Skylight Documentation

How to use Skylight

Skylight runs quietly until summoned via its global Windows hot-key, by default this is Alt-Space. You are then presented with a window, now simply start typing!

You can type full words like 'Photoshop' or 'Explorer', however Skylight also understands acronyms and missing letters. This allows you to type 'oulk' for 'Outlook' for example, or 'ie' for 'Internet Explorer' or ‘cmd’ for Command Prompt.

These commands are not pre-programmed, Skylight does its best to try and determine what you're looking for, this flexibility adds power and allows Skylight to tune to the users habits! Thus if something doesn’t show up first simply hit Space or Down Arrow to highlight that item, it will likely be not too far below.

You can now alter the action for the given item by hitting Tab to select the actions panel. For example you may want to Send IM, or Send Email for a given contact. Simply type something like 'si' or 'se' to match these actions. Hitting Enter activates the action on the item and Skylight learns the shortcut for future use!

For full key mapping information please see 'Quick Help' within Skylight.

Learning Abbreviations

Though Skylight learns automatically, sometimes you'd like to program specific shortcuts. For example you'd like to match the Outlook item when typing 'mail'. This can be done using either of the following methods:

TextMode Method
Type the abbreviation you'd like to use, in this case 'mail', if it doesn’t match the desired item, enter text mode via Shift key. Tab over to the actions panel, select the Learn Abbreviation action. In the 3rd panel search using a longer more specific query for the target item, i.e. 'outlook'. Press enter to perform the learn action.

Query Command Method
After typing the desired abbreviation, hit the ';' (semicolon) key, the learn abbreviation sentence will fill in, now search for the target item, press enter and viala!

Plugins

The following lists the available plugins for Skylight. All are in the beta stage though hopefully they provide a glimpse of what’s to come.

Web Search

Currently this plugin includes: imdb, Wikipedia, Google search, Live search, msdn, ebay, facebook and You Tube. It is not currently possible to edit or add other items, however expect fully customizable items in a future release!

Here is an example key sequence to perform a Google search for 'hello': Alt+Space, 'gs', Enter, 'hello', Enter. This works globally, anywhere you are in windows and in the same way for all items.
Usage of these items is very simple. First we search for the item, typing 'gs' for Google Search for example, this will likely rank this item first, if it does not however simply hit Space or Down Arrow until it is selected. (Once you do this Skylight will remember 'gs' to mean Google search, in this way you can program your own shortcuts) Pressing Enter shows the query textbox, we now type the desired Google query and hit Enter to commit the search. Skylight hides and the Google results appear in a browser window!

Another method, (which is perhaps more intuitive) is to do the reverse, first type the query 'hello', then hit Shift to enter text mode. Then Tab over to the last panel and select Google Search.

Run Action

This action mimics the Run dialog found in windows. It can launch web site urls, programs (i.e. regedit, perfmon) or any file or folder path. This action utilizes the multiple search fields feature of Skylight, that is it has multiple names, it can be accessed by typing 'Exec', 'Run' or 'GoTo', use any you like!

Windows Live Messenger

This plugin is loaded automatically, it detects when you login using Messenger and loads your contacts for searching. It allows you to 'Send Instance Massage', 'Send Email' or 'View Profile' for your contacts.

Windows Shell and Files

Currently being in an early stage of development, no interface exists to customize this plugin. Your Desktop, Start Menu, and User directory are automatically scanned for content. Indexed content includes Programs, Documents, Pictures and Scripts. Music and Video handling to arrive shortly! It allows you to perform the following actions on your files 'Open', 'View' and 'Browse in Explorer'