Hotkeycontrol 7
User Manual
Table of Contents
Hotkeycontrol
is the award winning solution to create keyboard shortcuts for routine tasks.
These tasks include, but are not limited to opening files, ejecting cdrom
drives, restarting the computer, typing frequently used text, controlling
active windows, changing system volume, controlling laptop display brightness and
recording macros.
The list of configured hotkeys can be shown transparently using on screen
display (OSD) which eliminates the need to remember the hotkeys contrary to
conventional hotkey managers. Besides that, volume status, brightness level and
other information can also be shown directly on screen using OSD. And, more
features can be added to the program by creating plugins - which essentially
makes the possibilities limitless.
In addition to normal combination hotkeys, you can use single keys such as
function or number pad keys. The additional keys on your laptop or multimedia keyboard
can also be used with Hotkeycontrol and all the hotkeys are functional even in
games and in other full-screen DirectX applications
Key features
·
Use
additional keys on your laptop or multimedia keyboard with Hotkeycontrol
·
Monitor system
volume or display brightness level for changes and display them using the On
Screen Display (OSD)
·
Use hotkeys
in 3d games too (For ex: change volume while you play)
·
Display any
image or text file on screen with translucency
·
Run up to 50
programs or open webpages, files, folders via hotkeys
·
Change
system volume and notebook display brightness level
·
Capture/playback
macros to automate keyboard and mouse actions or type frequently used text
·
Control
active windows - hide/show, set always on top, set translucent, close window
·
Turn off
monitor or notebook display and Eject cdrom drives
·
Shutdown/restart/hibernate/suspend
your computer
·
Can use
single keys such as function keys instead of combination hotkeys
·
Display list
of configured hotkeys on screen by pressing a hotkey
·
Extend
features by using plugins
·
Designed for
Windows Vista and optimized for laptop usage
·
Easy to use
- Office 2007 look and feel
When Hotkeycontrol starts (usually along with the operating
system), it starts monitoring the configured hotkeys i.e. it starts in the monitoring mode. In monitoring mode,
Hotkeycontrol displays a tray icon (which can be disabled in the settings
window.)
Note: In the
monitoring mode, when a Hotkey is pressed and the action if performed, no
further hotkeys are monitored until the action completes and during this time
the tray icon will turn red.
You can
temporarily stop Hotkeycontrol from monitoring hotkeys by right clicking the
tray icon and selecting Pause hotkey
monitoring. This can be useful when you are playing a game which uses the
same set of keys or in similar situations.
To configure
Hotkeycontrol, right click the tray icon and click Configure Hotkeys (if tray
icon is disabled press Ctrl+Shift+H). This will display the configuration
window and the program enters into configuration
mode.
i Hotkeys are not monitored in the
configuration mode i.e. if the configuration window is visible and you press a
hotkey, the action will not be performed.
In the
configuration window, you will find a set of toggle buttons on the top which
are the various hotkey categories. Each category has hotkeys which can be
configured. After hotkeys are configured, press Save to save the settings and
return to monitoring mode. Press Cancel to discard the changes and return to
monitoring mode.
Note: Any
extra (multimedia) keys on your keyboard are blocked when the configuration window
is open, so that you can configure the key in Hotkeycontrol without executing
the actual function.
Note:
Closing the Configuration window is equivalent to pressing the cancel button.
If you want to quit Hotkeycontrol, press the Exit button in the configuration
window rather than closing it.
i Almost all items in the configuration window
have tool tips. Just pause your mouse over any item for a second and additional
information about it will pop up.
A hotkey is either a combination key (such as Control+T) or a
single key (such as F5) which performs a comprehensive action when it is
pressed.
In
Hotkeycontrol, hotkeys are set in the configuration window. To set a hotkey,
click on the textbox for any hotkey feature and then press the combination of
keys which you want to set as a hotkey. The combination can be any key combined
with control, alt, win or shift keys.
Note: Some
keys might not be displayed as you expect. For ex: Control + 1 would be
displayed as Ctrl + D1. This is normal and the hotkeys will work fine.
i You can’t use the “Fn” key on your laptop as
a hotkey. This is a hardware limitation and no program can work around it.
To clear a
hotkey when you don’t require it, right click the textbox and click Clear hotkey.
If the text
box does not display the hotkey you pressed (for ex: shift+tab or hotkeys being
used by other programs), right click the textbox and click Alternative method. In the popup window, configure the hotkey and
press ok.
i Hotkeys don’t need to be combination keys.
You can use your number pad keys or function keys or the keys on your
multimedia keyboard independently.
Hotkeycontrol is a shareware program which means that you must buy
the program if you continue to use it. The demo version works for 15 days. If
you wish to use the program beyond that time, you are required to purchase the
program.
You can
purchase Hotkeycontrol online at http://www.inchwest.com/order.aspx.
