting with version 5.0, KeyCue can display arbitrary shortcuts found in other applications, but it needs some support by these applications. We have defined a simple interface that allows other applications to tell KeyCue about available keyboard shortcuts.

We invite software developers to use this interface. It is easy to implement and leads to an immediate benefit for both application developers and KeyCue users, as arbitrary applications can use KeyCue to display a "cheat sheet", and KeyCue can display all shortcuts found in an application, not only those that are tied to menu commands.

If you are a software developer and wish to use KeyCue's shortcut interface in one of your applications, please download the interface specification (PDF).

This document contains detailed instructions with sample code. Check it out and you will see that it is fairly easy to connect your application with KeyCue. In a few steps, you can use KeyCue as a quickly accessible help page for your application's shortcuts.

If you have additional questions, please contact our technical support for more information.

Show QuicKeys shortcuts

With QuicKeys, you can define shortcuts for specific tasks on your computer. As with menu shortcuts, when you have defined a lot of useful shortcuts, remembering all the shortcuts for invoking them becomes a challenge.

Shows QuicKeys shortcuts

Starting with version 4.0 of QuicKeys and version 4.5 of KeyCue, the two applications work together allowing KeyCue to show all currently active QuicKeys shortcuts.

Show Keyboard Maestro shortcuts

Keyboard Maestro is a powerful macro program that lets you define custom action sequences together with your own shortcuts to activate them. The more shortcuts you have defined the harder it becomes to remember them.

Starting with version 3.0 of Keyboard Maestro and version 4.2 of KeyCue, the two applications work together allowing KeyCue to show all currently active Keyboard Maestro hot keys.

Shows Keyboard Maestro shortcuts

System-wide hotkeys

table with system-wide shortcuts

Mac OS X comes with a set of useful shortcuts for keyboard navigation, taking screen snapshots, zooming, activation of Spotlight, Exposé, Dashboard, and more. KeyCue helps you to learn and remember these shortcuts by including them in the pop-up table.

You can decide whether the system-wide shortcuts should appear together with the menu shortcuts in a single large table or in a separate table (as shown to the left) by assigning separate activation keys.

Settings shortcut

You can access the KeyCue settings window at any time with a keyboard shortcut.

Of course, you don't have to remember that, as KeyCue itself will tell you the keyboard combination.

KeyCue Settings shortcut

Themes

KeyCue Settings

KeyCue sports different themes for customizing the appearance of the shortcut table.

These themes include the "Classic" look and a "Dashboard" theme that darkens the rest of the screen to attract attention to the shortcuts.

KeyCue also includes two large-print themes. If you are visually impaired or just above forty ;-) – you will like the big font size and high contrast of these themes.

large-print theme

View Settings

KeyCue settings

You can control whether KeyCue should include menu and submenu titles, how to hilite shortcuts that match the currently pressed modifiers, and more.

Activation Settings


You can define which modifier keys should display the shortcut table, how long KeyCue should wait before displaying the table, and which actions should cause the table to disappear.

KeyCue Activation Settings

You can define separate keyboard combinations for menu shortcuts, system-wide shortcuts, and macro shortcuts for QuicKeys or Keyboard Maestro.

To collect these groups in one or two larger tables, just define the same keyboard combination(s) for the groups to be combined.