Hot Key Promter

[John Barnett]

Hi, I would like to know if it would be possible to create a program that would prompt you what Hot keys are available for a program that one is using. Not all Hot Keys would be possible as some programs have many Hot Keys, however, if the most important ones could be displayed in a small tool bar that would snap too the top, bottom or side of the screen would make using a program easier, I am hopeless in trying to recall what Hot Keys are available for a program I am using. Maybe the best way would be have the user enter the hot keys manually for each program and chose a program from a list one has made. This software would be used as an visual aid when using a program.

[jgpaiva]

I believe there are a few other threads requesting this feature.
Here is one possible answer.

[MilesAhead]

If I read the thread jgpaiva linked to correctly, there's no practical way to get the info through Windows.  My hotkey tray apps display the current hotkey(s) in the About dialog.  Even I forget sometimes which hotkey is which and I wrote the things!! But I have some apps I don't use that often. I look in the About box to remember.

When I do the About dialog I read from the hotkey variable in case the user has changed the hotkey. It should always be the current info.  But the programmer has to do something like that for his own app.

[MilesAhead]

Hi, I would like to know if it would be possible to create a program that would prompt you what Hot keys are available for a program that one is using. Not all Hot Keys would be possible as some programs have many Hot Keys, however, if the most important ones could be displayed in a small tool bar that would snap too the top, bottom or side of the screen would make using a program easier, I am hopeless in trying to recall what Hot Keys are available for a program I am using. Maybe the best way would be have the user enter the hot keys manually for each program and chose a program from a list one has made. This software would be used as an visual aid when using a program.

-John Barnett (May 07, 2011, 04:58 AM)

On second reading I think I see what you mean.  It's more or less a cheat sheet.  Maybe something that would read the active window to get the program, look it up to see what hotkeys you noted for it and display them in a little popup?

edit: are you running 32 bit or 64 bit Windows?

[MilesAhead]

I've updated my Home Folder utility with a Popup Note facility that can be used for this.  Try it out.  You can download from this page:

http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html

Just search on Home Folder to get to the download link.
By default if you press Alt-NumberPadMinux it will pop up an input. Once there is some data it will show the current note when popped up.  The notes are saved to a file in Home Folder's home folder.

Usage: Make sure the application window is the active window.  Hit Alt-NumberPadMinus. The Popup should appear at the top left corner of the app. Type in short info such as app hotkey and hit OK Button.

Edit: Make sure you have at least v. 1.71 as important bug fixes were just completed.

Edit2: Make that v. 1.8 

[MilesAhead]

The Input box pops up at the top left corner of the app. You can put any info you want but it should only be a line of text since the storage file alternates lines key/data key/data just a simple text file.

The Key is derived by taking the short name of the program.  As example
c:\Program Files\MyProg.exe will have the short name MyProg. I use the MS
Scripting.Dictionary object to store the key/data pairs.  The file is read on start and written on program exit.  Naturally the first time you hit the hotkey the line will be blank. Once some data is there for that key it fills in the input line.  To abort changes hit Cancel or the close 'x'.  To change the data just type in whatever and hit OK Button.


Here's what the Popup window looks like when popped up on EditPadLite editor. The input line looks a bit short but it autoscrolls.  For noting what the hotkeys are it should be ok. I can make it a bit wider if needed. I just use the default width and height at this point.

[jbdonation08]

Hello MilesAhead, Firstly thank you for responding to my request I didn't expect a response so quickly. I have managed to operate your program for two out of three options, the one I am unable to get to work is the Popup Note when using web browsers for some reason  

My main browser is Opera 11.10 then FireFox 4 then IE9. I don't think there is a conflict of Hot Keys with these browsers as pressing (Alt NumPadSub) does not activate anything in each browser.

I Hope this is some help to you.

Thank you for your time.

John.

Edit: Alt+NumpadSub will work if I have Show Hidden Icons popup displayed. Windows 7 Home premium 32bit but the Alt+NumpadSub box is behind the Hidden Icon box in the bottom right corner of the screen and has "Explorer" in the info box and will not remember what is typed in.

Edit: Found that pressing Alt+NumpadSub works with Opera if I have opera window size decreased, however, the Hot Key Prompter is always behind opera main window and entering a short cut prompt into Hot Key Prompter is not placed into the main body of the Hot Key Prompter so no more short cut keys can be entered into Hot Key Prompter window. The same is true for fireFox and IE9 Hot Key Promter does not take focus from the browser window.

[MilesAhead]

Ok thanks for the info.  I'll see if I can do something about getting the input box to stay on top.  It picks up the active window.  So if you hit the hotkey while a tray icon has the focus, it's not going to work as expected. It's only designed to work with apps that have a window showing on the desktop.

I'll see about the stay on top thing though.

[MilesAhead]

I uploaded v. 1.9.  Now the Input Box pops up centered to avoid being covered.  If the short name for the active window comes up as "Explorer" nothing happens.  If the program associated with the active window comes up blank(as returned by WMI info) nothing happens. Edit: I tried adding a Beep so that you would know nothing was supposed to happen but all the beep frequencies I tried were more annoying than informative. So I just left it that nothing happens if everything doesn't go right, except for program startup errors and that type of thing.

I don't think this approach will work if you are trying to use it with Tray hotkey programs. It will work for apps with conventional windows. If you really need a reminder for all your hotkey tray apps then perhaps one of those tree editors would be better.

edit: I looked on both AutoIt3 and ahk forums and didn't see a successful technique to get the owner of a tray icon. Plus it's not always obvious if the tray icon actually has the focus.  Capturing the tooltip is not really unique as the app name isn't always used. As example Giganews Accelerator has this tooltip "Right click for menu" which hardly identifies the program.


Anyway, try the latest and see if it suits your needs.
If it's not that helpful and you are talking about remembering hotkeys for tray apps then something like TreePadLite may be better. I use it for general tips. You could put the program name as a node and have whatever text you want in the right panel.

[MilesAhead]

For an editor to jot down notes such as hotkey reminders, it's a matter of personal taste, but I've been playing around with CintaNotes for grabbing source snippets.  It might be good also for hotkey notes since it sits in the tray all the time:

http://cintanotes.com/

[MilesAhead]

Actually I've found the Alt-NumberPadSub function of Home Folder will work with a hotkey that pops up an about box or displays a window.

Say you have a hotkey tray app that displays an about box that doesn't tell you the current hotkey.  Just copyright or web site info.  While that about box is the active window, Alt-NumberPadMinus will pop up the input box.  Then you can just close the about box, and type in your note.  At least it's something associated with the program where you don't have to open a text file of notes to search.