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Last post Author Topic: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?  (Read 36164 times)

MilesAhead

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #25 on: June 25, 2010, 06:03 PM »
One nice thing about the common heritage of ahk/AutoIt3 is compatible format for hotkey strings.  ahk handles Mouse hotkeys while AutoIt3 is weak in that area.

I use this ahk script to catch Shift-MiddleMouseClick and send the hotkey string passed in on the command line:

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
#NoTrayIcon
#SingleInstance force
If 0 < 1
{
Exit
}
Else
{
hkey = %1%
}
+MButton::
GoSub,DoClick
Return

DoClick:
Send %hkey%
Return


It should be portable to servicing non-AutoIt3 programs.  You would just have to put the appropriate string as command line param.  Also it's easy to read the mouse hotkey from an .ini file to make it "adjustable" to different programs.  Not many programming languages handle mouse hotkeys as easily as ahk.  So this is a nice simple adapter.

Note, by using #SingleInstance force
you can change the hotkey sent by just launching the program again using a different param.

Here's an example of testing for mouse hotkey in .ini file. If not present it sets it to the default. It should work in both script(.ahk) and compiled script(.exe) cases:

IniFile = %A_ScriptDir%\%A_ScriptName%
IniFile := RegExReplace(IniFile,"i)ahk$","ini")
IniFile := RegExReplace(IniFile,"i)exe$","ini")
IniRead,MouseHotkey,%IniFile%,Settings,MouseHotkey,%A_Space%
If MouseHotkey =
{
MouseHotkey := "!MButton"
}


Hotkey,%MouseHotkey%,DoClick,UseErrorLevel
If ErrorLevel
{
  MsgBox, 4112, PromptHere, %MouseHotkey% is not a valid Hotkey
  ExitApp
}
Return


edit: btw I use the default Pause key.  For those who don't like to let go of the mouse to hit a hotkey, you should be able to modify the scripts to produce something that sends "{Pause}" when you click middle mouse button, as example, to open FARR. (Although, since I'm going to type into the search box anyway, keyboard-only hotkey is not detrimental to me in FARR.  Just an example since the topic came up.)


« Last Edit: June 25, 2010, 10:08 PM by MilesAhead »

ewemoa

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #26 on: June 25, 2010, 10:24 PM »
I think I finally get it.

How nice it might be if the 'main' FARR hotkey could be read from FARR via a command line option :)

ewemoa

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #27 on: June 25, 2010, 10:27 PM »
BTW, here's a sequence of keys to get FARR to display that became apparent just recently:

  • Win+B
  • f
  • Enter

Or if you want to see FARR's tray icon menu:

  • Win+B
  • f
  • Apps key or Shift+F10

Note: Depending on which tray icons are visible, you might need a different number of presses of fs.

alexey_r

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #28 on: June 29, 2010, 01:00 PM »
So I changed all of my boxes to use Win + Alt + Space.
-phitsc
Thanks for the idea! Just switched to it from Ctrl+Shift+Space. (I used to use Win+Space on XP/Vista as well and abandoned it for the same reason.)
Alexey Romanov

skajfes

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #29 on: June 29, 2010, 05:06 PM »
I use alt+space as it defaulted from my launchy days. Tilde or pause are not bad choices since they are single key hotkey(on a full keyboard), but they are a bit far off, especially pause as i have to press fn+pg up on my laptop to get pause. I think even caps lock is not such a disastrous hotkey as it seems at the first sight. Three key combinations are a bit too weird for me, as i bring FARR every two minutes to do something. Tap tap hotkey also seems like a good idea but all the obvious keys are at the side of the keyboard and seem a bit far off.

