IDEA: delay F1 key

[pseudolus]

Hi all!
I'm a new member, looking for a little help. I tried modifying that delicious snack called "CapShift.ahk" to my own use. My goal was to make the F1 key less touchy. I am constantly hitting hit when I mean to hit 'esc'. I was wondering if I could get AHK to intercept the hit and wait and see if the key was held down for 2 seconds instead of hit-and-released immediately. I want it to function as a proper F1 key, just not be so quick to throw up a help file if I accidently hit it.

Thanks in advance,
Love the site.

[iorange28880]

I remapped my F1 to Esc, and I don't miss it. I never use application help, I google (it's always faster), so what's the point of the key? Just to bug me, apparently.

[skrommel]

WaitForIt delays the F1 key until it's pressed down for 2 secs.

Download and install AutoHotKey from www.autohotkey.com. Save the script as WaitForIt.ahk and doubleclick to run.

Skrommel

Code

WaitForIt.ahk
; Delays the F1 key
;Skrommel @2005

$F1::
counter=2000
Loop,10
{
  counter-=200
  ToolTip,Help in %counter% ms 
  Sleep,150
  GetKeyState,state,F1,P
  If state=U
  {
    ToolTip,
    Return
  }
}
Send,{F1}
ToolTip,Help
Sleep,1000
ToolTip,
Return

[pseudolus]

Thanks, Skrommel! You da man! I will inspect this and see if I can make sense of it. It works great. I was ready to do as suggested above and remap the key. 3 cheers for the snack coder!!

[noth(a)nk.you]

Based largely on Skrommel's work above, this is my implementation:

Code

; Delays the F1 key
$F1::
Loop,20
{
  Sleep,50
  GetKeyState,state,F1,P
  If state=U
  {
    Send,{Esc}
    Return
  }
}
Send,{F1}
Return

The biggest change functionally is that Escape is sent in the case that F1 is not held down for the full duration.

[skrommel]

This option has been added to CAPshift.

Check out http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=476.0 or my home page below.

Skrommel

[bobsobol]

I have to say I have a habbit of going to press the Escape or Function Lock key, and my finger slips off and on to the recessed User button so that the flipping PC hybernates.

The user key in Windows can tell the system to Sleep, Hybernate or Shutdown. Why can't it pop up a shutdown dialogue I could choose from these three or cancel if I hit it by mistake. Actually I do intentionally use it when the screen is of as this machine is also a Print Server on the home network so a default on a 5/10 second countdown would work too.

The recess on my logitec keyboard I'm sure is intended to stop me hitting it by accident, but when I slip a regular key would stop a side on press, so the recessed key is just worse.

I know these extended keys (Function Lock & User) can be a pain to program, which is why I've never done anything to fix it. If anyone knows a way to break out their extended functionality I'd be greatful. The Function Lock feature is a pain too as the system starts or restores with the function keys in extended mode and requires me to press it before I get access to F1-F12 again, and TBH, I never use them for anything else.

A program for Function Lock On/Off at startup like the numerous Caps/Scroll/NumLoc programs would be fab, but I don't think it's possible because the state of FLock is held internally in the keyboard and not transmitted to the PC... I think. Either that or I'm not using low enough level APIs to catch it.

[JavaJones]

This thread has some ideas for f-lock fixing: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=5181.0

- Oshyan