Speeding up product creation even further

In the final stages of my Quick Create template guide I show you how to speed up editing multiple products dramatically. Part of it is having lots of products open in different browser tabs and then using ctrl-tab to switch between them.

Stepping up a gear

If you're fed up with ctrl-tab-ing, there's a great companion to the guide called AutoHotkey (nothing to do with me, just one I found that came highly recommended).

I used it for the last 200 cards I created with the template set and it's really worthwhile.

Getting AutoHotkey

Windows only :(
Download it from http://www.autohotkey.com/download/
(second link down, labelled "Installer for AutoHotkey Basic (1.95 MB)")

New keyboard shortcuts

Install it and then create a new Hotkey using the following two lines

F1::
Send ^{tab}

This will make F1 do the same as ctrl-tab but it's much less awkward to press.

Here's another one (for F12 this time). It's one I used to paste an image-name into the description at the right place, then move to the beginning of the description, then type in the bit of the description (relevant to the image) for me and finally move to the next browser tab ready to do it to the next product:

F12::
Send ^v^{home}A Napoleonic fort defending the eastern flank of Plymouth Harbour, England. Strength, courage, fortitude and endurance are characteristics of a great Dad, just like yours.^{tab}

An hour in the life of...

So I spend my time getting all the products open in new tabs, F1-ing between them to let me click on the edit link, f1-ing between them to get to the place in the description where I want to paste in the image name and then f12-ing to do the pasting, moving, typing etc.

It's a real joy to just sit there pressing F12 twenty times and watching all the activity happen. Another great timesaver that will save you oodles of typing / pasting / ctrl-tabbing! I can do 100 products an hour with the template set from the Guide and these two simple AutoHotkeys.

I wouldn't be without it now! ..And I'd love to hear how you get on with it, too.

PS I only have the hotkeys active while I'm doing the product creation with the Guide, as that's the only time I've found it to be useful so far... but you may find other uses that we'd all love to hear about, I know I would!

PPS If you're worried about viruses and so on, my laptop is heavily protected and hasn't reported any issues with it. So that together with the recommendations for it should reassure you.


comments / feedback not just welcomed but actively encouraged :)