ATNSOFT Key Manager, Key Remapper, Text Paster - 30% Discount Coupon Code

[Vladisl]

30% Discount on all products: ATNSOFT Key Manager, ATNSOFT Key Remapper and ATNSOFT Text Paster

Coupon Code: SPRING2010
Order Page: http://www.atnsoft.com/purchase/

[nudone]

i'm considering buying the "Key Manager" as it will speed up my hotkey requirements i'll be using with my new keyboard layout.

BUT, although the GUI is very nice, i believe i'll be able to achieve more by using Autohotkey. one thing that i've realised that puts Key Manager at a big disadvantage is that there doesn't appear to be a global hotkey built it to temporarily disable/pause the keys/buttons the program is monitoring. there is a "pause" available from the tray icon but not a keyboard hotkey toggle.

this might sound odd to have a hotkey toggle for a hotkey manager - but providing the toggle hotkey remains working at all times, then it allows the standard key and mouse buttons to behave as normal when required.

Autohotkey would allow me to create a toggle key combination for all the macros and hotkeys that i intend to create - it's just going to take me quite a while to set all of that up, whereas i'll be able to do it in a few minutes with Key Manager (if it had the toggle feature).

(i've emailed ATNSOFT to see if i've missed this important feature.)

[rjbull]

i'm considering buying the "Key Manager" as it will speed up my hotkey requirements i'll be using with my new keyboard layout.

nudone, have you tried the freewares Hoekey, HotKeyP, Clavier and HotKeyz, and payware Comfort Keys, and found them wanting?

Vladisl, what extra features do you have in ATNSOFT Key Manager over these?

[nudone]

i did use Hoekey years ago for a long time - not entirely sure why i stopped. maybe it was the popularity of autohotkey on this forum that made me think of nothing else.

i shall investigate the other hotkey managers you've mentioned - if they have a hotkey toggle to pause their other functions then i'll be very interested in them.

i'll let you know how i get on.

ATNSOFT have replied to my email and say that they will try to implement the toggle key in a future release. they also point out that you can use the current program with the "exceptions" feature - which means you can disable hotkey functions unless the associated program is running (or in focus i assume). unfortunately, i knew this already and it isn't really suitable for my requirements - which is a shame as Key Manager looked like an extremely powerful hotkey program otherwise.

[rjbull]

hotkey toggle to pause their other functions then i'll be very interested in them.

I don't use hotkeys much, but do run HoeKey, great little program, not least for having things like Terminate Current Process and hide/unhide windows on a stack.  I haven't checked HotKeyz because it has to be installed.  Someone asked about a hotkey to toggle Comfort Keys (which I do have installed) in their forum: Comfort Keys Lite Tastenkrzel activate / deactivate?.  There isn't one, but the author suggested a workaround by using a hotkey to load a blank Comfort Keys shortcuts file.  The other two are, or can be, no-install.  As far as I can see from the docs, only HotKeyP has a global toggle for itself, assuming I'm reading it correctly.  I'll be interested to hear of your investigations 

[nudone]

i had a quick look through the hotkey managers you suggested but i still came back to thinking that either Autohotkey was what i required - or ATNSOFT's Key Manager. they both provide the option to control mouse buttons (i think that sets them apart from the typical hotkey managers) which is an extra feature i'd also find useful.

ATNSOFT Key Manager does use profiles so maybe the Comfort Keys method you mentioned will work. i've not got it installed on this machine so i'll have to check tomorrow.

i can't help but think i'm going to end up using autohotkey as it will be the most powerful - it's just going to take time to configure it.

edit: i see HotkeyP has mouse button control too. i guess i need to go back and investigate things further...

[nudone]

okay, i spoke too soon. HotkeyP looks great - it does do a pause all functions toggle (or even just pause keyboard or pause mouse) - but the mouse button control isn't a remapping function, it's to create a mouse click from a hotkey keyboard press. i was hoping it would understand mouse button keyboard combos.

it still looks like a powerful hotkey manager though.

[rjbull]

i see HotkeyP has mouse button control too.

I was impressed to see that both HotKeyP and Clavier can simulate mouse actions, and the former also has "system level" commands that HoeKey does (terminate process etc.).  Both can send multiple keystrokes, so apart from lacking flow control, they're essentially poor man's macro programs.  I wondered if you could do things like set a hotkey to click tray icons and interact with any menus that might pop up, though I haven't tried it.  That is, if the on/off switch was on such a menu, maybe one could set a pair of hotkeys that way.

AHK or another "proper" macro program will give you more control, but I too don't use AHK much because of the greater effort.

