Looking for White-on-Black or Transparent Menu-Less Text Displayer

[CodeTRUCKER]

I have created a number of checklists for flight simulator.  But, having another Notepad window open to read the text line (checklist item) is quite distracting and the white background of the window makes things difficult to see for night flights.

In a perfect world, it would have the ability to show red, white, etc. text anywhere I moved it over the flight simulator window with an "Always-on-Top" capability.  It would have the ability to shrink to show only one line at a time and possibly with the ability to program a joystick button to move the cursor down one line at a time.

Okay, so this isn't a perfect world, so I will settle for a menu-less, border-less text editor with the capability to make the background black and the text white or green (sort of like Q10).  It would have the ability to shrink it vertically to only see one line at a time.

Another possibility would be an app that can display text one line at a time.  Kind of like the way a spread sheet can hold text.  Feel free to ask for any clarification or better explanation.  I just want to see one line of text at a time and only the text with or without a border.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your time.

[4wd]

Stickies ?

Enable Scrollbars in Options, write your list then resize the sticky to display one line, you can scroll through each line using the mouse wheel.



Font, background colour, and opacity can be set to whatever you like.  They can be set to be On Top, don't know how it would go with a flight simulator though, (works over normal Windows programs).

[Deozaan]

ImgFloat ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RJxCEcl0ek

[CodeTRUCKER]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I'll test drive them and see if they will work. 

[CodeTRUCKER]

Stickies ?

Enable Scrollbars in Options, write your list then resize the sticky to display one line, you can scroll through each line using the mouse wheel.

[attachment 1 not found]

Font, background colour, and opacity can be set to whatever you like.  They can be set to be On Top, don't know how it would go with a flight simulator though, (works over normal Windows programs).

I give up... how does one "Enable Scrollbars?"

[4wd]

I give up... how does one "Enable Scrollbars?"

Right-click on the tray icon, select Options:

[MilesAhead]

Searching for a free Windows editor that has optional menubar I found this link:
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Hide_toolbar_or_menus_to_see_more_text

vim may be a bit different than most Windows editors.  But it may not feel that foreign for your purposes.

I didn't check to see if the background color is configurable but I would be surprised if not.  Likely there is a vim variant that has more options if this one doesn't do it.

[CodeTRUCKER]

@4wd - Thanks for the help.  I wasn't aware there was an "Options" via the systray icon. 
-- Do you happen to know if the down arrow key can be bound to move the cursor down a line when another program (flight simulator) has the focus?

@MilesAhead - I had wondered if Vim might work, but Vi and me never got along too well, so ran and hid. 

[4wd]

-- Do you happen to know if the down arrow key can be bound to move the cursor down a line when another program (flight simulator) has the focus?

I don't think so, you're kind of restricted to what hotkeys you can set (and their purpose) in the Options.

You'd probably need a small AHK script to send captured down keys to Stickies as wheel-down when the FS window has focus - someone knowledgeable in AHK (which I'm not ) should be able to do it easily.

[wraith808]

ImgFloat ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RJxCEcl0ek

Thanks for the nod!  I think that Reference Overlay Tool would be sort of up the alley... but it doesn't show text, it shows images.  I can whip something up to do this with no problems using the same framework, however... what other features did you want?

[MilesAhead]

-- Do you happen to know if the down arrow key can be bound to move the cursor down a line when another program (flight simulator) has the focus?

I don't think so, you're kind of restricted to what hotkeys you can set (and their purpose) in the Options.

You'd probably need a small AHK script to send captured down keys to Stickies as wheel-down when the FS window has focus - someone knowledgeable in AHK (which I'm not ) should be able to do it easily.

This should be close enough to edit into what is needed

Code: (autohotkey)

#SingleInstance ignore
#NoEnv
SendMode Input
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
return
; instead of Progman for desktop change to the
; class for Flight Simulator (use WinSpy to get it)
#IfWinActive ahk_class Progman
$Down::
; instead of class for Notepad use the class
; for Stickies
  ControlSend,,{Down},ahk_class Notepad
return

[CodeTRUCKER]

however... what other features did you want?

