WBShortcutMaker / 2025-08-19 19:30:04

Who never wanted to add a program into the WBStartup, only to discover that it was too large, or that it had to run from its own folder?
And who never solved such problems by creating a script file, painfully editing it, copying some other program Project icon, and jumping through more hoops?

Well, not anymore! 

In a Nutshell

WBShortcutMaker is a small commodity that adds a menu to the Workbench to create a shortcut to any program selected in the Workbench. A shortcut is textual script along with a Project icon. The script calls the selected program, providing convenience to increase stack or pass parameters. The icon uses the usual C:IconX to execute the script and is based on either the program icon (if any, else the default Project icon). Thus, the shortcut can be placed anywhere (usually the WBStartup folder) to call the selected program! WBShortcutMaker has a small GUI to edit the prefix/suffix of the shortcut name and to allow overwriting an existing shortcut. It is fully localised too , with English as default.

Requirements

WBShortcutMaker doesn't depend on anything, besides the Workbench!

It should work with any Workbench and Kickstart v2.0.4 or more...

It won't work in MorphOS with Ambient because there's no Tools menu.

Availability and Downloads

WBShortcutMaker is open source. Its source code is available on BitBucket ! Manual and other resources are available here. WBShortcutMaker binaries are also available here, on Aminet, and in BitBucket :

25/07/12, v1.0: complete version, tested on a real Amiga 4000, a Vampirised A600, and WinUAE.

Usage

Unarchive WBShortcutMaker.lha anywhere, copy/paste WBShortcutMaker in your WBStartup (or any other place of your choosing), and then run it by double-clicking on it.

Example

This table shows the few, simple steps to use and enjoy WBShortcutMaker:

Example Usage

Steps	Screenshots
Select any program from the Workbench, program having or not an icon. For example Clock in SYS:Utilities.
Invoke the Workbench menu (in this example, using MagicMenu) and select the new menu item.
Look at the newly created icon!
Modify the generated textual script with your favourite editor (in this example, using CEd) to change the stack, pass parameters...
Modify the created icon with your favourite editor (in this example, using SwazInfo) to open a window, have a Shell...

Preferences

To bring up the preferences window, open your favourite commodities manager, for example BExchange and select "Show" (or "Montrer" in French ).

The options are:

• Prefix (yes/no) and its value. This prefix will be prepended to the program name to create the shortcut name;
• Suffix (yes/no) and its value. This suffix will be appended to the program name to create the shortcut name;
• Overwrite existing shortcut if one already exists (yes/no);
• Restore previous preferences;
• Save current preferences;
• Apply current preferences (the preferences are not saved when applying them).

At least either a prefix or a suffix must be selected/given to create a shortcut; if neither, an information message will appear to remind you. The preferences are saved in a file called WBShortcutMaker.prefs, which is a simple ASCII text file, next to the WBShortcutMaker program itself.

Although not visible in the screenshot above, a space can be added after the text of the prefix, i.e., "Start ", so that the shortcut name becomes "Start <program name>". Similarly, but visible in the screenshot this time, a space can be added in front of the suffix.

Details

WBShortcutMaker is written in C with Cubic IDE and vbcc for the coding,  GadToolsBox for the GUI design, and SimpleCat for the internationalisation.

Icon from Flaticon in Home Screen Apps pack, free for personal and commercial purpose with attribution.