Author Topic: HotkeyRing - One hotkey to rule all others (with plugin system)! AKA JustEnter (Read 31,548 times)

justice · « **on:** July 10, 2009, 11:46 AM »

We noticed that people spend too much time flicking between programs each with their own variations of hotkeys for identical features. Now you only need to remember one hotkey (also known as keyboard shortcuts) to command your favorite feature in any program!

HOW TO USE IT

For supported programs, press the hotkey button (Capslock by default - change via system tray -> preferences) and the feature for the active application will be launched. Press it again to cycle through the remaining instances. Support for your favorite program can be added by creating an hotkey definition for that program. Update HKR via system tray icon > preferences > Help > Check for updates.

The following applications are supported in this version: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Chromium, Firefox, Windows Explorer for the InputBar feature. For each of these applications it will cycle through the addressbar and searchbar of these applications.

One smart shortcut to remember - hit it again to cycle through hotkeys for the application
Add your favourite applications by creating simple ini files
No learning curve
Customizable hotkey and Run at Startup option
DcUpdater Support

Screencast (it's hard to demo)

More information on ini structure is available in the readme.txt. See http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/Send.htm for syntax on special keys. You can edit/create definitions while the application is running.

FINALLY
Please share your comments, ideas and application definitions! This is quite an exciting release for me as its my first AHK utility that's extendable by its users.

Download Beta

justice · « **Reply #1 on:** July 10, 2009, 12:07 PM »

cranioscopical · « **Reply #2 on:** July 10, 2009, 02:41 PM »

Nice idea!.

JustEnter won't start with my codepage because § isn't recognized.
Easy enough to fix but perhaps not for an absolute beginner, which might deter trial.
Might you consider using a different key as the default?

lanux128 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 10, 2009, 04:54 PM »

cool idea! how to make the program access the textareas in Firefox? i took a look at data\firefox.exe.ini but not quite sure how to add them.

also had the same problem cranioscopical mentioned, edited the 'settings.ini' to make it work. attaching a screenshot of the error msg.

justice · « **Reply #4 on:** July 10, 2009, 06:07 PM »

Hi, yes I was thinking of capslock first but there's some weird delay on my system with that key

it might be the better hotkey. I'll have a new version early next week then that defaults to capslock (feel free to suggest better keys).

Lanux for this prototype its only possible to focus input fields that can normally be focused with hotkeys (AHK is substituting the hotkeys and cycling to them, binding them to a single key). But I'm sure more is possible and am happy to look into it.

Also I was thinking some processes might have windows which can benefit but other windows that can't within the same process so I'll look to have ini sections for each part of a windowtitle in a next version.

TucknDar · « **Reply #5 on:** July 12, 2009, 09:44 AM »

Great idea and well executed

I've been needing something like this on a couple of occasions, so thanks!

mouser · « **Reply #6 on:** July 12, 2009, 09:53 AM »

A very cool idea, so let me summarize and see if i've got it right:

Instead of the user having to remember different hotkeys for different programs, to open up a common function like searchng, this program let's a user have a single hotkey.
And when they hit this hotkey, JustEnter simulates the user pressing an application-specific hotkey, depending on the application that the user is using at the time.
Furthermore, the program can be told to cycle through simulating different hotkeys within a program, so that again they can just hit the one hotkey to access different functions and never have to remember which one to press.

Is that right?

justice · « **Reply #7 on:** July 12, 2009, 10:35 AM »

Yes mouser that is right and thanks to your donation I can now hire a pr person to clarify the description haha. You made me think though justenter can simulate any hotkey in any program. I just made it for the input boxes issue that I had. You can just bind your favourite hotkeys from any program to it for easy access.

