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StrokeIt
General mouse improvementsPosted by Marco
Hi there,
I was looking for a replacement of the good and 'old' Hyperjump feature from the Logitech drivers. Actually, to reduce the clicking and moving, following 'features' would still be nice to have: 1. when selecting MiddleMouseButton as gesture indicator, it would be 'nice' if that would also work in case the MiddleMouseButton is mapped to 'DoubleClick'. Right now, at least for me, it doesn't. Technically in the 'old' Logitech drivers it was solved like this: short MiddleMouseClick: DoubleClick long MiddleMouseClick: HyperjumpMenu As that would mean dealing with the mouse driver itself, a proper 'alternative' would be to add a 'small' (5x5px ?) OneClickGesture, which would technically 'trigger' a DoubleClick. With the MousePlugin I can only 'simulate' single clicks 2. again, the mouse. It would be nice if I could add an action which actually moves my mouse. e.g. when mapping 'WIN' to a gesture, the start menu opens. However, it would be helpful if the mouse would also directly 'jump' to that area of the screen. 3. based upon (2), it would be nice to also let the mouse 'hook up' to a window's frame. e.g. a gesture triggering the functionality of resizing the window underneath. If I missed how to do those things, mea culpa, but right now I'm stuck there a bit without trying to start developing these things on my own, which I doubt that it would be some kind of efficient in any way :) IF it would work at all .. hehe. Nevertheless, thx for listening, maybe one or the other feature might find its way in :) Regards,... Marco
Me again.
Any idea whether it would be possible to call the windows task switch / alt-tab screen? Without the keyboard commands [ALT_DOWN][TAB_DOWN]? Right now that way the task switcher stays on screen, however, since there's no [ALT_UP], technically I first have to press [ALT] again, in order to 'unlock' that button. Was funny though that within my browser all links were treated as downloads that way. Using a delay to send the [ALT_DOWN] afterwards is also far beyond what would be ideal. I stumbled over a nice tool called VistaSwitcher / VSwitcher, but actually when using Windows 7 the default task switcher already works good enough - except for the point that I cannot make it stay on the screen 'without' using a keyboard ... Nevertheless, technically it would be nice to directly 'call' the task switcher (I googled a lot, didn't find a proper command for that ) so that it stays on screen. Whatever, that's all for now :) Regards,... Marco
Regarding you first request, I recall it being on wishlist.
For the second one, the Pro version of StrokeIt contains an action for moving and clicking the mouse cursor (still, you're mouse is left where it is :) Your third problem is a seemingly difficult one that many people tried to solve in many different ways. Personally, I think the best method to switch task is either pressing ALT-TAB (since doing this in StrokeIt has side-effects, as the stuck ALT you already mentioned) or using the Taskbar which is the tool originally designed for that task. It require a bit longer movements of the mouse but is tested and it works :) You could also dig up some information for creating a Lua script for opening the task switcher without the side-effect (it probably involves some Windows API calls).
Regarding alt-tab: I use Vistaswitcher (on XP) and I have it configured to stay open until an option is chosen. StrokeIt just executes alt-tab upon a gesture.Works great.
1. I have tried extensively to make the middle button double click and perform a gesture at the same time, with Autohotkey, but I failed, because only one of them can have the keyboard hook. I suspect that it is possible somehow, but I am not experienced enough with AHK. However, it is easy to make alt+control+shift+win+leftclick carry out a double click, through Autohotkey: !^+#Lbutton:: sleep 100 Click 2 returnThen you could set "Up" to carry out a double click. The 100 miliseconds sleep is needed to get it right on my pc, somehow. All you need to do to make this happen is make a simple text file (whatever.txt, in Notepad) with only this code; rename it to whatever.ahk; then install Autohotkey and doubleclick the .ahk file. Now, every time alt+control+shift+win+leftclick is pressed, it carries out a double click instead. To have it start automatically when Windows starts, cope the .ahk file to the Startup folder in Programs in your Start Menu. 2. Through Autohotkey, it is easy to move the mouse. Just add a hotkey command to a StrokeIt action, e.g. alt+control+shift+q, and have Autohotkey then move the mouse to a specified location: !^+q:: MouseMove 1914, 1043, 0 returnMoves the mouse to those co-ordinates, at speed 0, which is instantly. 3. You could use KDE Sizer: if alt is pressed down, you can move the window by dragging it with the left mouse button, or resize it by dragging it with the right mouse button. It works as long as you start the dragging somewhere on the window you want to drag. You could program StrokeIt to hold down alt if you draw a gesture (send keystroke [alt_down]. You could then program, say, the middle mouse button to release alt: !Mbutton::
Sendinput {alt}
return
When alt+middlebutton is pressed, autohotkey simulated an alt press, which releases alt. You could replace the middlebutton with any button. It would be wise not to use an alt+button combination that has some effect in applications you frequently use.Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2010 10:19PM by Cerberus.