Thanks for the interest.  Here are the specs as best as I can describe...

-- Imagine I have flight sim on my monitor in a "Normal" or "Maximized" window.  If the window is maxed then the background of the new app's display would need to be transparent to not cover up what is behind it; otherwise it would need to be black.

-- Would have to be able to open a text file.

-- The window of the new app would need to be border-less (or very thin) and have no visible menu or title bar at top.

-- It needs to be movable anywhere on the screen.

-- It should be stretchable in width to display an entire line of text.

-- Now, I want to open a text file where only one line is displayed and each line is a checklist item.  The app could be larger vertically, but it would need to be able to shrink to show only one line since each checklist item is only one line.

-- Preferably, a black or transparent background with white text.

-- The app should display the text and be able to perform a "line down" with a CTRL-SHIFT-DOWNARROW trigger or some key combo even when the flight sim window has focus.

-- It does not need to be able to edit the text.


Let me know if you need further clarification and thanks for trying to give it a whirl. 


PS - I am a day-sleeper right now.  It may be awhile before I will be available.

[Deozaan]

I think that Reference Overlay Tool would be sort of up the alley... but it doesn't show text, it shows images.

That's what I went looking for, but I couldn't remember the name of it and all I could find in my searches of previous NANYs was ImgFloat.

[app103]

5 screenshots of the same sticky note from Notezilla:

This is a black note with white text, with the transparency set to medium (I have this set as the default for all new notes).



This is what it looks like when I click the note. The toolbar on top stays hidden unless you click. On the toolbar, there is an option to pin the note to always on top. There is also a roll-up option which you might find handy.



This is what it looks like when it is the active window, without the toolbar showing, which I have not figured out how to do this with any measure of consistancy, except through bringing it to the front from the Notes Browser.



This is how it looks as a single line plus the (optional) title.



Same as above, but active.

[CodeTRUCKER]

Thank you for the suggestions, but the main need is the capability of using a key combo like CTRL-SHFT-DOWNARROW that will still move the cursor (and therefore, the displayed text) down one line at a time even when another window has focus.  I hope this makes sense?

[TaoPhoenix]

Thank you for the suggestions, but the main need is the capability of using a key combo like CTRL-SHFT-DOWNARROW that will still move the cursor (and therefore, the displayed text) down one line at a time even when another window has focus.  I hope this makes sense?

Hopefully someone will find a glint of value into this uneducated guess, but I kinda have a small specialty of "chaining" programs together and this almost makes me think you need some three scripts, one of which "knows to do that" and drop you back into whatever the other solutions are doing.

Last I knew, Programs Like Having Focus, so then to elaborate above, you need something deep-leveled that "over-rides Liking Focus" and Do Stuff.

[CodeTRUCKER]

Hopefully someone will find a glint of value into this uneducated guess, but I kinda have a small specialty of "chaining" programs together and this almost makes me think you need some three scripts, one of which "knows to do that" and drop you back into whatever the other solutions are doing.

Last I knew, Programs Like Having Focus, so then to elaborate above, you need something deep-leveled that "over-rides Liking Focus" and Do Stuff.

...and that is why I am looking into AHK and any other method to trap a key combo.  My hope is this will let the "trapper" utility catch the combination and not steal focus.  I've never really looked into AHK (or any other of its ilk before), so this we'll see how it goes.  For anyone reading this, feel free to interrupt my efforts with your solution.  I won't mind. 

@wraith808 - Still standing by for your solution.  After all, I did give you quite a laundry list of specs, eh?

[dr_andus]

Couldn't Samurize be configured to do something like this? I use it to display a few lines of text over DesktopCoral.

[MilesAhead]

Thank you for the suggestions, but the main need is the capability of using a key combo like CTRL-SHFT-DOWNARROW that will still move the cursor (and therefore, the displayed text) down one line at a time even when another window has focus.  I hope this makes sense?

