(2007-01-25) For Those Nostalgic For Typed Commands, Enso Does A Nice Job

Walter Mossberg: For Those Nostalgic For Typed Commands, Enso Does a Nice Job. For some people, especially fast touch typists, removing a hand from the keyboard to use the mouse is annoying, and picking through menus is slow. They prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, but these shortcuts must be memorized and can vary program to program. Now there's a new software system that allows you to use keyboard commands to do common tasks. But this back-to-the-future system is different from the old approach. Its commands needn't be memorized, because they are entered in plain English. And they stay the same no matter what program you're using.
The system is named Enso, and it comes from a small Chicago company called Humanized Inc. Humanized's president, Aza Raskin, is the son of the late Jef Raskin.

There are two initial Enso products, which can be downloaded... One, called Enso Launcher, allows you to launch programs and switch among windows via typed commands. The other, called Enso Words, allows you to do spell-checking, even when the program you're using doesn't include that capability, and to look up the meaning of words. Both products also include a simple calculator and the ability to launch Google searches.

ENSO is dead simple to use. You just hold down the Caps Lock key and type an Enso command, which is displayed in a translucent overlay. Once the command is typed, you simply release the Caps Lock key to activate it

For instance, to launch the Firefox Web browser, you just hold down the Caps Lock key and type "open firefox."

Enso Launcher costs $25, and Enso Words costs $40. Both have a 30-day free trial. For now, they work only on Windows XP -- not the new Windows Vista or the Macintosh.

In addition to "open," Enso Launcher also has a command called "go," which can take you to any open window or tab in a Web browser. While I was writing this paragraph in Microsoft Word, I held down the Caps Lock key and typed "go patriots" to get to the New England Patriots Web site, which I had open in a tab in Firefox.