FastScripts is the super-charged scripting utility for the Mac. Its custom keyboard shortcuts, superior script-running, and intuitive script management features help you get your work done quickly and elegantly. Here we describe some of the less-obvious features offered by the app.

Menu Modifier Shortcuts

When you get an inclination to edit a script or reveal it in the finder, you no longer have to go digging through folders in the Finder. FastScripts makes it super-easy to edit and reveal script files: just hold down a modifier key as you select menu items. Use the shift key to reveal an item and option key to edit it.

Smart Switching

When you execute a script, FastScripts switches the application context only when appropriate. Other launcher utilities switch context regardless of the script’s functionality, and usually neglect to switch back when the script is finished running! With FastScripts, focus remains on the application you’re working on. If the executed script needs to put up a window, the context is switched to the script. When you dismiss the dialog, FastScripts switches you back to the application you were working in!

Application-specific Scripts

FastScripts is designed to display your scripts in as convenient and "natural" a form as possible. Apple’s application-specific script support puts the scripts for the current app all the way at the bottom of the menu, making it harder to navigate to than any of the other scripts! In FastScripts, the application-specific scripts are displayed prominently at the top of the menu, right where you would expect to find them. Starting in FastScripts 2.1, application-specific functionality extends to keyboard shortcuts, as well!

Custom Menu Ordering

Starting in version 2.2.5, FastScripts will arrange menu items in a user-specified order based on a common convention followed by BBEdit and others. If the file or folder name starts with any two characters and a ‘)’, then the characters are used to control the relative placement of the item. For instance, a script named “AA)Zounds” will show up as “Zounds” in the menu but be placed above an item named “Apples”. FastScripts will also respect the “menu separator” convention – when a folder’s name ends in “-***”, its contents are ignored and a menu separator line is inserted where its name would ordinarily appear.

Looking for more? Check out the FastScripts FAQ for answer to some more specific questions about the app and how it can be configured.