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** July 12, 2009, 03:30 PM »

Quote

Yes mouser that is right and thanks to your donation I can now hire a pr person to clarify the description haha.

more like you can now afford to buy yourself a can of soda to quench your thirst as you modify the post

sri · « **Reply #9 on:** July 12, 2009, 06:41 PM »

Can anyone provide either the modified .ahk or .exe that uses Caps Lock key?

mouser · « **Reply #10 on:** July 12, 2009, 07:00 PM »

btw the name of this tool is a bit confusing.. maybe something like "Mutliple App Hotkey" or "Single Hotkey Trigger" or something like that would be a bit clearer?

TucknDar · « **Reply #11 on:** July 12, 2009, 07:04 PM »

Quote from: mouser on July 12, 2009, 07:00 PM

btw the name of this tool is a bit confusing.. maybe something like "Mutliple App Hotkey" or "Single Hotkey Trigger" or something like that would be a bit clearer?

"Mutliple" eh? Does that count as me finding the error in your post, mouser?

btw, how about Mult-A-Key for a new name, based on mouser's first suggestion?

cranioscopical · « **Reply #12 on:** July 12, 2009, 08:25 PM »

Quote from: mouser on July 12, 2009, 07:00 PM

btw the name of this tool is a bit confusing.. maybe something like "Mutliple App Hotkey" or "Single Hotkey Trigger" or something like that would be a bit clearer?

Monokey Business

justice · « **Reply #13 on:** July 13, 2009, 08:23 AM »

I think I'll call it HotkeyRing (a keyring of hotkeys) - in about 30 minutes a new version should be up.

justice · « **Reply #14 on:** July 13, 2009, 09:23 AM »

Release 0.2 - Date: 10:16:44, 13 July 2009
See opening post for download link. Because of the name change dcupdater won't recognize this update for previous versions.

Renamed JustEnter to HotkeyRing
The default collection (InputBarr) has index.ini to describe functionality for future use
Changed hotkey to Capslock sorry everyone
Updated support link

I'm working on adding support for multiple Hotkey Collections so that HKR can provide multiple features. Say you made a hotkey collection for accessing the help function in applications. You can share and others can just unpack it. Then HotKeyRing provides Help functionality using the single hotkey everywhere. Have to say the terminology is killing me though.

How do you call a file that describes an application should access a feature? I call it an hotkey definition
How do you call a collection of definitions? I call it a Hotkey Collection

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #15 on:** July 13, 2009, 09:43 AM »

Quote from: justice on July 13, 2009, 08:23 AM

I think I'll call it HotkeyRing (a keyring of hotkeys) - in about 30 minutes a new version should be up.

Love the name... although it does sound like you've stolen someone's keys

Nod5 · « **Reply #16 on:** July 13, 2009, 06:15 PM »

A hotkeyhotkey - nice!

Great idea justice. There's definitely a need for something like this. I can think of three commands that a standard hotkey like this would be useful for: (1) focus the main input box, (2) undo/reopen last tab, (3) search (though ctrl+F is getting more and more standardized I think).

ctrl+§, shift+§ could be good candidates for (2) & (3).

The fact that there isn't already a standard hotkey for "focus main input box" -- as compared to copy, paste, close, dragging and dropping and so on -- is symptomatic I think. GUIs nowadays are more and more driven by smart input boxes.

Nod5 · « **Reply #17 on:** July 14, 2009, 09:04 AM »

suggestion: to handle apps that have no hotkey, replace line 173 with:

Code

if SendInputs contains ControlFocus
{
StringSplit, xarray, SendInputs,`,
ControlFocus, %xarray2% , %xarray3%
xarray2 =
xarray3 =
}
else
 Send, %SendInputs%

Then controlfocus settings could be added via ini like so:

Maxthon.exe.ini (for Maxthon Classic)

Code

[Main]
SystemVersion = 1
Total = 1
Input1= ControlFocus,Edit2,ahk_class IEFrame

kli6891 · « **Reply #18 on:** July 15, 2009, 05:59 PM »

Is there a possibility of adding a "reset" timeout. So if after 1 sec the hotkey hasn't been pressed, the ring is set back to the initial position?

