HotKeys   Turn the heat up on your keyboard

by Peter Burwood


This utility provides keyboard shortcuts for common Wimp operations, mainly concentrating on the manipulation of the window stack. It will help users who have many overlapping windows open at the same time and cannot always get at a window because the control icons are obscured behind other windows. However, as with all keyboard shortcuts, the functions are also useful on uncluttered Desktops, since they are often quicker than carrying out the function with the mouse, and can save a lot of pushing and popping and movement of windows. Hotkeys works with both RISC OS 2 or RISC OS 3. Full information on how HotKeys works, and how to customise it to include your own hotkey functions, is included in the HotKeys article in this month's magazine (7:3).

USING HotKeys
Double-clicking on HotKeys installs it ready for use. It does not install an icon on the icon bar, but you can check that it is running by opening the Task display window and examining the Application tasks section of this window. You can then use any of the key combinations listed below.

The following functions are provided

 pop window to the front
 push window to the back
 pop window one position up the window stack
 push window one position down the window stack
 push all open windows behind the Pinboard
 pop all open windows from behind the Pinboard
 close a window
 move a window around the screen with the cursor keys
 open the root directory
 open the currently selected directory (CSD)
 open the library directory (Lib)
 kill the !HotKeys utility

The above functions are explained in slightly more detail below with a brief example of their type of use and the key combination required to activate the function. The function normally works on the window containing the pointer, but by using Ctrl with the key(s) the operation will work on the window with the input focus.

THE FUNCTIONS
 pop window to the front
Alt-Up arrow
This is very useful when you can only see part of the work area of a
window, especially on editor windows.

 push window to the back
Alt-Down arrow
The complementary option to pop and alternative to using the push to
back icon.

 pop window one position up window stack
Alt-Right arrow
This is very useful when you want to see more of a window but not
obscure the top windows.

 push window one position down window stack
Alt-Left arrow
This is very useful when you want to see more of the window behind it
but don't want to push this window right to the back of the stack and
lose sight of it (for example after a toggle to full size on the top
window).

 push all open windows behind the Pinboard
NOT RISC OS 2
Alt-b(ack)
This is extremely useful when you want to get at those pinned icons
which are obscured by all your open windows. Another use is to enable
you to push your current work behind the Pinboard and work on some
other task for a while and then bring your interrupted work session
back when you have finished with the second task. Any windows
re-opened (such as Filer windows) and then closed will not reappear
from the saved Desktop. Also any application that is killed will close
their hidden windows.

 pop all open windows from behind the Pinboard
NOT RISC OS 2
Alt-f(ront)
To make the open windows visible again after you have finished with
the Pinboard or your other task.

 close a window
Alt-F4
An alternative to using the close icon, useful if not visible. This
function uses Alt-F4 since it is the key used by the Motif Window
Manager (mwm).

 move a window around the screen with the cursor keys
Alt-Shift-cursorkeys
An alternative to dragging the window with Adjust on the title bar.

 open the currently selected directory (CSD)
NOT RISC OS 2
Alt-Shift-2
This is a useful way of opening a filer for the CSD. The program uses
a system variable not available in RISC OS 2.

 open the root directory
Alt-Shift-4
An alternative to clicking on the disc drive icon. The program has the
file system type and drive name hardcoded and should be changed to
suite the user.

 open the library directory (Lib)
NOT RISC OS 2
Alt-Shift-5
This is a useful way of opening a filer for the library. The program
uses a system variable not available in RISC OS 2.

 kill the HotKeys utility
Alt-Esc
I don't know why on earth you would want to do this to my poor little
utility, but if you must, then it is an alternative to using the Task
Manager window.


 Copyright RISC User 1994
