Means to simulate controlling a slider/scrollbar by sending keystrokes

Hi all,

I just got a TabletPC, and my only regret so far is taking over a week to discover StrokeIt.
And what a godsend it is! Thanks to the developer and all others who have contributed!

I a noob to the forums, tried searching for possible answers to my question but
have found none so far, so here goes:

I would like a command to send keystrokes to control movement directions
of scrollbar/slider type controls (exact type does not matter, as long as they
respond to keyboard shortcuts to increment/decrement the slider value. Typically
keystrokes like left/right, pgup/pgdown are involved). How the slider's value is
changed should be based on the direction/amount that the mouse pointer
moves after a gesture is recognized. I in particular need this functionality to
do fine-grain control of a brush's size in Photoshop (such adjustments can be
done using the '[' and ']' shortcut keys; and when done via keyboard they do
not even involve displaying any slider controls, hence my earlier disclaimer)

Such a functionality would enable my tablet screen to act as a huge virtual slider
with my stylus acting as the slider "thumb" (viva Fitts's Law), and make my
wrists really happy :-). So does StrokeIt support crafting such a command?
If not, are there alternatives that can achieve close to the same thing?

Sorry if the question is rather convoluted. Let me know if there is any part
that needs further clarifications.

Thanks,
Vic



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2010 03:15AM by pokkrap.

Hmm, my reaction might be a bit late. I don't think StrokeIt alone can do this, unless perhaps through Lua scripting. Now that you mention it, I also want an easier way to increase and decrease brush size in Photoshop. I have found a solution by using StrokeIt and Autohotkey, and I am actually rather happy with the result:

1. Make an action for Photoshop that sends keystroke [Win_down] for, say, gesture Down-Up, and another one with keystroke [Win_Up] for Up-Down.

2. Add the following to your Autohotkey script (if you need more explaining for this, ask me):

Hotkey, IfWinActive, ahk_class Photoshop
Hotkey, #WheelUp, IncreaseBrush
Hotkey, #WheelDown, DecreaseBrush
Return

IncreaseBrush:
  SendInput ] {LWin down}
Return

DecreaseBrush:
  SendInput [ {LWin down}
Return

Now you get this: if the Windows key is held down, you scroll the mousewheel up to increase brush size, and down to decrease it; if you release the Windows key, everthing is back to normal. As an alternative to pressing the physical Windows key, you can make the gesture Down-Up to hold it down, and Up-Down to release it again. This means that you can do Down-Up, then scroll down to decrease brush size, draw a line, scroll up to increase brush, draw a thicker line, then do Up-Down to release Win again (or press the physical key to release). All this only happens when Photoshop is the active window, except that the held-down Win key won't get released just by changing windows.