As a professional computer user it will be not so easy for you to switch from one application to any other by a few clicks. Now there is a solution to that: a hierarchical list box, started automatically when you switch on your computer. From that list you can launch any application by just one mouse click.

If you are a rather  professional  computer user, you will have quite a number of programs installed. Each program might be called with several different configurations in the command line. Once you are working in any application, you will have a number of other applications opened, minimized in the taskbar.

Switching Tools

If you want to switch to any other application that is not yet open, you will have a problem. When you are minimizing your current application, another one of those you opened before is popping up. One after the other. Once you finally arrive at your desktop, you will have done a number of tedious minimizing operations. At the end it might not be present to your mind why you decided to switch to another application in the first place.

So I carved out a custom launch pad by which a list of applications is presented, simply by one button in the taskbar. Thus I have immediate access to all my tools while working in any other. To launch any application in the list, I need only one mouse click or pressing the  Enter-key. By it, switching applications is a matter of a few moments.

By the time I included in the list one application after the other. Eventually the list grew to more applications than I have icons on my desktop. Now it became awkward to look for a particular application in that long sequential list, scrolling all over.

Hierarchical Do-List

So I decided to make the list  hierarchical.  That is, applications can be grouped by whatever criterion you like. These groups in turn can be lumped together again to a higher level group. And so on, up to a top level group. Any number of grouping levels is possible, and any number of top level groups.

Now, when you want to launch a list application, you don't have to scroll anymore. You should know which group it is in, and its top level group. So you simply click the list line representing the top level group, and it is expanded to all items of its sub-level. And so on, if there are intermediate groups. Finally, when arriving at the desired application, one mouse click (or pressing the  Enter-key) is all it takes to launch it.

Even if minimizing Do, if you want to launch another application out of the same group some time later, the sub-levels are still open in the list. So you can launch that other application by only one mouse click (or pressing the  Enter-key).

If you want to open another group and the list would be getting too long now, you can close a group by clicking it again. The sub-items are removed from the list, only the group title remains. If an intermediate (or even top-level) group is closed, all its sub-groups are closed automatically.

System Extension

By a well-crafted Do-list you can make yourself a real system extension. You should have a link to 'Do' (with your Do-list in the command line) in the AUTOSTART-directory of your system. Then you have all your tools available right from booting your computer.

You can have any number of applications in the Do-list (while the desktop of your system is limited to some 50 icons). Desktop icons usually stand for a  program  only - after launching it, you still have to configure it to your current needs in order to make it 'live'.

In contrast to a line in the Do-list that stands for an  application  (that's a program that is configured already to any of your needs occurring repeatedly). Thus you can prepare a long list of those applications you can expect to need again and again. By a few mouse clicks or key presses you have it ready for productive use.

For launching one application, the time saving compared to conventional launching is a few seconds only. But consider how often you do it in the course of a working day. Then the time savings will add up considerably.