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It's alive, it's alive!!! mwahaha! - WinButtons and 7" touchscreen works

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nosh:
Great work, Ath!  :up:

I'll try and do a video demonstration when I've set up all my buttons and programs.
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I was hoping for a video demo but thought it would be too much to ask for, before I read that.

jgpaiva:
Regarding the Optimus Maximus keyboard, DC member timns (Tim, of Head in the Clouds online comic fame), bought an Optimus keyboard and gave up using it as it was a terrible device to use for "serious" work.
-nudone (September 05, 2011, 05:15 AM)
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Ok, I knew it was offered in a recent giveaway but didn't know why.

Your photos and descriptions got me really interested in this :)
I haven't been following the development of winbuttons, but does it support "menus"? Drawer-line collections of buttons, for example. I could see that as a neat addition to your "touchscreen console". To be fair, I'm only thinking visually it would be nice, I'm not sure how useful it'd be.

I can see a lot of potential in this idea, but right now I'd really like to see some use for it, for example you drawing cody on photoshop using it :P

A few practical questions:
Which hand do you find more useful to use the touchscreen?
How about in terms of precision, do you find the touchscreen as accurate as the iPad, for example?
Have you tried placing it on the left of the keyboard, laying on the table?

Ath:
but does it support "menus"? Drawer-line collections of buttons, for example.
-jgpaiva (September 05, 2011, 10:11 AM)
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Please have a look at the first screenshot in the WinButtons release-thread, it's showing a 3-level menu, and the 2nd screenshot shows a 2-level menu. It's simply a secondary instance of WB, positioned relative to the button that started it. It needs either <Esc> pressed or a dedicated button that closes that single instance (or the border displayed, with the default Windows close button), so that might need some improvement in implementation. Feature requests are welcome, ofcourse  :)

jgpaiva:
Please have a look at the first screenshot in the WinButtons release-thread, it's showing a 3-level menu, and the 2nd screenshot shows a 2-level menu. It's simply a secondary instance of WB, positioned relative to the button that started it. It needs either <Esc> pressed or a dedicated button that closes that single instance (or the border displayed, with the default Windows close button), so that might need some improvement in implementation. Feature requests are welcome, ofcourse  :)
-Ath (September 05, 2011, 10:19 AM)
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Cool :D Maybe the button to open the second instance could be a toggable button? This way it could open the submenu when you press it (and then stay in a "pressed" state), and close it when you press it again (returning to the "normal" state).

Also, the "aero" transparent look on the background of the toolbar would look awesome, IMHO. I've recently posted on DC how to add this to AHK, but I don't know how to do it in autoit. I think in terms of looks it is a major improvement easy to achieve with only a few lines of code.

PS: notice that I'm just saying stuff I think looks good, don't take it as serious feature requests or anything because (unfortunately) I've moved to mac and can't really give my opinion from a user's point of view, only as an external observer :P

nudone:
A few practical questions:
a) Which hand do you find more useful to use the touchscreen?
b) How about in terms of precision, do you find the touchscreen as accurate as the iPad, for example?
c) Have you tried placing it on the left of the keyboard, laying on the table?
-jgpaiva (September 05, 2011, 10:11 AM)
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I've got a whole list of ideas that could "improve" WinButtons but I'll wait to reveal them until I've tested everything out with the current version.

Just to answer your questions though:

a) I use mouse in right hand, which means touchscreen seems better suited to left hand use. I'm using the touchscreen like a keyboard extension - so, it just seems right to keep my right hand on the mouse.

b) The touchscreen isn't as responsive as the iPad. But, my machine isn't exactly cutting edge; maybe when I get a faster pc things will be more responsive on the touchscreen. Note: there are several settings to adjust sensitivity on the touchscreen using the utility that came with it - not really looked into this yet.

c) I don't think I'll be putting it on the left of the keyboard as that means more distance for my eyes to travel, which is why I've put it under the main screen (and above the keyboard). I'm staring at the screen and don't look at my keyboard when I type, so putting the touchscreen as close to the main screen seems to be the right thing to do. timns said he wanted to try the touchscreen, flat on table, left of keyboard like you suggested. Which, makes me wonder is this a preference for people that don't touch-type (i.e. if you look at the keyboard whilst typing, maybe the touchscreen is better placed next to the keyboard).

As for drawing with the touchscreen, I wonder if there's some confusion as to what I'm using it for. I'll only be using the touchscreen as a glorified keyboard. I'll have different "key" or button layouts and sizes depending on which program I'm using. So, I'm not actually drawing on the touchscreen - I just prod the "keys" on it.

The amazing thing, for me, is that the buttons will have nice graphics on them to indicate what their functions are - which then means I don't need to remember keyboard shortcuts for all the different editing programs. To be useful, the whole touchscreen/button interface has to be as idiot friendly as possible. And that means nice big buttons/keys with nice graphics on them; things that are instantly recognisable when you glance at the screen for a fraction of a second. If the touchscreen was really, really, responsive you could even, probably, get away without having to look at the screen at all - then use it like a real keyboard extension - maybe this is possible even now if careful.

This is the beginning of the whole project though. There's really an entire universe of ways this could be used. Maybe Windows 10 will approach something like what I think WinButtons and a touchscreen can do.

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