The whole payment process is secure and a variety of payment methods including
Visa, MasterCard, Paypal, Cash, Money order and others are accepted.
After you purchase
the program, your serial number will be emailed instantly which can be used to
unlock the evaluation version. There is no need to download any additional
software. To enter your serial number, go to the configuration window and click
the Register button.
In the
registration window, enter your name and the serial number and click Register. Make
sure that you are connected to the internet because the information will be
checked against our servers and the process will complete instantaneously.
In case you
have any problem registering Hotkeycontrol, send an email to
The most common feature used with conventional hotkeys is opening
files. In Hotkeycontrol you can run up to 50 programs, open files, folders or
webpages using hotkeys in this tab.
To select a
file or folder which has to be opened when a hotkey is pressed, click the
browse button next to the file textbox. To open webpages, directly type the url
into the file textbox and if you have used visited this page before, it will
suggest an auto complete list for convenience.
To run a
program with command line parameters, just enter the program path in double
quotes followed by the parameter.
For ex: To
open notepad with an argument, use “c:\windows\notepad.exe”
1.txt
Volume control hotkeys control the system volume level on the
master channel. Just set a hotkey for various features such as volume up,
volume down, mute and you can change the volume directly with your keyboard.
This can be especially useful if you use earphones or if the volume slider that
came with your speaker is not smooth.
You can also
monitor the system volume for changes and display the volume level on screen using
an AVI file. Doing so will display the volume level whenever the master volume
is changed either directly or through Hotkeycontrol.
Brightness control hotkeys control the display brightness. Similar
to volume control, you can configure hotkeys to either increase or decrease the
brightness level.
Again, you
can monitor the display brightness for changes and display the brightness level
on screen using an AVI file. Doing so will display the brightness level
whenever the display brightness is changed either directly or through
Hotkeycontrol.
i Brightness control and monitoring
capabilities are available only on laptop computers running Windows Vista or
later operating systems.
AVI Specifications for volume and brightness
levels: You can create your own AVI
files to display a customized level indicator as long as the following
specifications are maintained.
1.
The video
should contain 50 frames (with any frame rate.
2.
The video
should be saved in uncompressed format.
3.
Regions
which are to be shown as transparent should be Pink in color (R,G,B: 255,0,255)
Media player function hotkeys control the playback of media in
Windows Media Player and other players which follow windows media standards.
Active windows can be controlled in the following aspects by
Hotkeycontrol.
§
Close window: Closes the active window.
§
Always on top (on/off): Keeps the active window on top of all other
windows. If the window is already having this property then the hotkey turns it
off making it a normal window.
§
Hide window: Completely hides the active window. Note: If
Hotkeycontrol is exited or the configuration window is displayed, all hidden
windows will be displayed back.
§
Show window: Unhide windows hidden by using the Hide
window hotkey. If multiple windows were hidden, Show window displays windows in
the order in which they were hidden i.e. window which was hidden first will be
displayed first.
§
Minimize: Minimizes the active window.
§
Maximize/Restore: Maximizes the active window. If the window is
already maximized, restores it to its original dimensions.
§
Minimize all windows: Minimizes all windows and displays the
desktop.
§
Translucency (On/Off): Adds a see-through effect for the active
window and makes it display windows underneath it. If the active window already
is translucent then the hotkey turns it off.
i Translucency and Always on top features can
improve productivity drastically in situations where data in one window needs
to be entered into another window.
Workstation control hotkeys allow you to power down and alter your
machine in a variety of ways.
§
Shutdown/ Restart/ Suspend: Shutdown/ Restart/ Suspend your machine when
the corresponding hotkey is pressed. It is recommended that these hotkeys be
reasonably inaccessible to avoid accidental powering down your system.
§
Hibernate: Put the machine into Hibernate mode (this needs to be enabled in
your operating system).
§
Activate screensaver: Start the currently configured screensaver.
§
Lock workstation: Lock the workstation so that only the
current user can unlock it.
§
Eject/Close cdrom drive: Open & close the tray of the
corresponding CDROM drive.
§
Turn off monitor: Turn off the monitor to enable power saving
(move the mouse or press any key to turn the monitor back on).
i If you are using Hotkeycontrol on a laptop,
Turn off monitor feature can be really useful in powering down the display and
increasing the battery life.
Macros are a way of performing repetitive tasks which have been
pre-recorded. These can be simple tasks such as entering an email address or
complex ones like simulating mouse actions to drag multiple items from one
window to another. When used properly, macros can save a huge amount of time
spent on doing any task.
Hotkeycontrol
enables creation of up to 50 macros which can be played back when a hotkey is
pressed. To configure a macro, press the configure button corresponding to one
of the 50 hotkeys in this tab. You should a see a configuration window with 2
radio buttons.