There was an argument that alt+space is used for menu that allows you to resize, minimize and maximize windows so it shouldn't get overridden, but i added the following to the nircmd alias pack that enabled me to do the same using Farr:

1000>>>Max>->Maximize last active window | %ALIASDIR%\nircmd.exe win max handle %LASTHWND% /ICON=nircmd_icons\max.png
1000>>>Min>->Minimize last active window | %ALIASDIR%\nircmd.exe win min handle %LASTHWND%
1000>>>Restore>->Restore last active window | %ALIASDIR%\nircmd.exe win normal handle %LASTHWND%
1000>>>Center>->Center last active window | %ALIASDIR%\nircmd.exe win center handle %LASTHWND%
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

thancock20

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #30 on: June 29, 2010, 08:12 PM »
I use Pause to pull up FARR with an empty search field.

For working with text:
Cntrl + Pause to pull up exactly the selected text. Useful mainly for nonclickable URLs.
Cntrl+Shift+G for Google search on text. (Using GooglePlus)
Cntrl+Shift+W for Wikipedia search. (Also GooglePlus)
Cntrl+Shift+S for the FSpell plugin.
Cntrl+Shift+D for Dictionary.com lookup. (Using the internal viewer)
Cntrl+Shift+R for Rhymer.com lookup.

Others:
Cntrl+Shift+N To Pull up the HamNotes "Notes Management and Preferences" Dialogue box.
Cntrl+Shift+L Runs an AHK script that starts up Launchy and shuts down FARR. Then, Win+F shuts down Launchy, restarts FARR, and closes the script.  I use Pause as my hotkey for Launchy as well, and only use it when I need to search the internet using unicode.  (I use Everything to search my drive in unicode, since it's running for use with TinyEV anyway).
And finally, a Directory Opus hotkey - in connection with an AHK script - of Win+F will pull up FARR with the path to the currently selected file in the search box.


daddydave

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #31 on: June 29, 2010, 08:44 PM »
@thancock20: Nice!

This may be off topic, but for a long time I thought you couldn't change the hotkey because of the red text and disabled items in this dialog:
Screenshot - 6_29_2010 , 9_37_17 PM.pngWhat hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?

Sounded pretty definitive to me, so I just accepted that my only options were to check or uncheck the boxes on that dialog.
It was much later that I happened to right click and found the Add New Entry menu item.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2010, 08:45 PM by daddydave »

mouser

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #32 on: June 29, 2010, 09:18 PM »
I really need to add some text somewhere saying to right click to add -- i'll bet most people don't realize they can add their own.

daddydave

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #33 on: June 29, 2010, 09:27 PM »
I really need to add some text somewhere saying to right click to add -- i'll bet most people don't realize they can add their own.

I'm curious as to why "some options are not changeable" -- is there a way to make it so that they are changeable from here, and save people from Delete/Add?

mouser

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #34 on: June 29, 2010, 09:31 PM »
its just so that the user doesnt erase and forget these common hotkeys; you can always disable them and create new ones with same hotkey triggers.

dangthanh

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #35 on: July 06, 2010, 04:52 AM »
I use ALT+SPACE.

wraith808

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #36 on: July 07, 2010, 11:56 AM »
I use F11 on my desktop.  I've had to disable CTRL+SPACE and ALT+SPACE because of other considerations (IDE).

Doppelganger

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #37 on: July 15, 2010, 08:25 AM »
I use Win-Space, although I'd rather use just the Win key by itself.

I suppose I could accomplish that with AHK, but I don't have an AHK script running, and I don't feel like having another program running just for that.

EXtes

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #38 on: July 15, 2010, 10:07 AM »
Hello

Ctrl + Win + Space

for me

Greatings

oxman

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #39 on: July 24, 2010, 08:02 AM »
Alt + Espace.
The most ergonomic shortcut :)

ecaradec

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #40 on: August 10, 2010, 12:38 PM »
I use caps lock
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wraith808

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #41 on: August 10, 2010, 01:03 PM »
I use caps lock

Caps Lock?  I never thought about that... does it screw with your typing though?

tranglos

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #42 on: August 10, 2010, 01:06 PM »
Pause/Break only, it's a great choice. It's not far to reach at all, it's in the same row with the function keys on my keyboard.