Hopefully someone will find a glint of value into this uneducated guess, but I kinda have a small specialty of "chaining" programs together and this almost makes me think you need some three scripts, one of which "knows to do that" and drop you back into whatever the other solutions are doing.

Last I knew, Programs Like Having Focus, so then to elaborate above, you need something deep-leveled that "over-rides Liking Focus" and Do Stuff.

The snippet I posted uses ControlSend which is the method to send to a window(by leaving the control param blank) without making the target window active. As written you can test it by first clicking the desktop while notepad is running.  Hit the Down arrow and the cursor in notepad will move down even though notepad does not have the focus.

[CodeTRUCKER]

...
The snippet I posted uses ControlSend which is the method to send to a window(by leaving the control param blank) without making the target window active. As written you can test it by first clicking the desktop while notepad is running.  Hit the Down arrow and the cursor in notepad will move down even though notepad does not have the focus.

Thanks for the explanation.  I have to admit, I didn't really understand your code until you explained.  I'll finish setting up AHK, test your script and report back, but you already know it works, eh? 

[wraith808]

@wraith808 - Still standing by for your solution.  After all, I did give you quite a laundry list of specs, eh?

Still going to do it.  Unfortunately, I'm not Skrommel.   But if everything with my upgrade goes well, it should be done by early in the week.

[CodeTRUCKER]

@wraith808 - Still standing by for your solution.  After all, I did give you quite a laundry list of specs, eh?

Still going to do it.  Unfortunately, I'm not Skrommel.   But if everything with my upgrade goes well, it should be done by early in the week.

Thanks.  In the meantime, MilesAhead's script is working well with Notepad, albeit with the window frame and white background.

@MilesAhead - I have the Notepad script working as expected, but I can't get the Stickies working.  Here is my code mod...

Code: ( autohotkey)

    #SingleInstance ignore
    #NoEnv
    SendMode Input
    SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
    return
    ; instead of Progman for desktop change to the
    ; class for Flight Simulator (use WinSpy to get it)
    #IfWinActive ahk_class FS98MAIN
    $Down::
    ; instead of class for Notepad use the class
    ; for Stickies
      ControlSend,,{Down},ahk_class ZhornStickyNote
    return

Do you see anything wrong?  I copy/pasted the ahk_class from Window Spy.

[CodeTRUCKER]

5 screenshots of the same sticky note from Notezilla:
...
This is a black note with white text, with the transparency set to medium (I have this set as the default for all new notes).
...
This is what it looks like when I click the note. The toolbar on top stays hidden unless you click. On the toolbar, there is an option to pin the note to always on top. There is also a roll-up option which you might find handy.

Thanks April!  I was able to get it to work with Notezilla and I decided for green on black with no transparency for use under the flightsim window.  Works nicely and looks good!  Now all I have to decide is if it is worth thirty bucks.

[app103]

Thanks April!  I was able to get it to work with Notezilla and I decided for green on black with no transparency for use under the flightsim window.  Works nicely and looks good!  Now all I have to decide is if it is worth thirty bucks.

You will find a lot of other uses for it, as you explore what it can do, so I say yes, it's worth the $30.

And if you want to save 30%, I think you can still use this DC members only discount code: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=7302.msg351513#msg351513

[wraith808]

Here you go... I didn't put in the global hotkey as your ahk seemed to be working:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xv88f4ny0fgzx1w/TextOverlayTool.zip?dl=1

TextOverlayTool is made to display text in a transparent window.  It has the following features:

1. Opens Text or Markdown files (if the file is formatted in markdown, it displays the markdown format)
2. Can export to HTML or PDF (determines which one you want by filename used)
3. Borderless, movable, resizable minimal interface
4. Window background can be set.
5. Transparency can be set
6. Can be set to always on top
7. Watches chosen file for changes, and updates on the fly.

Planned enhancements:
1. Global Hotkey to enable control no matter where the cursor is
2. The ability to change the font style and color.

Let me know if you have any issues.