If you want
to simply type text segments (which you use frequently) when you press the
macro hotkey, select the first option and type in the text. Things that can be
commonly used here are email addresses, etc. To type special keys such as arrow
keys, modifier keys, function keys, etc use the Key menu and select the
required key.
Note:
Modifier keys only apply to the immediate next character. If you want the
modifier key to be applied to a set of characters, use brackets. For example +(abc) would type characters abc with
the shift key pressed.
If you want
to record a set of keyboard/mouse actions, select the second option. Enter a
title which will be displayed in the OSD when the macro hotkey is pressed and
then click Capture macro. Next, select whether you want to capture keyboard and
mouse actions or only mouse actions. After your selection a message box will be
displayed and on pressing Ok, the recording will start in 3 seconds within which
you can arrange your windows as they would be when the macro is played.
Recording of macro can be stopped by clicking the tray icon or pressing Ctrl+Shift+E.
i While recording macros, avoided keeping a key
pressed since it will be considered as a single key stroke i.e. press the down
arrow 10 times rather than keeping it pressed for a couple of seconds.
It is
recommended that you test your macro before using it in actual situations by
clicking Test macro. Again at anytime, playback can be stopped by pressing Ctrl+Shift+E. Check the Play this macro
at maximum speed checkbox if you want to simulate keyboard and mouse actions a
lot faster than you recorded them.
i When a macro is playing back, Hotkeycontrol
will not monitor other hotkeys. This is done to prevent conflicts.
Image on screen display or iOSD is a unique feature of
Hotkeycontrol, which lets you display any information directly on screen. The
information can be either in an image file (jpg, bmp or gif) or a rich text
document (rtf). Note that iOSD is different from OSD (whose configuration is
set in the Settings tab). OSD is used to display hotkey messages when hotkeys
are pressed to indicate which action was performed while iOSD is used to
display information alone.
Select an
image or a document using the browse button corresponding to one of the 20
hotkeys in this tab and when you press this hotkey, the image or document will
be shown directly on screen. To turn off
the display, press the same hotkey again.
Note: When settings are saved, a display.rtf
file is also generated in the same settings folder. This document contains
currently configured hotkeys and can be used to display them on the screen (by
default Win+Alt+Enter is associated to display this document).
You can also select where the display should
be placed on screen, how long the display should be shown and whether it should
be see-through.
Note: Use the color pink (RGB 255,0,255) for
regions which you want to be transparent in your image.
i Notice that you can click through iOSD just
as if it weren’t there. This can be especially convenient in the translucent
mode since you can work on the underlying window while displaying iOSD at the same
time.
Plugins are small programs which extend the functionality of an
application. You can add new plugins (created by InchWest team as well as other
Hotkeycontrol users) to Hotkeycontrol by downloading them from http://www.inchwest.com.
Follow these simple steps to install and use
new plugins:
1. Copy the
<plugin>.dll file into the plugins folder in Hotkeycontrol directory.
2. Go to the
Plugins tab in the Configuration screen. You should see the new plugin in the
plugin dropdown boxes. In case you don’t find it, close the configuration
window and open it again.
3. To use a
plugin, select it in one of the dropdown box and then press the Configure
button. This should bring up the plugin configuration screen. From here on,
follow the instruction given by the author of the plugin to configure it.
4. After you
are done with the configuration, set a hotkey corresponding to this plugin.
Now, in the monitoring mode, when you press the hotkey, the selected plugin
will be activated which will perform a task based on the individual configuration
associated with this hotkey.
Note: You can use 20 plugin features
(hotkeys) at a time. Some plugins have more features and hence may require more
than one hotkey to access all their features while others might just need one
per plugin.
To remove a plugin, first make sure that it
is not selected in any of the dropdown boxes in the plugin tab, if it is
selected, change that dropdown box to use None. Save the settings, quit
Hotkeycontrol and then delete the plugin file from the plugins folder in
Hotkeycontrol directory and run Hotkeycontrol again.
i Even though you might not be using the
plugin, to remove the plugin it is mandatory to quit Hotkeycontrol and then
delete the plugin.
By default,
Hotkeycontrol comes with one plugin - Screenshot.
Using this plugin, you can capture an active window on your screen and directly
save it to a jpg file.
Note: This
plugin essentially needs 2 hotkeys – one to capture active window and one to
capture complete desktop. The saving preferences will be common to both of
them.
Developing plugins:
If you know programming
in Microsoft .Net, you can create your own plugins to use with Hotkeycontrol.
We have built a plugin development kit which has the documentation, samples and
other information to make development of plugins a fairly easy task even for
novice programmers. You can find the plugin development kit and source code
samples at http://www.inchwest.com.
In the settings tab you can configure how Hotkeycontrol starts up,
what it does when a hotkey is pressed and where it stores the program settings.