You posted while I was still typing - have to digest your latest comment 

[nudone]

i'm creeping up to novice level with autohotkey so i don't know if it's possible...

but i was wondering the very same thing about (locating) tray icons and selecting the right option(s) from their corresponding menus. this would open up a whole lot of things - even just selecting the "pause" option from the ATNSOFT Key Manager tray icon menu would be a nice place to start. i also wondered if the registry might store the "pause" state and this could be manipulated by autohotkey - i'm guessing that would be too easy so i doubt that's how the program works.

perhaps it's time to ask on this forum if it's possible to use autohotkey to control tray icons (i'll see if can find anything on the autohotkey forum).

[rjbull]

but i was wondering the very same thing about (locating) tray icons and selecting the right option(s) from their corresponding menus.

PowerPro has something it calls "tray support," which suggests it's possible.  I can't test it at present as I don't have it installed here; PowerPro really needs to be run as admin and I normally only operate from a user account.

[nudone]

okay, that's interesting about PowerPro. i'll try it out tomorrow. i wonder if it requires tray icons being visible (i.e. not hidden in the tray).

i must also apologise for jumping the gun again. HokeyP does have the mouse button control i was after - it just wasn't obvious as it doesn't appear to recognise my netbooks left mouse/pad button (it does recognise left and right buttons together though).

i'm finding HotkeyP to be quite impressive (it does help reading the help file i suppose). i'm not sure exactly whether i'd use it but i do like how it has the macro features you mentioned. one interesting point was that you can give it a set of commands in a list form and it will step through them with each hotkey press - so, that's a single specific hotkey to traverse a list of commands. not sure if it's useful but i find that interesting.

[rjbull]

okay, that's interesting about PowerPro. i'll try it out tomorrow. i wonder if it requires tray icons being visible (i.e. not hidden in the tray).

We really are thinking along the same lines; after I logged off, I began to wonder about that.  Vista Home Premium hides buttons if you don't use them.  You can tell it to keep them visible, but control isn't as powerful as I'd like.  I've also found that it occasionally misses things in the start-up list, probably because start-up is trying to do too many things at once.  Missing buttons would put the rest in the wrong order, with undefined results.

HokeyP does have the mouse button control i was after - it just wasn't obvious as it doesn't appear to recognise my netbooks left mouse/pad button (it does recognise left and right buttons together though).

What would happen if you used mouser's TapTap Hotkey Extender that allows you to define things like a double tap on the right shift key, and remap them to keys you really want?

i'm finding HotkeyP to be quite impressive (it does help reading the help file i suppose).

I could have done with a better Help file and some examples myself, but at least a Help file exists.  Also, HotKeyP has been mentioned on DC before, so users are around to be consulted.

you can give it a set of commands in a list form and it will step through them with each hotkey press - so, that's a single specific hotkey to traverse a list of commands. not sure if it's useful but i find that interesting.

That presumably means that you don't need as many hotkeys to perform an action as you otherwise would, so saving them for other uses, and also reducing memory strain 

[nudone]

good points. i'd forgotten about mouser's TapTap program - that definitely deserves a look.

whilst testing a few things with HotkeyP (i've not set it up for what i really want yet), i noticed that it has a "spy" util - which does detect tray icons. it doesn't look like it does anything other than hide/show a specified tray icon - BUT it does give an ID number for the icon. i wonder if this ID number is unique and remains constant after rebooting (or if a different number of programs are running in the tray). if so, then i assume that other hotkey programs can control individual tray items.

i had a look at PowerPro to see if i could figure out the tray control with that and it wasn't obvious to me. i can see that it says it has tray control - i just don't know how.

at the moment i feel like i need to decide upon a set list of hotkey/mouse tasks that i really need - otherwise i'm going to have way too many unnecessary programs running (and hotkeys taken up).

i'm waiting for a keyboard to arrive with macro/hotkey functions so i ought to set that up first before using extra utils. after that i'll be able to clarify what i'm using.

[rjbull]

Just for the record, it looks like HotKeyz can do the same sort of things as HotKeyP, including multiple keys triggered by a single hotkey, and "macros" in the sense of being able to follow your keypresses and mouse movements.  The Web site says it can be USB portable in saving files to the application directory, but it only seems to come as an installer.

[nudone]

okay, thanks. i'll take a closer look at HotKeyz. does it have a pause/toggle hotkey though..?

[nudone]

HotKeyz looks kind of nice, with the use of icons for hotkey items but i can't see how it uses mouse buttons for input - nor does it appear to have a pause.

so, it's not for me.

