Enso Update: Preferences

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Since we first released Enso in January, two of the most often-requested features have been:

• the ability to change the Enso entry key from Caps Lock to something else;
• the ability to make this key’s behavior “sticky” (i.e. to not have to hold it down while entering commands).

I’m happy to say both of these have now been implemented in a new Enso update which went out last night. If you have Enso installed on a computer with Internet access, your copy should already have updated itself.

To change Enso’s settings, issue the “Preferences” command. This will take you to a screen where you can choose the activation key and make its behavior either quasimodal or sticky. “Quasimodal” is the default behavior: hold down the activation key while typing the command, then release it to execute. “Sticky” means a single tap activates Enso, which remains open until you either tap “enter” to execute the command, or “escape” to cancel the command. (We prefer the quasimodal behavior ourselves, and we encourage new users to give the quasimode a chance before changing it.)

Besides “Preferences”, there is another pair of new commands. “Capslock On” and “Capslock Off” allow you to change the Caps Lock mode of your keyboard even if Caps Lock is set as your Enso activation key. This way you can still type in ALL CAPS without holding down Shift.

User feedback has been critical in guiding us to choose these features as the first ones to implement. We’ve been getting some excellent feedback and constructive criticism from users around the world. Please, continue! Share your thoughts through the contact form, by posting them on this weblog, or by e-mailing them to support@humanized.com.

This update also made numerous minor bug fixes. We’ve made Enso more stable and better able to recover from errors and exceptions. More features, fixes, and improvements are scheduled in the weeks to come. If you have the demo version of Enso, it will get all updates until your 30 day trial period expires. If you purchase a license for an Enso product, all updates are yours free indefinitely.

Thanks to everyone for using Enso!

Please note: Since January 15, 2008, all Enso products have been free. All information in the above post about demos, trials, and purchasing issues is, therefoure, out-of-date. To get the latest version of Enso, free of charge, see the main Enso page.

Great news - finally a software company that actually listens to their users. I’ve tried using the quasimodal caps lock and really can’t get to grips with it.

Could you further extend using a sticky caps lock by making it possible to enter the command by pressing caps lock or enter?

Some commands can be entered using only the left side of the keyboard - then it’s easier to enter then using your left hand (plus I’m very lazy).

On a slightly minus note.. would it be possible to allow user preferences to determine whether downloads are silent and automatic?

Anyway, keep up the great work.

This is great. Thanks for listening to user feedback!

Since there’s not an Enso discussion forum (yet?), my sense of what features other users want comes from reading the weblog here. Based on that, and my own experience with Enso, I would submit that you might want to be thinking about how to make Enso compete with hotkey applications, which allow a user to map a command to an otherwise unused key combination. I have used such an app for launching my favorite programs for a long time, and I have to say that so far, I haven’t disabled it, since it’s still faster and easier than using Enso.

Granted, you have to go to the trouble of mapping a key combination to the application, but if you use the same twenty applications over and over, this isn’t much work. Nor is learning which key corresponds to which app (and note, folks, that this is muscle memory). With two keystrokes, I can launch any of my favorite programs.

With Enso, to open a program you have to hit at least seven keys (if you’re really lucky), *and* you have to watch out that Enso doesn’t launch some other program that’s in your start menu and that you’re barely conscious of, just because it starts with the same letters as the program you’re trying to launch. This is a real problem for me.

Suggested solutions (and sorry if these exist and I haven’t figured it out yet): (a) custom commands, i.e., allow “thunderbird” to just launch Thunderbird (without “open”), which will probably make for a 3-keystroke operation; (b) a more sophisticated keystoke analysis algorithm that looks for letters within words, not just at the beginning: e.g., “ox” could match “Firefox”, so I don’t have to type until “file associations” goes away; (c) at the least, allow certain programs you *don’t* want Enso to launch to be taken out of the list of candidates (e.g., maybe I don’t ever use Notepad and want “not” to give me another program.

I offer these in the spirit of one who really wants Enso to succeed. Thanks for all the great work you’ve done so far, guys!

Enso, of course,

After trying the sticky option, I have to agree with the Humanized team that quasimodal feels more humane to me.

