Messages

51

Find And Run Robot / Alt-# for selecting result list entries vs. letters

« on: August 30, 2009, 07:34 PM »

(I started formulating the idea behind this message when I noticed that the only key on my relatively new laptop that has the lettering worn off already is the left Alt key...)

I see that Left-Alt-# launches an entry from a result list, but Right-Alt-# doesn't.  Is that a design choice?

I was wondering, since searches aren't case-sensitive anyway, if it would be useful to allow Shift-letter to select from the list, e.g. A for the first choice instead of 1, B for the second, etc...  This would have the side-effect of giving you the ability to select from a longer list of results, too.  And I think it would make FARR even faster...

(If this seems completely nutty, please bear with me:  As I said in another post, I've been doing this stuff a long time and I don't move my hands from the home row unnecessarily anymore - I use Vim for my editor, ViEmu is my favorite add-on for Visual Studio and MS Word, and Vimperator is the only Firefox extension I simply would not do without...  I'm even playing with Kommand now (kylirhorton.com), an AHK script that's basically aiming to be a cross-application Vim-like key mapper, so you can expect nutty from me at times...)

52

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 28, 2009, 09:52 PM »

That soon?  Even awesome-er!  I remember the days of coding for hours after I should've been asleep, because I couldn't stop...  I cut my programming teeth on mainframes in the early 80's, coding in Algol, Cobol, & machine language.  One of the mainframes was still programmed from punched cards.  Then, it was on to PL/I, Pascal, C, C++, Perl, & Python, but I haven't done any serious coding in 10 years or so.  At any rate, I know what's involved - so, thanks!!!

53

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 28, 2009, 05:27 PM »

Awesome!  I'm really looking forward to getting rid of a couple other programs!

54

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 28, 2009, 04:44 PM »

I'm certainly in favor of the simplest approach that gets the job done.  So what would happen if there are multiple windows open, as with the examples I gave earlier?

55

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 28, 2009, 04:24 PM »

Executor's approach, though flawed in its execution, is very neat in its UI implementation:  there's a simple check box "Don't allow multiple instances", associated with the alias.  But that would require a change to FARR itself, I guess...

56

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 28, 2009, 03:02 PM »

I think Window Caption is where some other program's attempts to do this fall flat.  Right now, for example, my Firefox Window caption is "Can FARR be used to switch between open windows? - DonationCoder.com - Vimperator", which doesn't exactly provide too much of an indication that it's Firefox.  One problem, though, is that programs can have multiple windows - Outlook is a good example - so how do you pick which one?  It would be handy to be able to set up, along with the program list, a search string in the Windows caption to use to pick which window to make active.  That way, even if there are several Outlook messages open, as well as a Calendar window and an Inbox window, you could switch to the "Inbox" window.  This would also come in handy for activating "Documents" vs. "Downloads" Windows Explorer windows...

57

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 28, 2009, 09:23 AM »

Oh well, it was worth a try, but Executor's "switch if open" feature fails often enough that it's not really useful.  It seems to be close, in the sense that it never opens a second instance if you've checked that option for that keyword (alias), but it usually fails to switch to that app, which I found strange, since it seems that the most difficult part is the part that works.

58

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 26, 2009, 09:40 PM »

I posted a message on the Executor forum asking whether it has the ability to switch to an open app instead of launching a second instance, and I got a response that you just check a box "Only one instance running in More keyword options of your keyword".  So it seems it has this capability natively, but I'll have to test it to see if it works properly.

59

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR Release v2.107.04 beta - Sep 23, 2012

« on: August 26, 2009, 11:38 AM »

Just fyi - the dl on the page is the correct version, but the version and date in the upper right corner still say it's the old one...

60

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 26, 2009, 07:53 AM »

I'm just replying to this topic again because I'm wondering if others would find this useful.  Obviously, Mouser, nobody has replied to your statement that this would be "fun" to write, so does "fun" translate to "difficult" in your vocabulary, or is it likely that I'm just wanting something that nobody else does?

61

Find And Run Robot / Re: Default alias for nircmd

« on: August 06, 2009, 02:36 PM »

That makes more sense, and avoids a proliferation of exe's - thanks!

