Quick Menu User Guide

USER GUIDE

COMPATIBILITY

Supported versions :
- CC 2015.3
- CC 2017
- CC 2018
- CC 2019
- CC 2020
- CC 2021
- CC 2022

HOW TO INSTALL

Put the file “00 Quick Menu.jsxbin” into the After Effects Scripts folder .

Note : Please make sure not to put it into the ScriptUI Panels folder, or into any subfolder that resides in the Scripts folder. It must be placed directly into the After Effects' Scripts folder itself .

Example paths: NOTE : The X letters are a placeholder for your After Effects version.

WIN : C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects XX\Support Files\Scripts

MAC : /Applications/Adobe After Effects XX/Scripts

Launch After Effects.

Go to File/Scripts/00 Quick Menu.jsxbin. After you assign a shortcut to the script you can simply run it using the shortcut. Please read the SHORTCUT ASSIGNMENT section below to learn how to assign a shortcut.

SHORTCUT ASSIGNMENT

Please make sure you have already installed Quick Menu and restarted After Effects as described in the HOW TO INSTALL section above.

CC 2017 and below

TROUBLESHOOTING
Quick Menu will attempt to find the After Effects shortcuts file automatically but if it cannot find it you must select the shortcuts file manually.

SHORTCUT ASSIGNMENT LIMITATION
If the Quick Menu location in the File -> Scripts menu is higher than 20 you will not be able to assign a shortcut to it. Please rename the filename to make it appear earlier in the list.

CHANGE ITS DEFAULT MENU LOCATION (“Not recommended”)
If you want Quick Menu appear in a different location in the File -> Scripts submenu. You can change the “00” in the file name to force it appear at the desired location in the list. However we do not recommend doing this because at some time you may add one or more scripts to the After Effects’ Scripts folder and inadvertently cause an offset to Quick Menu’s location in the list which will cause the assigned shortcut to launch a different script.

CC 2018 and above

In After Effects 2018 and above, the SET SHORTCUT panel will be disabled (grayed out). To assign a shortcut to Quick Menu you should use the new AE's Keyboard Shortcuts panel. Please see the video on how to do it.

SECTION I : UI

In this section you will find a description of all the components of the popup ui and its different styles. Please just hover the mouse over the orange rectagles to see a description of what it is and does.

TOOLLIST

SECTION II : PREFERENCES

In the preferences window you will find all the available options to customize the way Quick Menu works. Just move the mouse pointer over the orange rectangles to see a description of what each section or control of the UI does.

NOTE : Some of them have a play icon that means it has a video about what it does, just click it to watch it.",

NEW FEATURES

Quick Menu 3 was rewritten from the ground up to make possible the implementation of the following features:

New Searching Engine

In Quick Menu 3 a new searching engine has been implemented which is way faster than the previous one specially when handling thousands of commands. In this new version there is no more need to separate the words with the "space" character. For instance, in the previous version if you wanted to find the command "New Composition..." you would have typed "n co" now you can just type "nco" with no space and it is the same for command names composed of more than one word.

Note : Be warned that the following actions are not allowed and might break the searching engine, causing it display an incorrect filtering.

Pasting text into the input field.

Inserting a character previous the last one typed.

Deleting a character previous the last one typed.

Deleting all characters at once. For instance by pressing Ctrl+A then Backspace.

Recent Commands

A section in the UI that will be filled up with the most recently used commands. The number of recent commands can now be defined by the user (up to 12).

Static Commands

A section in the UI that can be filled up with your most used commands, so they will be available to you as soon as you launch Quick Menu.

NOTE: In order to use this feature you must first create a command group that contains all the commands that you use most often.

Custom Command Groups

Centralize commands for specific tasks into groups. Sometimes it can be hard to remember the name of the command but you know its related to some specific task, so why not create command groups for specific tasks like for instance "MASK TOOLS" or "LAYER TOOLS" so then you can search for the command group or assign a shortcut to it to display them quickly.

Create Expression Controls

Now Quick Menu can create expression controls for variables defined in the expression template.

Toolbar UI Style

A new UI style that resembles a toolbar.

Shape Layer Filters

Now you have access to all shape layer commands found in the "Add:" droppdown menu.

Displayable Command Options

Now you can display available command options for a command type. In the image below you can see the command options available for the "Fill" effect command.