[rjbull]

HotKeyz looks kind of nice, with the use of icons for hotkey items but i can't see how it uses mouse buttons for input - nor does it appear to have a pause.

Sanity check; I haven't used it myself, at least, not much and not recently.  But, according to the Web version of HotKeyz Online Help, it has both mouse actions and Pause and Wait commands.

Mouse Actions:
LButton                - Left Mouse Button
MButton                - Middle Mouse Button
RButton                - Right Mouse Button

Wait

This command waits for the time in milli-seconds specified in the parameter tab. This command should only be used as part of the Multiple Commands. When you want to wait between commands then specify a waiting period.

Special command:

Pause (Use this half a second pause between remap commands)

I also e-mailed Magnus and suggested he made the more interesting features more obvious on the HotKeyz Web page, also that he might make a version that didn't need an installer.

[nudone]

i think we are starting to talk about different functions - which is easy to do with these hotkey managers. sorry, i should have tried to be more specific.

it looks to me like HotKeyz doesn't recognise mouse clicks as input but it will do it as output. in other words, if i wanted to associate a macro to a simultaneous left and right button click (that i manually perform) it won't do it. but it will allow me to create a keyboard hotkey that will then perform mouse clicks for me (i want to do the reverse of that, if you see what i mean).

the pause function i mentioned should also have been better described as a global hotkey toggle to stop all hotkey functions from being recognised.

i could well be wrong that HotKeyz doesn't do these things but i couldn't see how and the help file didn't explain how either.

until then it was looking like a very good hotkey manager.

[rjbull]

it looks to me like HotKeyz doesn't recognise mouse clicks as input but it will do it as output. in other words, if i wanted to associate a macro to a simultaneous left and right button click (that i manually perform) it won't do it. but it will allow me to create a keyboard hotkey that will then perform mouse clicks for me (i want to do the reverse of that, if you see what i mean).

Not entirely, but as you observe, it's easy to get confused with these things.  If you're interested in a more mouse-centric program and don't want to go the PowerPro route, have you looked at RemoteKeys?  It's another one I haven't tried - maybe I should make a resolution not to suggest things I haven't extensively tested myself  

From RemoteKeys Readme.txt:

RemoteKeys is a button-based automation tool with macro recorder and timer.
It can automate complex control systems.
It can replace all complicated keystroke combinations with simple button clicks.
It can send text modules to any window and form and many more.

[...]

RemoteKeys is freeware for private use but restricted for commercial use.

i could well be wrong that HotKeyz doesn't do these things but i couldn't see how and the help file didn't explain how either.

Sounds like it doesn't, then.  But it might be worth e-mailing the author to check, or suggest as a new feature.

until then it was looking like a very good hotkey manager.

I'd guess that HotKeyP does most of what it does, except for learn-by-example macros, but HotKeyz looks the most polished of the dedicated hotkey programs, at least of the ones that are free.

[nudone]

RemoteKeys looks like it could answer a few of my other problems. i'll have to spend a bit of time on this one - will check how it works tomorrow...

[nudone]

i'm going to pass on RemoteKeys. it looks like it requires a bit of getting used to - and i'm not even sure it will do what i want. could be brilliant but it's not obvious what to do with it.

[IainB]

As regards keymapping software, I think I posted about this once before. This works for XP and Vista, but not sure if it could for Windows 7.
Tip - dispatching the CapsLock gremlin with Microsoft's remapkey.exe

[nudone]

thanks, this is something like what i'd hope for in a hotkey manager's GUI. i don't need the global remapping but something that allowed for the same easy drag-n-drop configuration could be nice. remapping within specific programs would be very handy - just not global. well, global and specific app is what is required i suppose...

...and accept mouse button input and simultaneous keys presses (i.e. f + j) and any/every other combinations that are possible with two hands, one keyboard, one mouse, one separate numeric keypad.

[IainB]

@nudone:

this is something like what i'd hope for in a hotkey manager's GUI. i don't need the global remapping but something that allowed for the same easy drag-n-drop configuration could be nice. remapping within specific programs would be very handy - just not global. well, global and specific app is what is required i suppose...

...and accept mouse button input and simultaneous keys presses (i.e. f + j) and any/every other combinations that are possible with two hands, one keyboard, one mouse, one separate numeric keypad.

Phew! That's quite a tall order! I suspect that that that sort of intelligent global/local application-sensitive flexibility could only be obtained through something programmable - e.g., an AutoHotKey script, or an application written in AutoHotKey script.

[nudone]

i think you are right. i'll keep looking but i think authotkey is going to be the answer.