I'm trying to add custom keyboard commands to an application using Autohotkey.
In many of these hotkeys I would like to use the alt key in combination with some other key of my choice (any of the standard letters).
All works fine as long as I don't restrict their usage in such a manner that they work in the target application only (via the #IfWinActive directive ). If I do so, the hotkeys themselves still work, however their behavior is very strange.
I found that they get activated either if
a) I hold down the alt key and then press the second key (in my case the 'b' key) twice
or
b) I use this hotkey two times consecutively with a very short delay between the two triggerings
- The above two cases might actually be 1 case. I'm not sure...
I have no problems when doing the same with Shift or CTRL.
The 'b' key is not what's causing the problem - no alt + 'letter' combination works.
I have tried all SendModes, but so far with no effect.
Code sample:
#IfWinActive, MyAppTitle ahk_class MyAppClass
!b::
click 367, 86
return
Alt+letter commands in AutoHotkey such as !b work without issue. It's possible the version at the time of this post contained certain bugs or was out of date from the current version.
For your code, it could be done like so:
!b::
WinGetTitle, Title, A
if (RegExMatch(Title, "MyAppTitle"))
{
MouseClick, left, 367, 86
}
return
Related
I have the follow autohotkey map:
^j:: Send ^{PgUp}
This works fine. It maps control + j to control+pagedown.
But I would like to map the keycombination
s & j:: Send ^{PgUp}
So when you press s and j simultaneously, it will send control pagedown to Windows.
Then i'm running into the problem that the character 's' never shows up in my input field, but the character 'j' is appearing as normal. That is weird. The combo key is working, by the way. But I want to get the character 's' key working too.
And are there ways to map the key combination sj (when the both are pressed simultaneously) ?
~s & j::
Send ^{PgUp}
return
was the winning answer by the way, got it from the user RCHP on Autohotkey forum :)
This is by design. The first key of a custom hotkey always loses it's original function. To work around this, create a new hotkey for "s" that sends "s".
In AutoHotKey, hotkeys override their normal function, which is generally desirable. In order to avoid this behavior, prefix your hotkey with a tilde.
~s & j:: Send ^{PgUp} return
The terrific AHK docs explain this.
My problem :
^space & c::
send {F2}
send {Escape}
but it didn't work, how do I emulate Ctrl+Space + AlphabeticaklKey ?
As my previous speakers said, it can't be done easily. Here's my suggestion, it seems to work fine:
^space::
Loop {
if(GetKeyState("c")) {
break
}
if(!GetKeyState("CTRL") || !GetKeyState("SPACE")) {
return
}
Sleep, 50
}
msgbox, You have pressed CTRL+SPACE+C
return
The code is pretty self-explanatory. When CTRL + SPACE is pressed, it waits until either one of both is released or C is pressed. The latter triggers the actual functionality, otherwise it will return.
I actually don't like it very much, because theoretically it may fail in some cases (e.g. when CTRL + SPACE + C is pressed and released before the execution reaches the check for the state of C; although that seems very unlikely).
Update
There's also a way using #If. I recommend using that since it's more sophisticated and reliable. This is due to the fact that it doesn't need any loops:
#If GetKeyState("SPACE")
^c::Msgbox, You have pressed CTRL+SPACE+C
#If GetKeyState("c")
^space::Msgbox, You have pressed CTRL+SPACE+C
As far as I know, you can only combine two non-hotkey keys with the syntax:
space & c:: msgbox space and c
You can read it here
You can define a custom combination of two keys (except joystick
buttons) by using & between them. In the below example, you would hold
down Numpad0 then press the second key to trigger the hotkey:
Numpad0 & Numpad1::MsgBox You pressed Numpad1 while holding down
Numpad0. Numpad0 & Numpad2::Run Notepad
Trying to use control as well like in: space & c & control or space & ^c or any other combination will result in compile error.
My recommendation is that you don't combine that three keys together. Look for a pure hotkey combination or use another more or less useless key.
#!c:: windows + alt + c
AppsKey & c::
Remember that if you use a normal key as modificator, you have to remap it to itself to keep the original functionality, for example with the menu key (appskey):
AppsKey:: Send {Appskey}
AppsKey & c:: ;do what you want
There are actually a couple ways to get help. First of all the authors of this language have moved to a new domain ahkscript.org. It is always welcome to ask questions like these in our forum. I just happened to be digging through this site today and saw this by accident.