Hi, me again.
Well, what shall I say? Thx! Really helpful! I'll be playing around a bit with the additional 3rd party tools to call, regarding the double click I probably have to wait as any gesture that I am willing to use for it just takes to damn long - fyi: the shortest ones are already occupied :) But the mouse movements I might be able to sort out now :) Nevertheless, if the pro version could solve all my 'requirements', I'd buy it directly, so what does 'For the second one, the Pro version of StrokeIt contains an action for moving and clicking the mouse cursor (still, you're mouse is left where it is :) ' mean? Peforming a click action on screen 'but then' the mouse actually is repositioned at its 'original' position? Regards,... Marco
> 'For the second one, the Pro version of StrokeIt
> contains an action for moving and clicking the > mouse cursor (still, you're mouse is left where it > is :) ' > > mean? Peforming a click action on screen 'but > then' the mouse actually is repositioned at its > 'original' position? I'm sorry, it was just a very bad joke about it's not moving your mouse (the hardware) but the cursor. I was very tired when I wrote that, I apologize. Though the command responsible for moving the mouse cursor does not reposition it after the action, you can do that by using Lua script. You can save its original position, issue command (also from Lua) and reposition it afterwards. AHK is also very useful, albeit I do not use it.
Me again :)
No worries, my jokes usually are worse .... Well, what shall I say, I downloaded KDE Sizer, played around with it and now I'm 'NEARLY' happy :) Ok, ok, I'm really happy, but hey, there's always room for improvement ;) Two things missing 1. double click (nothing new, and a gesture for it is not an option) 2. jump to scrollbar and keep it in focus till next mouse click. I know, the 2nd is really not that necessary as there is the mouse wheel and at least most browsers support a 'scroll' function when pressing the middle mouse button. You know, I'm lazy, that's why I tend to do everything via keyboard if possible - but when using the mouse, I want to minimize all efforts that happen quite often :) Nontheless, by now I narrowed all down to mostly 'one move' gestures. Ah, yes, I took the KDE Sizer and played around with it. After a bit of customization now it works with mouse only commands RButton & LButton -> Move Window RButton & MButton -> Resize Window RButton -> RightClick of course ;) Ever since this 'disables' the rightClick drag'n'drop functionality (I hate loosing functions), I've created a little batch script which checks if the KDE Sizer (or MouseControl.exe with its own icon in my case ;) is running and starts or stops it - toggle, so to say. That toggle is controlled by - tada - StrokeIt. Right, now I can, if necessary, disable and re-enable that function in case I need it. Ah, and I added the 'jump to start' function as well via AHK :) What do I control mostly ? Well, actually it's apps and windows behaviour. Specific application actions I don't follow up as I keep most commands rather general. So, what's on the list, even no one is really interested? All commands are triggered by pressing the middle mouse button... Up = maximize Down = minimize Up \ = maximize all Down \ = minimize all (familiar for Win7 users anyhow...) Up / = close window Down / = go to startMenu and open it Left = altTab Right = toggle MouseControls Left, Right = VistaSwitcher (as an additional tool, no altTab replacement) Right, Left = VistaSwitcher Up /, Down / = mark all Up \, Down \ = shift delete /* together it becomes a nice 'X' */ V = delete A = forward A reverse = backward Up, Right = new tab in browser Up, Left = close tab in browser O = refresh S = save Z = Undo It's actually the combination of StrokeIt with the MouseControls which really help me to minimize my mouse movements a lot. So far, so good :) In the end the usual additional tools e.g. like allSnap (window snapping) or Dexpot (virtual desktops) round up the whole lot. At least for now I'm having more 'fun' again working with my system :) Thx again & greetingz Marco
On the Different Kinds of Gesture and Their Use.
