Some quick background: I use the desktop version of Google Drive, which basically allows you to manage files locally via the finder. For me this is much easier than muddling around in the web version, and I would highly recommend anyone who has a bone to pick with G-suite to try it out. Anyway, I'm currently working on a project that requires me to copy and paste a ton of file links. The context menu does contain an option to copy a given file’s link directly to the clipboard, but unfortunately it's near the bottom of a 20-ish item list and I really don't fancy wearing out my arrow keys trying to get down there every time. Is there anything I can do to make this process more efficient? Is it possible to create some kind of shortcut for that particular menu item?
Comments
Does first letter navigation work?
I use a PC, not a Mac, but on the PC one can plow through such lists using first letter navigation.
--Pete
Yes and no
First letter navigation does exist on Mac OS, but it only works under certain circumstances and unfortunately this doesn't appear to be one of them.
Moving menu items
I've heard it is possible to drag and drop menu items to rearrange the order. If you try this and it works, please let us know, thanks.
If you press VO+end and move…
If you press VO+end and move up from there, you might be able to get there quicker. What you can also do is type a few of the first letters, not really like first letter navigation, just type "send" if that's what the menu item starts with. It works for me with dropbox
Keyboard Maestro
I haven’t had it for a few years now, but I believe an app called Keyboard Maestro may be able to do this.
I may be wrong though, so get a free trial before committing!
Close, but no tomato
Further experimentation reveals the following. 1: None of the items in these menus are draggable since they have press actions. 2: Typing the first few letters of a menu item does help to some degree, but there are multiple items with similar names—open, open in Google Drive, Copy, Copy Link, ETC—that complicate things. Honestly this is a relatively minor inconvenience compared to what I would have to go through when navigating the Google Drive website. Under different circumstances I'd probably just suck it up and scroll all the way down, but the project I'm working on involves manipulating literally hundreds of files and I was hoping there would be some kind of easy workaround to optomize my workflow.
What about hotspots?
You could setting a item hotspot on the item you want to get quickly to, I believe its v o shift and a number, 1 through 0 on the number row, to add a hotspot, and v o and the number you pressed to recall or move to the hotspot. That could help.
Doesn't work ☹️
Apparently that feature isn't available in context menus.
An alternative to sharing a bunch of file links
Put all the files that you want to share the links to in a single folder and share the folder's link.
I wish!
Yes, generally that would be a more practical way to do things. For this project, however, I need to input separate file links into a spreadsheet. Looks like I'm just going to have to deal with things as they are 😒
Apple Script
Hi!
You might be able to write an AppleScript script to do this (automate clicking on the menu item in question), or access the action through an other way, like finding out exactly what the context menu item does and invoking that in a shell script. Unfortunately I don't use Google Drive, so not sure how to implement that in this particular instance, but it might be worth a go if you have to batch process a bunch of stuff.
Best
Malthe