More Command Options

More command options has been added to the command types that you might find usefull in certain situations. Note that the first four command options can be executed through shortcuts.

EFFECT :

On Selected Layer(s) : Applies the effect to the selected layer(s). [ ENTER ]

On New Solid Layer : Creates a new solid layer and applies the effect to it. [ CTRL + ENTER ]

On New Adjustment Layer : Creates a new adjustmnet layer and applies the effect to it. [ SHIFT + ENTER ]

On New Null Layer : Creates a new null layer and applies the effect to it. [ ALT + ENTER ]

Apply & Set Composition Mask : Applies the effect and sets the selected mask as the effect composition mask. Note that it requires a mask to be selected.

Apply & Set Property's Layer Source : Creates a new comp with a solid, applies the effect to it, nests it into the active comp and the sets the selected property's layer source to it.

Apply To label Group : Applies the effect to all the layers that has the same label. Note that it requires at least one of the layers of the label group to be selected.

ANIMATION PRESET :

On Selected Layer(s) : Applies the animation preset to the selected layer(s). [ ENTER ]

On New Solid or Text Layer : Creates a new solid/text layer and applies the animation preset to it. [ CTRL + ENTER ]

On New Adjustment Layer : Creates a new adjustmnet layer and applies the animation preset to it. [ SHIFT + ENTER ]

On New Null Layer : Creates a new null layer and applies the animation preset to it. [ ALT + ENTER ]

EXPRESSION TEMPLATE :

Apply Expression Only : Applies the expression template to the selected property(ies). [ ENTER ]

Create Controls On Parent Layer : Applies the expression template to the selected property and creates the expression controls on the property's parent layer. [ CTRL + ENTER ]

Create Controls On Null Layer : Applies the expression template to the selected property and creates the expression controls on a new null layer, named "EXPRESSION CONTROLS". [ SHIFT + ENTER ]

Create Controls On Selected Layer : Applies the expression template to the selected property and creates the expression controls on the user defined layer. Note that this option has an specific selection order: You must selected property(ies) first and last the layer where the expression controls will be created. [ ALT + ENTER ]

SHAPE LAYER FILTER :

Apply Filter : If shape layer(s) are selected , it will apply the filter into the "Contents" group. If group(s) are selected, it will apply the filter into the group. [ ENTER ]

On New Shape Layer : Creates a new shape layer and applies the filter to it. [ CTRL + ENTER ]

Shortcuts

Now you can assign a shortcut to a command or command group. So when you launch Quick Menu and press the shortcut the command will be executed, if the shortcut you pressed has been assigned to a command group, its commands will be displayed in the Static Command section of the UI.

Customize Command Icons

Now you can assign a custom icon to any command or command group. Note that when you change a command group's icon all its commands will inherit the new icon, unless the command has been assigned a custom icon. Note that it must be a png file of "40x40" pixels.

HOW TO CHANGE A COMMAND's ICON:

1. Open the preferences window.
2. Locate and select the command or command group that you want to change its icon.
3. Click the CHANGE ICON button.
4. In the file browser locate and select the icon file that you want to use.
5. Close the preferences window.

Auto-detect Installed Extensions

In the previous version Extensions were not available by default so you had to create them manually. Now Quick Menu will automatically detect and load all installed extensions. If you find that any of your installed extensions was not detected please open a support ticket.

Favorite Commands

Now you can tag a command as a favorite so it will have priority (meaning it will be displayed at the top) when the searching engine executes a searching task.

HOW TO :

1. Open the preferences window.
2. Locate and select the command you want to be a favorite.
3. Check the option

Blacklist Commands

Now you can exclude a command or command group so it will not be included when the searching engine executes a searching task.

HOW TO :

1. Open the preferences window.
2. Locate, select the command you want to exclude.
3. Check the option

Left Mouse Click To Execute A Command

Now you can execute a command by left mouse clicking.

IMPORTANT : Due to some limitations in the scripting API this feature works a little different between UI styles.

ToolList : Double Left Mouse Click.

ToolBar : Single Left Mouse Click.

Customize UI Size And Position

Now you can customize the size (ToolList only) and position of the popup UI.

Note : Unfortunately, due to some scripting API limitations, the ability to position UI at mouse pointer location is not possible. I'm still trying to figure out a workaround, sorry! maybe in a future update.