When you have more than one line of code after a hotkey you need to have a return follow it:
^space & c::
send {F2}
send {Escape}
return
Hope that helps
I have written a python script for my co-workers, and then created an autohotkey script to run it every time someone presses Ctrl+LShift+Y. Looks something like this:
^+y::Run helper.py
The python script is fine, but the ahk script doesn't work on all the computers. Sometimes it works fine, and sometimes you get this error:
^+y does not exist in current keyboard layout
Now, searching the web this seems to be a problem with multi-language keyboards (we're using both Hebrew and English), because different languages means a different layouts (I guess?). I also found someone explaining that to solve this you need to use scan codes instead of the usual ^ and + and so on (I'd link to it but I cannot seem to find it now).
This all vaguely makes sense to me on a theoretical level, but when I want to realize it with actual code, I don't really know what to do. To me it seems as if this topic is hardly discussed (with the few exceptions being lacking in examples or hard to understand), so I'd love an answer that would include the following:
some simple way of determining the scan code for a key. This should preferably be a pythonic solution (and just out of curiosity, I'd love to know how to do this with linux as well). This is probably the easier part (but I think is an inherent part of a complete answer).
This is the important part: examples of how you implement that scan code in an autohotkey script, including edge-cases (if there are any).
Question 1
As you want to use the key with autohotkey, it makes sense to use autohotkey detect the key in the first place. Obviously this method works only on windows where autohotkey is running.
Write a Autohotkey script with this line and run it.
#InstallKeybdHook
Press the key you want to examine.
Open the script menu by right clicking the icon of the script in the right lower corner of your screen.
Select OPEN, then from the Menu "View / Key history and script info"
There is a line for each keypress.
First column is the VK (Virtual key) code, next is the scancode.
For example for CAPSLOCK the VK is 14 and the Scancode 03a
Question 2:
#InstallKeybdHook
VK14::
msgbox, you pressed capslock!
return
OR
#InstallKeybdHook
SC03a::
msgbox, you pressed capslock!
return
both work.
Note that you can combine two keys into a hotkey by combining them with & (but not 3)
#InstallKeybdHook
RShift & SC03a::
msgbox, you pressed Rshift capslock!
return
You can modify a Scancode with + and ^
#InstallKeybdHook
^+SC02C::
msgbox, you pressed Ctrl Shift and Y(maybe)!
return
Further info about this is on the page "List of Keys, Mouse Buttons, and Joystick Controls" of the autohotkey help file that comes with the default installation.
I want to create a hotkey that sends some key, and then another hotkey for that very just sent key, that in turn sends a third key.
That seems to be possible, using #InputLevel:
#InputLevel 1
a::b
#InputLevel 0
b::c
The above works as intended: By pressing a I get c.
However, I want not only to remap the first key: I want to do more before sending the key. So I thought I could just rewrite the above a little bit:
#InputLevel 1
Hotkey *a, foo
#InputLevel 0
b::c
foo:
; Do something more here …
SendInput {Blind}b
return
The above however does not work as intended: By pressing a I get b (not c).
Update: #Robert Ilbrink reminded me that you can execute more than one command, without using the Hotkey command:
#InputLevel 1
*a::
; Do something here …
SendEvent {Blind}b
return
#InputLevel 0
b::c
The above does give the intended effect: Pressing a results in c. However, I have to rephrase my problem. I guess the problem is: I need to set the hotkeys dynamically, which means I have to use the Hotkey command with a label (as far as I know). (Also notice that I use SendEvent above. Using SendInput produces a b. Odd.)
(End of update.)
I know there is a companion command to #InputLevel—SendLevel—which might be relevant. I've tried putting it many places but it has never made any difference.
So, that was the reduced, theoretical example. Remapping a to b to c is of course useless in reality (and the net result could of course be achieved by a::c). On to my use case. Just keep in mind that if it turns out that the "real" solution means doing what I'm trying to do some other way, I'm still interested in knowing more about #InputLevel and SendLevel, and why my example does not work as intended.
