Might as well Jump… list.
Windows 7 is coming to a store shelf near you one month from today and surely it will be her sooner than we think. I have had the opportunity to run the RTM build of Windows 7 for about a month now and have to praise the Windows team on this one. Wow.
Sure there are new features, improved features, and some things that were carried over from previous versions of Windows, but it seems I am finding new things all the time (usually when I am not looking for them).
I was reading about jump lists in the help within Windows just to get an idea of what they were created for, which is essentially to provide task bar level shortcuts to things used frequently. But do not let the simple description fool you… this feature is sweet.
I do a bit of blogging for a technology site (techrepublic.com) and am constantly trying to remember where I put a template or what another post’s layout might be like and jump lists are gong to save me time and desktop real estate for sure.
Windows Vista (and to some extent the desktop search updates for XP) introduced the concept of search to Windows users. You click start (or the toolbar) and enter the terms and off you go. This feature is still in Windows 7 and allows me to proudly state that visiting the All Programs portion of the start menu has happened maybe 5 times.
The search has been expanded further to allow me to be sitting in Windows Explorer and search for items right from the top end of the location bar (shown in figure A). When I do this it also allows me to add filters for file type and other things. In figure A I looked for a word template and filtered the list to only include word templates.
Figure A
Searching for items in Windows Explorer
This is where jump lists come in… I can save these search results to the Windows Explorer jump list for later, single click use by dragging the magnifying glass icon in the location bar onto the task bar. This will pin the search to the appropriate jump list. The Explorer Jump List is shown in figure B.
Figure B
Windows Explorer jump list
Now anytime i want to chase down a word template on my laptop, I can access the jump list by right clicking on the task bar item and click the search item for type = .dotx and it will open with the results showing in Explorer. This way when I create a new template or receive a template from someone, I do not have to remember that I saved it as Myhugelongtemplate for new documents.dotx or something like that.
There are other features available in Jump Lists depending on what the application is. They have their own set of items on jump lists that work with the applications they represent. For example, Outlook adds the frequently used tasks, like new message, appointment, contact, etc. You can also jump right to a specified folder from the list.
Other Office applications show a list of recent documents used within the program, allowing easy access to items you have worked on.
Remember, the jump list for an item on the task bar is available via right click.
Figure C shows the jump list for PowerPoint and Outlook.
Figure C
Office Application Jump Lists
Jump Lists have been a hugely positive surprise for me. Using them has improved the experience of Windows 7 for me. I hope Jump lists will improve your Windows 7 experience.