Adding user preferences to opt out of quasimodal, etc. is even more humane.

Keep up the good work!

Wow, I’m a bit surprised, since you guys feel pretty strongly about modes. But, glad to see you are listening to your users.

The one problem I had with the default quasimodal behaviour is that it’s awkward to cancel a command. The only way I could figure out how to do it was to delete the entire command. Which works I guess, but it’s a bit awkward.

Hi Patrick,
Yes, we feel pretty strongly about modes, and we ourselves continue to use Enso quasimodally, and recommend that others try it that way too.

But we feel even more strongly about listening to user experiences. After all, no matter how grand a theory is, it must yield to experimental evidence, right? That’s the scientific method.

As for canceling a command in the quasimode: seriously, the best way is to mash the keyboard randomly with your right hand before releasing caps lock. I know this goes against everything you’ve ever been taught about computers, but give it a try sometime. Think of it as taking out your frustration on your computer keyboard.

There will be a transparent message to the effect of “as0987sazdnl321d is not a command”, but the nice thing is that Enso’s error messages are effectively zero-cost since they take no input to dismiss. This is the only thing that makes the “keyboard mash” worth consideration as a serious input mechanism.

Gregory,
You can already use the “unlearn” command to remove applications you don’t want from the “open” namespace.

For instance, if you never want to open Notepad, just tell Enso “Unlearn Open Notepad”.

A more efficient (i.e. fewer keystrokes) way to launch applications is next on our list of most-requested features. A greatly improved autocomplete system, which ought to take Gregory’s seven-keystroke minimum down to four, is coming very soon. Watch this weblog for details.

Thanks for making it possible to change the mode key. I’d given up using Enso because, on my laptop, it’s too difficult to type whilst holding down Caps Lock.

However… the single best candidate for the mode key (on my laptop) isn’t even an option! There’s an Alt Gr key just to the right of the space bar that’s probably useful to mainland Europeans, but as a Brit, it’s useless. Please make that an option, because I regularly use all of the other keys that you currently allow, so they aren’t realistic candidates for me.

On quasimode:

I totally agree with the reasoning for modes and how they are inhumane. I just think that

1) Enso provides more than enough “mode feedback” indicating you’re in command mode. But that alone isn’t enough…

2) The commands issued are short! I think there’s very little opportunity for one to get mixed modes.

…while I think those two *still* aren’t enough to rule out quasimode, I think the strange “typing-while-pinky-is-locked” aspect of Enso works against it to the point where I’ll take a mode switch over traditional Enso.

I’ll keep practicing quasi though… it’s only fair. And thanks for the updates

Thanks, Jono! You solved one of my problems (in fact had already solved it–stupid me) and have me looking forward to solutions to the others, too. You guys are great.

I would like to amend one of my earlier suggestions. I think that typing “ff” for Firefox would be more humane than typing “ox”, since it’s easier to remember. However, that would necessitate recognizing non-adjacent letters in a candidate command string, which is more processor-intensive. But it would give a lot more possibilities for unique mappings to commands.

Also, have you ever considered keeping a tally of how often different commands are issued, and having the most frequent candidate come up at the top of the list? I’ve written applications that do this and think it’s a great feature.

Oh, and as for the quasimode issue, although I totally agree that quasimodes are better than modes, I think you’re doing the right thing in giving people choices. Especially helpful is the ability to chose a quasimode key that you can hit with your thumb. After all, you only need one thumb while typing. Still waiting for that LEAP key, though… :-)

Thanks again.

hi,
could i put an Australian dictionary for the spellcheck to use?

thanks

Jono,

Thanks for the keymash tip. That works well, although it still a bit cognitively jarring for me — I have to sit there with Caps Lock held down for a sec while I think about how to cancel.

My first instinct was that hitting Enter on an item would cause the command to be executed, while just releasing caps lock would cancel and dismiss Enso. To me, this seems like a better solution, because then the user can choose to cancel at any time without extra effort. By having do to mash the keys or delete everything you’ve typed, you’re basically saying, “Sure, you can cancel now, but it’s gonna take some work.” Not that it’s difficult, but still.

