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DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

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nudone:
Ath, i have a question about Winbuttons (which would determine whether i even bother to look for a touch screen)...

Can Winbuttons be made to recognise the "main" program that has focus - and then change the buttons displayed?

As an example, I'm using Photoshop, Winbuttons displays the buttons configured for Photoshop shortcuts, then I swap to Illustrator and Winbuttons now changes its display to show only Illustrator related button shortcuts. And more, only my desktop is visible (all other apps minimised), Winbuttons now displays whatever set of buttons related to useful everyday shortcuts.

(Maybe this kind of quick button swap type app is already included with touchscreens, I'm guessing it isn't, and that's why I wanted timns to be the guinea pig and buy one to find out.)

nudone:
p.s. i think you've made a great little app.

I particularly like the ability to use graphics on the buttons, this really opens up a whole world of possibilities.

Another question or suggestion for future releases - could the buttons be made irregular sizes, so maybe you could have the standard button layout, and then some of those buttons were doubled up (connected to each other) and other buttons were split in half, or thirds, or quarters.

So, rather than being a regular button interface, it become more like a custom control panel with different zones or sized buttons across it.

(Okay, this is pushing it, I know, but could Winbuttons be made to work on more than one touchscreen at a time - each one having its own set of functions.)

Ath:
Can Winbuttons be made to recognise the "main" program that has focus - and then change the buttons displayed?
-nudone (March 05, 2011, 04:15 AM)
--- End quote ---
ATM, it's only sort-of 'context-aware' to other WinButtons instances, that have passed their form-handle(s) (using :hndlist: variable) to all instances in the chain, to be hidden when the -hide command option is used. So using the supplied demo configuration, Click: 'Submenu 5 extra words', 'Run & Wait', 'Push 2nd', then the WinButtons -? help-message is shown, while all 3 instances of WinButtons showing the menu-chain are hidden.
It's now rather static, in that each configuration-file has 1 set of buttons that is displayed on the screen and then waiting for the user to interact with it. Making it this kind of application-aware is quite a different approach, but I'll investigate it. Sounds interesting, indeed.

could the buttons be made irregular sizes, so maybe you could have the standard button layout, and then some of those buttons were doubled up (connected to each other) and other buttons were split in half, or thirds, or quarters.
-nudone (March 05, 2011, 04:26 AM)
--- End quote ---
That's quite a challenging (but interesting) feature to implement, I'll certainly think about it, and report back later.

could Winbuttons be made to work on more than one touchscreen at a time
-nudone (March 05, 2011, 04:26 AM)
--- End quote ---
It can do that already, just pass it an ini file with button definitions (-f parameter can be used for clarity, but not required), using explicit top and left values (or on the commandline using -t and -l parameters), multiple instances should run happily side by side.

nudone:
Okay, very good, that's sounds very hopeful, Ath. I'll start looking into touch screens (as I'm sure timns will do too).

My major stumbling block is simply that if the touchscreen (running Winbuttons or something similar) doesn't do what I described above then it's not "feature rich" or advanced enough to be useful.

For my own personal use, a touchscreen has got to do more than what a typical keybad can do.

Being focus-program aware and changing layout and buttons to compliment the actions required for that in focus program is the "killer" feature. It means not having to memorise program hotkeys or their layout on an extra keypad.

Really, we are discussing something that could well be the next big must-have peripheral for many computer users. It's probably already available - but at a stupid price. Essentially, we are talking about a magic pad that does whatever you want and has the benefit of showing easy to understand buttons/graphics/words that means you don't have to remember stuff yourself. I honestly think it would be amazing.

Ath:
could the buttons be made irregular sizes, so maybe you could have the standard button layout, and then some of those buttons were doubled up (connected to each other) and other buttons were split in half, or thirds, or quarters.
-nudone (March 05, 2011, 04:26 AM)
--- End quote ---
That's quite a challenging (but interesting) feature to implement, I'll certainly think about it, and report back later.
-Ath (March 05, 2011, 04:47 AM)
--- End quote ---

I'll show a teaser for this feature:
DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

The same demo-items as with the previous screenshots, just added a 'buttonarrangement' option to some buttons.
Still got to implement 'third-size' option.

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