Shortcut (menu key) for "Open Recent"?

[NisusUser]

Hi,

I like to keep my hands on the keyboard. I find it cumbersome to have to use the trackpad to get to the list of recent files to open the one I want to work on now. Is there a way to assign a menu key (shortcut) to "Open Recent" so I could then just move down it via the arrow keys? I tried to assign one via Preferences, but it will only allow one to select "final" menu items, not "intermediate" ones like "Open Recent.". The only "final" one after "Open Recent" is "Clear Menu", which I surely don't want.

Or maybe this could be feature request, if it's not currently possible?

[Hamid]

If you Control-click the Nisus app icon in the Dock, recent documents appear listed.
Then you can use the arrow keys to select any recent document and then press Return or Enter to open the file.

[NisusUser]

If you Control-click the Nisus app icon in the Dock, recent documents appear listed.

Great! That is a help, and I didn't know that. Unfortunately, when I just did that, only one document is listed in that list, but when I go to NWP 2.0.4 and look at "Open Recent", there are probably about 20 files. And if I select "Document Manager" from the Ctrl-Click on the icon, Document Manager shows totally different "Recently Opened" files than does "File > Open Recent" from the menu bar within NWP. Why would that be? Is it because I sometimes just click a file in Finder and it opens in NWP, but perhaps doesn't get listed in the lists the same as it would if I opened from within NWP? Or maybe there's another reason?

[Hamid]

I have 50 recent documents. The number can be set in NWP Preferences:General:

OpenRecent.gif (21.24 KiB) Viewed 9229 times

[NisusUser]

…recent documents appear listed.

And I have that set to 20 files. However, when I Ctrl click on the NWP icon, I don't get that full list of recent files. I'm on 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard), if that makes a difference. In the screenshot, you'll see what I'm getting now. Obviously, I can select "Show Document Manager" and go there, but sometimes my most recently used files are not there, even when they are in the File > Open Recent list.

[Hamid]

The OS version does make the difference.
On Mountain Lion, apart from the 50 recent documents that I can see listed, there is also an additional command 'Show All Windows' which does not appear in your screen shot.
When Show All Windows is applied, all open windows in Nisus zoom out and organize themselves, and along the bottom of the screen a strip of thumbnails pops up containing recently opened items. I can use arrow keys to select a recent file or to make an open window active.
Here is a truncated screen shot showing a section of my screen with open files and recent files:

ShowAllWindows.gif (67.07 KiB) Viewed 9221 times

[NisusUser]

Thanks, Hamid, that does clarify things a bit. Maybe Martin will weigh in with comments on getting the Document Manger's list to match the File > Open Recent list. Otherwise, I think I've got all the info I need for work with 10.6.8. Thanks for taking the time to walk me through all of this!

[martin]

Maybe Martin will weigh in with comments on getting the Document Manger's list to match the File > Open Recent list.

They actually should always be the same.

Recently opened documents are managed by OSX automatically– it's one of those nice things a Cocoa application gets "for free". Apple does the work of adding files to the recents list, tracking aliases to those files, and populating/showing the menu File > Open Recent. The Document Manager on the other hand is wholly a Nisus creation. But when it needs to show/list files in the "Recently Opened" group it merely asks OSX for a list of those files.

The only way I could see the recent file lists being different: Apple is choosing not to show some files that the Document Manager does show, or vice versa. For example, Apple does not show recently opened files that have been moved to the trash, while NWP's Document Manager has the option to show trashed/deleted files. However, that assumes Apple includes these trashed files in the list it shares with the Document Manager, which I don't believe it does; but perhaps OSX 10.6.8 behaves differently than more current versions.

The only other possibility is that you're accidentally looking at the Document Manager's "Recently Saved" group, which is managed by NWP directly, and obviously would include different files. But I assume you didn't make that mixup.

[NisusUser]

They actually should always be the same. […]

The only other possibility is that you're accidentally looking at the Document Manager's "Recently Saved" group, which is managed by NWP directly, and obviously would include different files. But I assume you didn't make that mixup.

I may not be looking in the right place. Please look at these two screenshots. Their filenames describe where they came from. They are not identical, though I think, based on your explanation, that they should be.

[martin]

They are not identical, though I think, based on your explanation, that they should be.

I didn't do an exhaustive check, but with a quick glance they look like the same files except for the sort order. What's the sort order in your Document Manager? Is it "Last Accessed"? That's probably going to get you the ordering closest to Apple's Open Recent menu, but may not be exactly the same either.

[NisusUser]

I just changed the sort order in the Doc manager to "Last accessed". I'll see if it makes it easier to navigate my way between these lists. I don't recall what the sort order way, but it wasn't that. Thanks for your help.