It is great to read such an enthusiastic application of StrokeIt and AHK. Marco, some of your gestures I would find too risky: / Up = close window: I would misdraw this all the time when I was trying to draw Up, and unintentionally close my window. Up \, Down \ = shift delete: very risky too, since I have a gesture Up Down... A and A reverse: I use Forward and Backward all the time in browsers, so that I want the simplest gestures for those, Left and Right. I have Left and Right carry out Undo and Redo globally. In Windows Explorer they go back and forth through previous and next folder. Most of the time, I want my gestures to be universal, i.e. I don't want E to execute Explorer in one application and energize my spaceship in another (okay, I am making that up). However, I make an exception for Left and Right, because Back (browsers) and Undo (default) are intuitively connected for me. I have Up and Down set everywhere to Copy and Paste, just as Right-Down for Cut. After several years of SI, I have found that gestures with a 180-degree angle, such as Up-Down, are surprisingly hard to draw, they are prone to misdrawing. I use Up-Down for Refresh, but it often gets recognized as A. I then considered how sloppy the gesture was, and it was in fact so sloppy that I would not want it to be recognized as Up-Down. That is why I am considering making all my frequently-used 180-degree gestures into <, >, A, and V, instead of Left-Right, Right-Left, et cetera. My list of gestures as order by how suitable they are for frequent actions: [1.] Singe-line gestures, either vertical or horizontal: | and --- each in either direction (4 gestures). [2.] Double-line gestures with a 90-degree angle, such as L, V, _|, >, et cetera (16 gestures). Sometimes I draw V so sloppily that it gets recognized as L, but it is ok. A problem is that these gestures sometimes go wrong in Firefox because it is sometimes too cpu-intensive: L then gets recognized as \ Down because only the beginning and end of the gesture get registered, which is very annoying. That is why I have deleted \ Down all together: I have L set to close tab, and it gets misdrawn very frequently, sigh. I am waiting for the FF version of heaven, in which each tab supposedly gets its own process just as in Chrome; it will purportedly be version 4.0. [3.] Single-line gestures at a 45-degree angle, / and \ each in either direction (4 gestures): because I do the --- and | gestures under [1.] very fast and very often, I was forced to infringe upon the / and \ gestures in order to make SI recognize the | and --- more easily, i.e. I made SI recognize a somewhat-skewed | and --- more easily, through the Learn Gesture function/window. But, even now, I often minimize a window (/ Down) when I actually want to paste something, which is very annoying. The shorter the gesture, the more chance at misdrawing. [shared 3.] Double-line gestures at a 180-degree twist, i.e. the same line back and forth, such as Left-Right: I have many actions set for those, such as refresh at Up-Down, but in fact I find the movement cumbersome and prone to misdrawings, so that I dislike using them for very frequent actions. [4.] Letters: I use them mostly for launching specific programs, because I do not use those as often, which is why it is both less of a pain to draw a complicated gesture and easier to remember a letter as a clue to the name of a program (D launches the Oxford English Dictionary). Somehow I am not a great fan of rocker gestures (hold RMB while pressing LMB, etc.), I find the movement a bit uncomfortable, but I suppose those could be very useful as well - perhaps I should get used to them more. Contrary to Marco, I kinda like double or triple clicks: I have set double-middleclick to show desktop, through AHK (should you want the script for that, ask me). I think I should also add some functions for double-rightclick and triple-middleclick; double and triple leftclick are already (rightly) taken by Windows, as you know.
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