Any reason why you guys didn’t choose to implement it that way? Where the user has to actively choose a command, rather than the more passive solution?

Patrick,

It seems to me that the reason they designed it that way (of course they can correct me if I’m wrong) is that it’s optimized for the most likely use case. Most of the time, you won’t want to cancel, you’ll want to invoke a command. Releasing the quasimode key once you’re looking at the right command is exquisitely simple. Plus, that’s the way quasimodes generally work: When you want to type a capital letter, you hold down shift, type your letter, and then release shift. Imagine if you had to hit Enter afterwards!

I agree that it’s a bit jarring to mash a bunch of keys–or to do anything to intentionally screw up an operation–but in most cases, all you have to do is to hit a key two or three times to make no command match. In fact, if you don’t want to have to think about it, why not teach your hands to always hit the same ugly key sequence–like ;lkj–to mean “cancel”. Then it would almost be like having a “cancel” command. True, this is more work than just releasing Caps Lock, but I’d much rather have it that way than the reverse. I’m hoping to eventually get Enso figured out to the point where I don’t have to cancel often. ;-)

Thanks, Gregory. I couldn’t have said it better myself. That was our reasoning exactly.

Hi,

Like others, I’m also enjoying very much this update (specially the new price, hehe).

I do have a couple of small suggestions.

When opening commands, it would be nice that Enso remembered the last command that was open with the typed letters.

For example, if I try to open WinSCP using open sc, I need to select it from the list, because there are other commands that appear first. I’m not sure I’m making myself clear… am I?

Following my example, suppose I write open scp, and the only entry that appears is the one I want, namely, WinSCP. But since scp is not on the beginning of the command, I still have to select it from the list, which I think is unnecessary since that’s the only command available, so it should launch by default?

Keep up the good work.

By the way, it may be implied by my comment that I purchased Enso, but I have not.

I’m waiting until it’s equally fast to use Enso than Launchy :-) (despite Enso’s power compared to Launchy).

I’ve been using Enso for a few days now and so far I love it, but I think I’m in the same boat as Jason Brown.

To answer his question about using the AltGr key instead, the AltGr key is keycode 165, and can be setup by editing your \HumanizedEnso\UserData\uiconfig.cfg file in any text editor. Change “is_modal” to True if you plan to use sticky-mode. After you’ve saved your edits, restart Enso, and enjoy.

I’ve tried most of the keys on my keyboard and for me the sticky-mode Application/Menu key (keycode 93) feels like home.

A suggestion related to key mapping and hot keys: why not be able to use F1-F12 as user defined shortcuts? (together with CapsLock, of course)

Thank you for this great app!
/Vlad

I think this is a great product and I’m about to go and drop my $20 to prove it, but there are a couple of things that I think could make it even better (at least for me).

As a programmer, I often type lines in all upper case, which is a pain with Enso mapped to CapsLock since you have to hold down the Shift key while typing the whole line. The new Capslock off/on feature is a step in the right direction, but it’s a bit of a pain since you have to type in “capslock on” to turn the caps lock on, but only have to type “cap” to turn the caps lock off. It would be better if the capslock command defaulted to whatever mode the caps lock is not currently in. Even better (or in addition) I think it would be great if a very short toggle of the capslock key (on the order of I think this is a great product and I’m about to go and drop my $20 to prove it, but there are a couple of things that I think could make it even better (at least for me).

As a programmer, I often type lines in all upper case, which is a pain with Enso mapped to CapsLock since you have to hold down the Shift key while typing the whole line. The new Capslock off/on feature is a step in the right direction, but it’s a bit of a pain since you have to type in “capslock on” to turn the caps lock on, but only have to type “cap” to turn the caps lock off. It would be better if the capslock command defaulted to whatever mode the caps lock is not currently in. Even better (or in addition) I think it would be great if a very short toggle of the capslock key (on the order of <50ms) would allow the caps lock mode to toggle normally.

Another feature that you’re probably already working on (and I think I saw suggested here) would be sorting the command list by most heavily used command which should increase “cache hit” efficiency dramatically.

Thanks for listening.
(*Chris*)

Hi - big thanks (great site!).

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