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Unlock the power of 'Caps Lock' key

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE, INDIA: How often do you use the "Caps Lock" key on your keyboard? Not so often, perhaps. As even while typing you can capitalize a letter by holding down the 'Shift' key along with the alphabet key. So, of what use is the Caps Lock key then? Is it for beginners only? With Enso, you can give a whole new meaning to this 'not so often used' key.

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Enso Launcher and Enso Words are two free applications from Humanized, which convert the Caps Lock key into a command key to launch Windows applications or for spell checks. The software intends to make the computing tasks easier.

For instance, it's a lot easier to type a command to launch an application, rather than navigate through the Start Menu to launch it. Enso follows this very way for an application launch. Once installed, it resides in the Systray. When you hold down the Caps Lock key, the software gets activated and a translucent interface appears where you can type the command while pressing down the Caps Lock key.

To launch Firefox browser, you just have to hold down the Caps Lock key and type command 'open Firefox,' and when you release the Caps Lock key, the command gets executed and Firefox is launched. And while you type the first few characters of the command, Enso tries to auto-complete by giving a list of suggestions. With the 'Open' command, Enso Launcher can launch any program from the Start Menu Programs list. There is another command, 'Learn as open', which allows you to click on and highlight any file, folder or web address and give it a nickname. 'Go' is another command which cycles through the open windows.

It also cycles through the Firefox tabs; just type the command 'go' followed by the title of the tab window. You must have used spell-checker feature in Word many a time but don't you miss the same in Notepad or Word pad or even an IM? Enso comes with a universal spell-checker tool that comes in handy for such applications. Just select the text in any application and press the hot-key; ie the Caps Lock key, and type 'spell check'. Enso Words launches a translucent overlay above that app and does the spell check for you. Let's check out some commands that can be used with Launcher and Words software installed.

Once Enso products have been installed, it opens a welcome page in the browser where you can see the commands list and change preferences.

If you want to launch IE, just hold down Caps Lock key and start typing the open command, and the word, Internet. Enso will auto-complete the command and provide a suggestive list. Scroll to choose your command

Mostly you have a choice of apps to open a file with. . The 'Open With' command lets you open a file with the application you intend to use.

In Wikipedia, you can select its URL and teach Enso to launch it with a command. 'Learn As Open wiki' will register the command and 'Open wiki' will open Wikipedia in a browser.

Select the text in a notepad and by pressing the hot-key and typing 'spell check,' you can launch the Enso spell checker. This works on any application.

The spell check overlays itself over the app & selected text is displayed with mistakes highlighted with a yellow background. When you click on them, suggested spellings are Shown.

Another useful command with Enso Words is 'define'. Select a word or phrase and run this command. You shall be shown the meaning from Answers.com.

If you wish to turn off Enso, use the command 'Caps lock on/off'. This command is used to toggle the Enso hot-key function.

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