62

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 06, 2009, 02:17 PM »

Yeah, I frequently have a dozen or more apps open, and I don't always remember if I've already opened an app, especially early in the day, so having a single way to bring it foremost, if it's running, or run it, if it's not, would be VERY nice... 

Another reason: some apps misbehave if you run multiple instances (or there's never a valid reason for running more than one instance), so I'd even like the ability to have FARR check for an instance of the app already running and give me the option of switching to it, rather than opening another...

63

Find And Run Robot / Re: Default alias for nircmd

« on: August 06, 2009, 02:09 PM »

Ok, got it:  Screensaver didn't work, either, so I looked at the alias and it has the %Aliasdir% hardcoded into the path, so it has to be there, too - it won't find it on the System Environment variable path...

That's a little unfortunate, because the version that comes in the pack is very old and crashes under W7.  But it works fine after copying the new version into the FARR/.../nircmd directory.

Thanks!

64

Find And Run Robot / Re: Default alias for nircmd

« on: August 06, 2009, 01:22 PM »

Ok- I assumed that, since the help file said it's a default alias, I didn't need to do anything else.  At any rate, I installed the alias pack, and tried the mute and unmute aliases, but they don't seem to do anything.

65

Find And Run Robot / Re: Default alias for nircmd

« on: August 06, 2009, 12:48 PM »

Sure.  (I'm on W7, btw, in case that has anything to do with it...)

If I open a command prompt, I have no trouble running nircmd from anywhere, so I'm sure it's in my PATH, but if I open FARR (I'm using Alt-Space) and type 'cmd ', all I get are file hits.  For example, the first hit is a file called 'vimcmds.txt' which is a cheat sheet I keep of Vim commands I want to remember.

66

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 06, 2009, 12:40 PM »

Almost perfect, thanks!  If only it could display the shortcuts to open an application if it's not already running...

But, still, much better than having to use a bunch of different utilities - thanks!

67

Find And Run Robot / Default alias for nircmd

« on: August 06, 2009, 12:38 PM »

Is there a trick for getting the default alias for nircmd to work?  Sorry for the newbie questions, but I'm a newbie...

AWESOME utility, btw!!!  I've only been using it for an hour or two and other utilities are getting uninstalled one by one, as I discover how much better FARR can replace their functionality...

68

Find And Run Robot / Can FARR be used to switch between open windows?

« on: August 06, 2009, 09:28 AM »

I was wondering if FARR can be used to duplicate the functionality of the iSwitchW AutoHotKey script - i.e. a text-based task switcher.  Ideally, I'd love to have FARR show open windows first in the list of hits, so I could run the program if it wasn't open.

For example, if I have Outlook open, and type "out" into FARR, it would show the open window as the #1 choice, followed by the shortcuts, etc. it's found.  Or if I had Outlook open, as well as an explorer window for a folder named "Lookout" (which is what Outlook should've been named, imo, with 3 exclamation marks after it...) FARR would show the open Outlook and Lookout windows first, followed by the shortcuts, etc.

This would let FARR function as a very fast task switcher AND launcher, simultaneously...

Thanks for listening, and apologies offered if it can already do this (I did look in the help files and at the features list, but didn't find anything)...

69

Screenshot Captor / Re: Noob question

« on: February 17, 2008, 08:10 AM »

Your idea would be cool, but what I'm not figuring out seems more basic.

If I create a callout ballon, I can't figure out a way to put text inside it, unless I create a separate text box, then turn the border off so it looks like it's not there. So, I have to create two objects, when it seems like I should only have to create the callout box, balloon, or bubble, then put the text within it.  Does that make sense?  (Thanks for the reply - I hope you're feeling better!)

70

Screenshot Captor / Re: Noob question

« on: February 16, 2008, 09:32 PM »

I was really hoping that was a dumb question, but I guess it wasn't...

71

Screenshot Captor / Noob question

« on: February 16, 2008, 03:05 PM »

Just dl'ed Screenshot Captor for eval purposes...

Is there a way to associate text with a callout balloon without creating a separate text box object inside it?  I see the endpoint text property for arrows, but not a way to put text inside balloons...