Thanks.

justice · « **Reply #19 on:** July 16, 2009, 07:02 AM »

Yes great idea thanks

skwire · « **Reply #20 on:** July 16, 2009, 07:18 AM »

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Mouser Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of DonationCoder where the Coders lie.
One HotkeyRing to rule them all, One HotkeyRing to find them,
One HotkeyRing to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of DonationCoder where the Coders lie.

justice · « **Reply #21 on:** July 16, 2009, 08:15 AM »

eleman · « **Reply #22 on:** July 28, 2009, 07:39 AM »

Marvellous idea.
I personally know zillions of graphic designers who hate having to cope with different hotkeys for similar tasks in photoshop, illustrator, fireworks etc. I'll tell them just wait a bit for HotkeyRing to mature.

ada45373 · « **Reply #23 on:** August 27, 2009, 07:22 PM »

Eleman mentions that folks "hate having to cope with different hotkeys for similar tasks." How often have scripts been produced to offer "Same Keying" for this dilemma?

This autohotkey script provides the same shortcut keys for movement around the pages of the various tabbed browsers. Sometimes a browser has keyboard shortcuts that don't match the most common pattern - - this SameBrowserKeys script eliminates that problem. Although now I have a very ingrained habit(for me to contend with) if I'm on a computer without this script.

RAlt & 4::shiftalttab ; prior window
RAlt & 5::alttab ; next window

#IfWinActive ahk_class MozillaUIWindowClass
; Firefox
RAlt & e::Send ^{PgUp} ; leftward tab
RAlt & r::Send ^{PgDn} ; rightward tab
RAlt & d::Send !{Left} ; prior page
RAlt & f::Send !{Right} ; next page
#IfWinActive

#IfWinActive ahk_class IEFrame
; Internet Explorer
RAlt & e::Send ^+{Tab} ; leftward tab
RAlt & r::Send ^{Tab} ; rightward tab
RAlt & d::Send !{Left} ; prior page
RAlt & f::Send !{Right} ; next page
#IfWinActive

#IfWinActive ahk_class OpWindow
; Opera
RAlt & e::Send ^+{F6} ; leftward tab
RAlt & r::Send ^{F6} ; rightward tab
RAlt & d::Send !{Left} ; prior page
RAlt & f::Send !{Right} ; next page
#IfWinActive

#IfWinActive ahk_class Chrome_XPFrame
; Chrome
RAlt & e::Send ^+{Tab} ; leftward tab
RAlt & r::Send ^{Tab} ; rightward tab
RAlt & d::Send !{Left} ; prior page
RAlt & f::Send !{Right} ; next page
#IfWinActive

; ------------------------------
RAlt & J::Send !{F4} ;Close APP..
RAlt & B::Send ^w ;Close TAB

;
RAlt & q::Send {PgUp} ; Up
RAlt & a::Send {PgDn} ; Down
RAlt & w::Send ^{NumpadAdd} ; zoom in
RAlt & s::Send ^{NumpadSub} ; zoom out

First, I used Sharpkeys to move the capslock function to the SCROLL LOCK key. Then I moved the right-alt function to the CAPS LOCK key. By having this script work from just the RAlt, not the Alt function, there are not conflicts with the many "Alt+ Key" shortcuts.

So the left pinkie finger stays on the Caps Lock key. Then keys Q-A scroll up-down, W-S zoom in-out, D-F are back-forward, E-R for tabbing, and the 4 & 5 keys handle alt-tab. I've changed the layout at various times for personal dexterity.

Would this the sort of Common Function script dovetail with your HotKeyRing?

The #IfWinActive function seems to offer some nice setups. Since I'm a novice at this sort of script writing, I bet my simplistic approach on browsers has been far surpassed by experienced script writers. Could anyone please head me toward good examples of this?

delwoode · « **Reply #24 on:** April 06, 2011, 10:43 AM »

I didnt understand what was happening in the video at all