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Author Topic: Handy way to toggle Circle Dock  (Read 6317 times)

dimout

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Handy way to toggle Circle Dock
« on: September 03, 2009, 12:14 PM »
Hello

I find Circle extremely useful and it seems to be just what Windows has always missed. However, there's one thing about Circle Dock that still needs to be refined. It's the way Circle Dock gets toggled.

Yes, bringing the mouse to the edge of the desktop is fine, however, it's too much effort. The same can be said about keyboard shortcuts.

The mouse middle button comes real close to the entire idea of Circle Dock. Using it you can have Circle Dock show wherever your mouse cursor is at the moment. However... The middle button is heavily loaded with functionality in other Windows applications. For example, in my Opera browser, I use it to slide the page and to open a link on a new tab. So the middle mouse button is not a solution either.

What I want to suggest is that the left mouse button can be used in an unusual way. What if Circle Dock is toggled when the left mouse button is pressed and then held for some time (a second or two)? This would allow to have a very comfortable way of showing Circle Dock right at your mouse cursor.

Alternatively, mouse gestures can be used. But in my opinion, the left mouse button being held for a second would be the best and safest approach to showing Circle Dock regardless of the application you are currently working in.

jgpaiva

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Re: Handy way to toggle Circle Dock
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2009, 03:34 PM »
I think this could be done with ahk. Maybe if you post this in the coding snacks section someone could help.

However, I think you're forgetting that sometimes you really want to keep the left button pressed (for example when dragging something), and this might severely interfere.

dimout

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Re: Handy way to toggle Circle Dock
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2009, 02:15 AM »
Thanks!

You're absolutely right about the left mouse button. The fact that it is held pressed during drag-n-drop just flew out of my head. I guess it must be the right button then. I don't seem to remember any operations that require the right mouse button being held.

Also I don't think I understand your advice to post my suggestion in the coding snacks section. I found this Circle Dock software on the web and followed the link to the support forum which brought me here. Isn't it the right place to ask for features? Sorry if I'm just being slow or something

dimout

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Re: Handy way to toggle Circle Dock
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2009, 03:52 AM »
Thank you jgpaiva again for your useful tip!

This is the first time I heard about ahk and it allowed me to do exactly what I wanted. For anyone interested, I did the following:

- Configured the Circle Dock to be toggled by the CTRL+F1 hotkey
- Downloaded and installed ahk
- Created a text file with the .ahk extension and the following contents:
$RButton::
  KeyWait, RButton, T0.5
  if ErrorLevel
    Send ^{F1}
  else
    Mouseclick, right
Return
- Copied shortcuts to both the .ahk file and CircleDock.exe to the Windows startup folder

Now when I log in to Windows, I can toggle Circle Dock by holding the right mouse button for some time

However, I still badly need to know how to reset Circle Dock to the initial state after an item is launched from a sub folder. This is what my other post in this forum was about.

Please, jgpaiva, help me find a way to address this issue in Circle Dock!

jgpaiva

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Re: Handy way to toggle Circle Dock
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2009, 04:37 AM »
dimout: I must congratulate you!

I told you to post on the coding snacks section of DC, where you can ask a programmer to do the script for you. You can find it here: https://www.donation...index.php?board=71.0

But you took matters on your own hands and fixed it yourself. Congrats!
If you'd like to see more ahk programs, you may check that section for some examples.

About your other problem with circle dock.. I'm not a user of circle dock, nor am I the developer.
Actually, I'm currently working on linux, so I can't be of much assistance (that's why I also didn't do the ahk script you asked right away).

But maybe some circle dock user may help you on the other topic ;)