Right-Click Menu Item Compare does not have a hotkey

[DarthGymRat]

When I highlight two files, a Compare right-click menu option appears, but the Compare does not have a hotkey. I use the keyboard more than a mouse and would like to be able to use the keyboard right-click key to give me the right-click men, then press the hotkey for compare to bring up ExamDiff Pro, but since there isn't a hotkey for Compare, I have to arrow down to the Compare menu item. Is there a way to add a hotkey to the Compare right-click menu option?

Thanks!

[psguru]

Are you referring to the Windows Explorer right-click menu? If so, I'm not sure keyboard shortcuts are possible there, since they may interfere with other Shell extensions.

[DarthGymRat]

Yes, the right-click menu seen in the attached print screen. Note that TextPad does have a hotkey. I think there should be a hotkey for Compare like M or P.

[MSpagni]

As you can see, P is already used for "Print".

It's very difficult (read: impossible) for the developer to know in advance which letters are already in use, but usually there is the option for "automatic" hotkey selection by windows, at least in other windows menus, so I suspect it can be here too.

[psguru]

usually there is the option for "automatic" hotkey selection by windows, at least in other windows menus

Could you clarify this, perhaps with examples?

[DarthGymRat]

Even if it uses a hotkey that is already in use, say the "p" since that is used by Print, if you press P it will cycle through the items that have P as a hotkey, then you just press Enter on the keyboard to select the one you want. That is still better than having to press the down arrow key 5 times to get to compare and then press enter.

[MSpagni]

Hmmmm... I think I made a mistake.

In the CBuilder menus (and menu items) there is the AutoHotkeys property.

Set AutoHotkeys to indicate whether the menu should automatically ensure that accelerator keys for its items are reset if necessary so that every menu item has an accelerator key and no two items have the same accelerator key. This ensures that menu items added dynamically at runtime can have accelerator keys that do not introduce conflicts. TMenu tries to preserve all existing accelerator key mappings when adjusting the accelerator keys, but may be forced to change some in order to ensure that every item has a unique accelerator.

The problem is that this is not a wrap-around for an API but a VCL feature, so it's not windows-native.
Sorry.

[psguru]

We'll make 'm' the shortkey of the Compare command in the next build.

[DarthGymRat]

We'll make 'm' the shortkey of the Compare command in the next build.

AWESOME!! Thank you so much!
Chris

[DarthGymRat]

I just upgraded my 64-bit version and it did not add the M as a hotkey.
Did I need to uninstall first? Is there an option I need to check?
Thanks!

[psguru]

You need to make sure that the new Shell extension is registered. Typically reinstalling EDPro is enough. Sometimes you may need to kill explorer.exe that still uses the old version and thus preventing the new DLL from being copied.