I know what you're saying David (I think) ... we're being swamped by too many hotkeys for too many apps, it's hard to come up with unique ones, and with meaningful combinations which can easily be remembered.
In my most recent app, I've tried to encourage the user away from hotkeys and to try choosing app menu choices for those functions which aren't obviously tied to whatever window and/or control the user is interacting with. I've still defined hotkeys for all of my app menu choices, but I am counting on the user to decide what they should be if they really would rather use hotkeys; I simply picked out a group I thought wasn't being used yet. I can no longer guess what combination will be meaningful, as they all it seems are already in use. My documentation suggests that they undefine the hotkeys which they aren't using, in order to prevent conflict. One other choice we have is a hotkey which brings up a primary window for our app, which contains all of its functions as menus, buttons, whatever (very similar to the WE main window). This lets the user only have to remember one primary hotkey, and then all the others will only be active hotkeys or shortcuts when the main window for your app is active. I think we'll have to all start to use the app menu choices or the main control window in the future when we want to give users global access to our apps; it's just getting too crowded for every app to have its own collection of global hotkeys. Hotkeys which are program-specific however, they shouldn't be as much of a problem; there's at least room for overlap. It will still be difficult for the user to remember however that perhaps control-shift-A does one thing in Outlook, and does another for the app for GoldWave for instance. Chip Chip Orange Florida Public Service Commission Computer Systems Analyst 850-413-6314 -----Original Message----- From: Scripting [mailto:scripting-bounces+corange=psc.state.fl...@lists.window-eyes.com] On Behalf Of David via Scripting Sent: Friday, June 05, 2015 12:45 PM To: GWScripting Subject: Re: Double Hotkey, and Hotkey Manager OK. Wish there was a chance for a user to define double-keys for any feature in the hotkey manager. As more and more apps become available, and a user may want to have his apps intuitive, even when comes to hotkeys, double-keys will be a miss. Let me give you but one more example, in addition to the one Chip gave. Say you want one hotkey for the Time, and another for Date. Other screen readers have features split that way. It is no trouble in hard-coding this in Win-Eyes either. Yet, should the user want to redefine to a more convenient hotkey - for him - it is impossible, the way things stands today. Or, what about an app that would perform a limited action when the hotkey is pressed once, but a more advanced version of the job when the hotkey is doubled. To a user with several apps, it would be far more comprehenble, if the hotkeys could be grouped,according to somehow similar operation. And with the hotkey manager in place, it really should have been possible for an app to have double-hotkeys, and let the user redefine them as he wanted. Whether he wanted another double-hotkey, or even if he wanted an existing double to be split into two totally separate single-hotkeys. Something for the developing team to put on the wishlist? David On 6/4/2015 12:49 AM, Chip Orange wrote: > Hi David, > > As I understood it, A I never meant for you to be able to define a single > hotkey as being a double press of a certain key. That is, their only intent > was that you could add additional functionality to your basic hotkey by > allowing the user to press it twice (so, one press reads something, then two > might spell it instead of reading it). Their intent however was that the > spell function in this example, was always designed to be the second press > of the basic hotkey. So, if the user changed the basic hotkey, then it > should be made clear in the documentation that this secondary function would > just be a second immediate press of whatever this key was. > > If you have in mind two unrelated functions, which you may want the user to > be able to assign to two unrelated hotkeys, then I think you cannot use the > second press feature for either of them (or the user cannot); this can only > be something you program in, and make clear in your docs, if you want the > second press of a hotkey to do something. > > It may not be what you want, but I hope this at least clears it up a bit. > > Chip > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Scripting > [mailto:scripting-bounces+lists3717=comcast....@lists.window-eyes.com] On > Behalf Of David via Scripting > Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2015 6:05 PM > To: GWScripting > Subject: Double Hotkey, and Hotkey Manager > > Listers, > Sorry for the wrong term, but my memory fails me, as to the correct > term. I am wondering if there has been any further develop on a lack I > found earlier. > > Say your app has a hotkey that needs to be pressed twice within a second > or so - Like Alt-F12, Alt-F12 - to perform a certain task. Last time I > attempted to incoporate such a hotkey in my project, I found that it did > not work well with the hotkey manager. You can make this work first > hand, when releasing the app. But if the user wants to redefine the > hotkey - say to Ctrl-F12, the hotkey manager will redefine it to only a > SINGLE press of the hotkey - meaning that the app will react upon the > first press of the hotkey. > > Thing is, I have an app here, where I want function1 to take place when > the hotkey is pressed once, and only once. Function2 should kick in, > when the user double-press the same key-combination. Hope this makes > sense. But how can I work this out, so that the user can redefine to any > other key-combo, even if he wants a Single-/Double-version of another > key-combo. Like in the example above. > > Sorry for a messy message, but hope I came through clear enough that > someone could please let me know, if there is any workaround here. Or, > is this not possible to achieve the way things stands as of current? > _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/scripting-window-eyes.com/corange%40psc.state.fl.us. For subscription options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/scripting-window-eyes.com List archives can be found at http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/scripting-window-eyes.com _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. 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