onscreen keyboard shortcuts?
grand marshal polycounter
Hi all!
So I got my fancy Cintiq12WX right for Valentine's day and love it. I just spent some time adding various keyboard shortcuts to the expresskeys and also to my handy little NuLook - a little logitech device that somehow acts as an extra scroll wheel and button pad.
However I was wondering if something like the following exists. Basicaly I am looking for a little application (preferably free) allowing me to :
- create a little icon container bar that stays on top of other windows;
- the bar would switch itself to different presets according to the app currently in focus;
- the bar would contain user-defined icons acting as keyboard shortcut holders.
The purpose would be to be able to store the Photoshop keyboards shortcuts I have for things like flatten layers, rotate canvas aso in a corner of the screen, and in the shape of icons - to be able to access/run them in a single pen click.
The more I think of it the more I feel like such thing is extremely simple to do (it's basically what every human interaction device driver does, except it is not device dependant) and I think it would add great functionality to all the graphics apps, alowing for a simple and unified mouse-free and keyboard-free workflow.
I don't know if I was clear ... if not I'll mockup that.
I already use a free virtual keyboard with my 12WX, it's great to be able to write file names and such without reaching or the real keyboard.
Ideas?
So I got my fancy Cintiq12WX right for Valentine's day and love it. I just spent some time adding various keyboard shortcuts to the expresskeys and also to my handy little NuLook - a little logitech device that somehow acts as an extra scroll wheel and button pad.
However I was wondering if something like the following exists. Basicaly I am looking for a little application (preferably free) allowing me to :
- create a little icon container bar that stays on top of other windows;
- the bar would switch itself to different presets according to the app currently in focus;
- the bar would contain user-defined icons acting as keyboard shortcut holders.
The purpose would be to be able to store the Photoshop keyboards shortcuts I have for things like flatten layers, rotate canvas aso in a corner of the screen, and in the shape of icons - to be able to access/run them in a single pen click.
The more I think of it the more I feel like such thing is extremely simple to do (it's basically what every human interaction device driver does, except it is not device dependant) and I think it would add great functionality to all the graphics apps, alowing for a simple and unified mouse-free and keyboard-free workflow.
I don't know if I was clear ... if not I'll mockup that.
I already use a free virtual keyboard with my 12WX, it's great to be able to write file names and such without reaching or the real keyboard.
Ideas?
Replies
I can't help you with this, but could you share your button setup sometime? I'm seriously considering getting the 12wx, and I'm curious to see how you've got it all set up. I haven't had a wacom with the side-buttons before, but I imagine I'll need them to replace alt/ctrl/shift etc...
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=157024
They should just come with one of these. . .
Prior: I make no promises, but I could look into coding such a program for you.
Also, highly recommended for use with Cintiqs:
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=157024
They should just come with one of these. . .
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I got one for the same reasons about 2-3 years ago and found it to be quite useless since the keys were so stiff and that sometimes the drivers would flake out and I wouldn't have any assigned profile for the program I was using anymore.
There are about 5 of us here at Mythic who use Cintiq's with Nostromo's on a daily basis, and I believe all of us would swear by it. It's seriously a match made in heaven.
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Is there anything to do to make them more manage-able, because mine is still sitting around not doing much of anything, and its keys have gotten stiffer from years of disuse, and I'm unsure if it would be anymore stable than it was in the past...
Initially my plan was to use the 12WX along with a virtual keyboard app (preferably better than the default one!) so I started hunting around. The best solution I found so far is Touch-It:
http://www.chessware.ch/virtual-keyboard/index.php
However it does not support dual screen setups, stays stuck on monitor 1 even if you try to drag it. So that makes it pointless and virtual keyboards are heavy to use anyways. So that's why I started thinking about something else and started this very thread to find a way to hold keyboard shortcuts inside icons always available on screen.
Monster I tried Autokey but if I understand it conrrectly it's purpose is just to define custom hotkey actions like launching a program (basically anything command line-able) right? I don't really see myself hitting a key on a virtual keyboard just to lauch a (slightly more complex) keyboard shortcut - but I might be missing something here.
Keg, that a very nice offering you are making. BUT! I found a solution for now. It sounds a bit complex but it works great for me so far. To clarify, my goal is to be able to control graphical apps (2D mostly) with the tablet, far away from the computer and preferably with no keyboard and no extra physical device. Here goes :
-First step is to get the Expresskeys and Touchstrips all nicely. I have quite a few app-specific ones (zoom, brush size, fullscreen...) but also some others that work whatever the context. I have the top-right textured button set to toggle mode so that I can reach my other screen, the top-left one is Win-D to nicely clear off the clutter, the middle-right textured button set to alt, and the middle-left one set to Tab. That way I can alt-tab between apps. (yeah you guessed that one)
-On top of that I use Ultramon
http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/ since it enables application screen swapping (no need to reduce an app, drag it over and maximize it again to move it to the 12WX screen). That's handy because when I do 3Dwork I like to work on my standard screen but 2D goes to the cintiq which is secondary. Moving apps back and forth used to be a real pain now it's smooth as silk.
-For text entry I still needed a solution. I found a great handwriting recognition software, Myscript Sylus.
http://www.visionobjects.com/products/ap...indows-2-4.html
Much cooler than virtual KBs and less annoying to use. That way I can type in file names and such. I got the app set up to launch when I hit the stylus eraser. That way I just can hit the screen with a tap of the eraser, then write!
-Lastly ... Stroke-It.
http://www.tcbmi.com/strokeit/
This enables mouse gestures when right-click-dragging. So I have it set up so that I can perform Ultramon screen swaps, rotation/flipping of the canvas in photoshop, layer creation and merging all with simple pen moves.
YAY! It sounds like a lot of crap but you should see that running, it's incredible to be able to just lounge in a confy chair and control everything like that. Plus all these programs are free or very cheap!
(still have to see if that virtual keyboard program could be screenswapped using a gesture - seems like this can ovverride the lack of the Ultramon special button. which does not appear in that program because of its non-standard UI)
Anyways, try that and enjoy!