I'm working on implementing dual-role modifier keys. For example, send ) when pressing RShift alone, but RShift+key when pressed together with some other key. Basically, RShift on keydown, and RShift up and ) on keyup. However, that has one flaw: Even when combining RShift with some other key, ) is still sent. So the script needs to know when there has been a combination. My solution is to add hotkeys to all letter keys, the arrow keys and some other keys, like this:
for comboKey in filteredComboKeys {
Hotkey % "*" comboKey, Dual_comboKey
}
; Later in script:
Dual_comboKey:
; The following function lets the dual-role modifier keys know that they have
; been combined with another key (and a few other things, which I don't think
; are important for the issue.)
Dual.combo() ;
key := Dual.cleanKey(A_ThisHotkey)
SendInput {Blind}%key%
return
The above solution works very well for my purpose—except that the break all remappings and other hotkeys the user might have made: These simply never occur.
Why not:
a::
; Do something
Send, b
Return
As far as I can gather, #InputLevel doesn't bite on the Hotkey command. However, I stumbled on a solution for one of the snippets I originally posted:
Hotkey *a, foo
b::c
foo:
; Do something more here …
SendLevel 1
SetKeyDelay 0 ; Optional; Only affects this hotkey.
SendEvent {Blind}b
return
Note that SendEvent must be used. SendInput produces b. SendPlay produces nothing at all. I don't know why.
However, this technique won't work if you want to send the hotkey itself. Then you end up in an infinite loop. Using the keyboard hook does not help, since SendLevel overrides it.
So, again I have an answer the solves one of the initial examples, but does not help me in reality. I need to send the hotkey itself. I guess I have to let the user remap their keys using my script. Sigh.
Update:
I've published my dual-role modifiers script now, in case anyone is interested in more details, and how I deal with the problems.
Update:
I've updated my dual-role modifiers script. I now stay away from the Hotkey command. It's easier when dealing with this kind of thing, I think.
By now (starting Autohotkey 1.1.01), this can be achieved quite easily like so:
~Shift up::
IfInString, A_PriorKey, Shift
{
Send )
}
return
So I have this game, called AirMech. It doesn't recognize mouse buttons as controls (yet) so I tried to use AutoHotkey to circumvent it until it's implemented.
#IfWinActive, AirMech
XButton1::Send c
Didn't work. So I tried SendGame, SendPlay and everything else, didn't work either. I googled it, and found out that some games don't recognize any Send commands at all.
Before giving up, I just tried a simple mapping:
#IfWinActive, AirMech
XButton1::c
It actually worked.
Is it expected than no Send command works, but the latter does? What if I wanted to trigger other actions ('c' plus a MsgBox, for instance)?
AutoHotkey has the ability to send keystrokes in a variety of different ways (SendRaw / SendInput / SendPlay / SendEvent). I'm not quite sure what approach the simple key::key mapping uses, but it must be one of them. My guess is that one of SendRaw, SendInput, SendPlay, or SendEvent will work the same as key::key.
Also #IfWinActive sometimes doesn't work exactly the way you expect, especially with fullscreen games. So I usually test my AHK scripts without the #IfWinActive to make sure they're working correctly. Once it's working, I introduce the conditional.
UPDATE
From http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Remap.htm:
When a script is launched, each remapping is translated into a pair of
hotkeys. For example, a script containing a::b actually contains the
following two hotkeys instead:
*a::
SetKeyDelay -1 ; If the destination key is a mouse button, SetMouseDelay is used instead.
Send {Blind}{b DownTemp} ; DownTemp is like Down except that other Send commands in the script won't assume "b" should stay down during their Send.
return
*a up::
SetKeyDelay -1 ; See note below for why press-duration is not specified with either of these SetKeyDelays. If the destination key is a mouse button, SetMouseDelay is used instead.
Send {Blind}{b Up}
return
My notes:
I suspect the reason a::b is working but a::Send b is not is because of how a::b breaks button down and button up handlers into two separate mappings. The game's gameloop probably polls the gameplay keys for "keydown" state, which would not be maintained consistently if AHK is synthesizing repeats. Remapping a_down->b_down and a_up->b_up probably makes AHK emulate more accurately the act of holding the key down, which may matter for programs which test for key state in particular ways (GetAsyncKeyState?).
The asterisk in the mapping means "Fire the hotkey even if extra modifiers are being held down."