Press the List button to display all the hotkeys
which are currently configured. This is provided for convenient display of all
hotkeys so that you can see whether a hotkey is being using for multiple
features.
Press the Clear button to remove all hotkeys set.
This will not load the default hotkeys which came with the installation; it
will rather set all hotkeys to none. To restore default hotkeys, delete your
<username> folder under the Hotkeycontrol\Settings directory.
Check the Use common settings checkbox to use the
settings for all user accounts on the machine i.e. settings file will be stored
under Hotkeycontrol\settings\common directory rather than multiple
Hotkeycontrol\settings\<user> directories.
On screen display (OSD) refers to the text
and volume level that is shown on screen when a hotkey is pressed. OSD can be
very useful in showing whether the hotkey has been intercepted and if so, what
action is being performed.
You can enable or disable OSD, set its
position and time to stay on screen, the font and the color used for text
information and display it in a see-through mode using the set of buttons shown
above.
If the Disable
OSD when screen resolution changes is checked, Hotkeycontrol will not
display the OSD when you are playing Direct X games. If you uncheck this box,
OSD will be displayed but the display might flicker and affect the game
performance.
i Irrespective of this checkbox setting,
hotkeys will be monitored even in games. Only OSD will not be shown during the
game session.
Select the Check for updates at startup if you
want Hotkeycontrol to check if any new updates have been released when the
program starts.
Select the Show splash screen at startup to
display the splash screen when the program starts.
Select the Show tray icon to display an icon in
the system tray. Using the menu on this icon you can display the configuration window,
quit Hotkeycontrol and do more. If you uncheck this option, use Control+Shift+H to display the
configuration window.
If you want
Hotkeycontrol to play a sound when a hotkey is pressed (i.e. to notify that the
hotkey has been intercepted), check the Play
sound box and select a wave file to be played.
Settings in Hotkeycontrol refer to all the
hotkeys, their corresponding parameters and the program options. You might want
to back up your program settings so that you don’t need to configure
Hotkeycontrol on multiple machines or when you reinstall your operating system.
You can load the stored settings at any point of time on any machine and hence
avoid configuring the program again.
Settings are
saved in the settings folder inside the Hotkeycontrol folder. Settings files
are written into settings.hkc file which will be placed in either of the
following directories
C:\Program Files\Hotkeycontrol 7\settings\<username>
C:\Program Files\Hotkeycontrol 7\settings\common
To backup
your settings, simply copy the whole settings directory to a safe location,
possibly on another disk. To load these settings on another machine, install
Hotkeycontrol on the machine, quit Hotkeycontrol, copy the settings directory
into the installed folder and start Hotkeycontrol.
In addition
to the Settings.hkc file, a display.rtf file is also generated in the same
folder when settings are saved in the configuration window. This document
contains currently configured hotkeys and can be used to display them on the
screen (by default Win+Alt+Enter is associated to display this document).
Note: The Show splash screen at startup setting
will have to be configured manually; it does not reside in the settings file.
Hotkeycontrol can be used by other programs to
perform actions that would normally be done when a hotkey is pressed. This is a
very powerful integration option which can be put to good use. A typical
example is if you want to simulate keyboard/mouse actions when your download
manager is done with downloading the files. To do this, you need to record a
macro the usual way (like when you use a hotkey), but you don’t need to set a
hotkey for the macro. Now, configure your download manager to run
“C:\Program files\Hotkeycontrol 7\Hotkeycontrol.exe”
“Macro 1”
To perform
an action, run Hotkeycontrol with command line parameter which is the Hotkey
name (whose action is to be performed) without the colon as shown in the image
below.
You can also use this feature to integrate
Hotkeycontrol with the software that came with your USB remote or any other
input device so that you can perform the action of any hotkey directly by using
that device.
i Hotkeycontrol needs to be already running in
the normal monitoring mode for command line parameters to be intercepted.
Hotkeycontrol is developed and supported by
the InchWest team. Be sure to check http://www.inchwest.com for updates
and other goodies.
If you are a
registered user, you can get support from Hotkeycontrol crew by filling the
form at http://www.inchwest.com/contact.aspx. If you
want to purchase Hotkeycontrol, please visit http://www.inchwest.com/order.aspx.
If you want
to make a suggestion or leave a comment or contact us for any reason, please
send an email to
i Always remember to keep your version of
Hotkeycontrol updated. Updates usually address numerous fixes and support is
not offered for older versions.
Terms -
Windows, Direct X, .Net Framework are registered trademarks of Microsoft ®
Corporation. All other terms where ever used are trademarks of the respective
companies.
The developers of Hotkeycontrol wish to thank
all the people who have helped in creating the program directly or indirectly
and additionally express their thanks to all the users of Hotkeycontrol.