First Product to Win the "OfficeZealot.com Stamp of Approval"

Today I have to tell you about an application that has totally impacted my daily experience and from this point on is one utility I cannot live without. That application ActiveWords. This simple application is a little hard to describe and at first glance its value is not clear. But let me tell you, it has rocked my world and I highly recommend that you download the free trial version of ActiveWords.

Before I explain the product and how I use it, I want to announce that ActiveWords is the first product to win the official OfficeZealot.com Stamp of Approval. Congratulations to the ActiveWords team for a great product, great support and a great vision.

What is ActiveWords?

First, let me say that ActiveWords is not an Office add-in specifically, though it has many features related to Office. ActiveWords also has an agent designed for Office integration that I use every day. ActiveWords is a desktop productivity tool for windows and any application that requires repetitious tasks can be improved by ActiveWords. In effect, ActiveWords allows you to take any word typed in by the user, in any application and to tie an action to that word. Let me give you two examples so this makes sense.

Have you ever used Microsoft Words AutoCorrect feature? AutoCorrect is a text substitution feature. For example, I might write in the word ChrisAddress. AutoCorrect recognizes the text and substitutes my full name and address in place of ChrisAddress. So buy typing just ChrisAddress I save myself the effort of typing:

Chris Kunicki
OfficeZealot.com
100 Some Rd
Somewhere, MN, 55317.

The only problem is that AutoCorrect works in Microsoft Office only. ActiveWords gives you text substitution in any program.

I also use this for writing code. For example, I might type in "SC" and I press the ActiveWords activation key, which is F8 by default, though can be configured to your liking and the following appears in my code editor:

Select Case VARIABLE
   Case  VALUE
   Case  VALUE
   Case  Else
End Select

ActiveWords doesn't stop at just text substitution. The following image is taking from the "Add New ActiveWord" wizard:

• Launch a program - set a word to launch any program installed on your computer
• Open a document - set a word to open any document on your computer
• Navigate to a Website - a browser "Favorites" replacement. I now tip in oz and press F8 and my browser opens to www.OfficeZealot.com.
• Send an Email - kind of obvious, create shortcuts to send an email to someone
• Open a Folder - again obvious
• Open a Windows Setting - opens a windows setting dialog box, for example the Mouse settings in Control Panel
• Scripting - Yes you read that right, ActiveWords also supports a scripting language to create your own unique ActiveWords that manipulate any program on your desktop. Any programmer will feel comfortable with the scripting syntax. Anyone with macro experience should find this easy to use (think of Lotus 123 or Access Macros as an example).

Tomorrow I'll further on how I use ActiveWords.