I really don't like it when applications grab Alt+Space or Ctrl+Space. The system menu is quite useful. Among other things offers the fastest method of minimizing applications that don't have a dedicated hotkey for that: Alt+Space followed by 'm'. (the 'm' might be another letter depending on the locale).

jpijper

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #43 on: August 10, 2010, 03:24 PM »
Pause/Break. The only drawback for me is that on some laptops it needs a prefix key.

Jan Roelof

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #44 on: August 17, 2010, 01:27 PM »
Alt + Space.
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gogogadgetscott

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #45 on: September 03, 2010, 07:54 AM »
Win+Z

jeme

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #46 on: October 02, 2010, 11:08 AM »
Maybe a little misplaced, but I thought it's better than posting a whole new topic:

I'm running more and more into problems because I've too many applications where I want to use shortcuts (global or local ones) and the usual Windows scheme "Modifier + one letter" just runs out of reasonable (memorizable) possibilities (btw., I love the system based on key sequences starting with ESC used in FrameMaker...). Therefore I wonder, whether it would be a big deal to extend this concept by (internally) introducing a two-stage trigger concept. I take FARR's hotkey option as an example to make clear what I mean:

  • [1] Right now, there are the four checkboxes for the modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Win), plus the selection box for the actual character key.
  • [2] For the two-stage trigger, I'd add another entry field that allows the user to specify some further characters or even a string.
  • [3] The key combination in [1] is the global Windows hotkey and triggers FARR as usual; FARR does not start any action yet though (unless the entry field in [2] is empty), but waits for a string to be entered. As soon as a string specified in any hotkey is matched, the assigned action is triggered. In case that any other string is entered, FARR presents a corresponding message after a configurable time (e.g. 1000 ms); alternatively, any (maybe configurable) default action could be started that even might take the entered string as part of the input.

Another idea crossed my mind today, which might also be a very useful option under certain circumstance: If FARR was able to understand the context where it has been called (e.g. based on the window title of the calling application), the same trigger hotkey could end up in different actions matching the given context, and a single hotkey could fit many slightly different needs.

The idea was actually triggered by the thought that I'd like to search a specific web page for a code reference matching e.g. a function call highlighted in my text editor (jEdit in this case). Since different languages are covered by different web pages, I'd have to introduce a different hotkey for each of my languages used (e.g. perl, html, css, xslt). However, since the editor usually specifies the current file name in the window title, FARR could understand from the window title (and the file extension there, matched via a regex), which file type I'm currently working on, and could choose the appropriate web search to be applied.

This way, I'd just have to introduce (and memorize!) a single hotkey for the function "Get matching code reference", no matter which programming language or even application I'm working with (well, unless I let FARR switch to different actions depending on the application name specified in the window title, too, of course :D).

PS: I'm still experimenting with my hotkeys. Since I noticed that ALT+Space (or was it Ctrl+Shift+Space?) in MS Word suddenly did no longer apply the "Reset character style" option, but started FARR instead, I disabled this option in FARR and tend to use the Break key instead. Also I assigned Win+"<" and Win+Shift"<" (German keyboard) for my two most-used FARR applications, two specific web searches.

pmoore

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #47 on: October 04, 2010, 02:58 PM »
Win+S

Pause clashes with some of my programs that use Pause to... well, pause. And Alt-space is the system menu.

Not sure why I chose Win+S, just an unused Win-key combination I could hit with one hand.

alijan

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #48 on: January 07, 2011, 04:53 AM »
Pause/break is too far away! Alt or Ctl + space interferes with other things.

I use alt+f2. Incidentally this is also the short-cut for the gnome launcher so it's great to have the same shortcut for both my operating systems. It would be great to have farr run on linux though! ;)

Gian.Krl0

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Re: What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?
« Reply #49 on: February 16, 2011, 05:14 PM »
Alt+Space because ergonomics and i used to hit this with Gnome-Do