Is there a way to search the windows application menus like OSX's CMD+SHIFT+/ command?

I've moved from an OSX to PC workflow, and I've duplicated just about everything except when I need to use a menu item that I can't find.

On OSX, I'd often use the CMD+SHIFT+/ command which brings up the application help menu - from there you can type a command and the program will reveal the correct menu item.

Example in OSX Photoshop: CMD+SHIFT+/ , type in Crop, push down, enter.
      Works for any obscure menu item.
Example in W7 Photoshop: fish through menus till I see what I want.

It's an amazing productivity tool. When I tried Rhino, I started wondering why all applications didn't let you type in a command with auto complete. I found out with OSX you basically can. Now I can't live without it!

Is there any similar functionality or app for Windows 7?

Here's an example of looking up an obscure nested command.

enter image description here

Yuji Tomita

Posted 2011-05-27T18:26:50.130

Reputation: 543

@DanielBeck Both the old win32 menus https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/menurc/menu-functions and the modern ribbons https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/windowsribbon/windowsribbon-introduction have a standard api by microsoft. Microsoft could easily implement a search feature that works on all of these. However, many third party apps choose to do their own menus...

– masterxilo – 2019-07-03T09:32:18.807

2Nice idea, although I fear that on Windows it is still to be invented. – harrymc – 2011-06-01T14:12:22.890

1Would be really great for all those submenu-laden apps ... *cough* Adobe *cough* – oleschri – 2011-06-04T21:08:52.263

3The reason it can exist on OS X is that the menu is standardized. All applications have one, and they go through one API. For Windows apps, it's very different, depending on how the application was developed. The devs are pretty much on their own there. Still, I'd love to be wrong, it's a useful feature. – Daniel Beck – 2011-06-05T20:19:51.083

related: http://superuser.com/questions/505154/ apparently this feature is called HUD in Ubuntu

– n611x007 – 2013-02-19T15:51:42.767

@naxa, thanks. Hopefully this is a trend that gets picked up by Windows developers somehow. – Yuji Tomita – 2013-02-19T18:06:50.983

Answers

The closest I can think of is to hit the alt button, then hold shift and type a letter. In the menus, a letter is underlined, and when you type shift + letter it selects it.

Will Gunn

Posted 2011-05-27T18:26:50.130

Reputation: 370

1You don't need to push shift once you're in alt mode - I use those all the time. For example, ALT + EAW is the warp command, but this method is only useful when you know where the command already. It's still fishing. – Yuji Tomita – 2011-05-27T18:55:28.087

Yep, if you do find a solution though, please let me know. – Will Gunn – 2011-05-27T19:52:22.463

I'm not sure about this, but you might find application launchers to be useful here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_application_launchers

You may be able to rig up a command to search through the menu options