Hello, I have 3 monitors. Where I thought this would help speed up my computer graphics design workflow it's actually made things more difficult. Picture this, I'm trying to watch a tutorial on one screen where I sculpt what I'm watching. Everytime I need to pause the video I have to grab the mouse (since I'm using a tablet pen) and drag it over to the other monitor to hit ■. I have to select the video window to pause it. This wouldn't be an issue if I could just hit the space bar while I'm sculpting to stop and play the video. Is there a way to make a rule that says "space bar no matter what app I'm in pauses and plays video" so I don't need to keep putting my pen down, hitting play and going back to zbrush to resume sculpting?
Jumping through hoops to use multiple displays
- Thread starter Viscte
- Start date
- May 27, 2010
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That would take some complex monkeying with Windows, but I don't see why not.
alt-tab, arrow key, space bar to avoid using the mouse to gain focus would be a simpler way.
If you only have the two windows open, that would be the key combo to pause the video.
alt-tab, arrow key, space bar to avoid using the mouse to gain focus would be a simpler way.
If you only have the two windows open, that would be the key combo to pause the video.
- May 27, 2010
- 27,966
- 5,520
- 144,340
A simple windows app could be created to locate the running process of the video player (if it is in a browser, that really complicate things) set focus, trigger pause, and return focus to the last applications (having already logged what application had focus previously. Tying that to just the space bar might not be practical, but you could create a custom shortcut command for it. An alternative might be a vbscript using WMI to grab running processes and perform much the same function.
I would have to dig deep into Windows, but I imagine the spacebar event is buried in the registry somewhere. Locating the video and setting focus would be a challenge, might not be possible actually, but it would turn the spacebar into a doubleclick action, which might become an issue with other things. Might be possible to avoid that by figuring out what the actual pause command in that application is.
I would have to dig deep into Windows, but I imagine the spacebar event is buried in the registry somewhere. Locating the video and setting focus would be a challenge, might not be possible actually, but it would turn the spacebar into a doubleclick action, which might become an issue with other things. Might be possible to avoid that by figuring out what the actual pause command in that application is.
I believe you could use something called "global hotkeys" which would allow you to make shortcut key to play/pause/whatever without switching focus from currently active thing.
Winamp (development stopped long ago, video support was never great) works fine with those.
As example: CTRL-ALT-INS for play, CTRL-ALT-HOME for pause and so on, all reconfigurable.
VLC also has support for it I believe:
https://wiki.videolan.org/How_to_set_global_hotkeys/
Another solution could be to get a keyboard that has multimedia keys (play/pause/stop/next/prev) which should also kind of lock into in use player. Most video players support these also.
Downside is, none of above work for inbrowser videos from internet and work only on normal video files on video players.
Winamp (development stopped long ago, video support was never great) works fine with those.
As example: CTRL-ALT-INS for play, CTRL-ALT-HOME for pause and so on, all reconfigurable.
VLC also has support for it I believe:
https://wiki.videolan.org/How_to_set_global_hotkeys/
Another solution could be to get a keyboard that has multimedia keys (play/pause/stop/next/prev) which should also kind of lock into in use player. Most video players support these also.
Downside is, none of above work for inbrowser videos from internet and work only on normal video files on video players.
My keyboard does have pause and play buttons. The issue is that I need to go to my second monitor, select the video then hit play every single time and my keyboard is decently far away since I have a tablet in front of me. I am using VLC currently.
Weird, I installed VLC, set up global hotkey for play/pause to space, saved it, closed VLC (as mentioned in the link) and relaunched VLC.
Opened video, tried space, it worked. selected other programs, tried it again, it still worked.
Tried to type this reply and couldn't since each space press changed play/pause status on VLC and I lost spaces because VLC ate them.
It also seemed to work with Paintshop pro X5 so drawing programs are not exception to it.
So to recap, I believe it will work even if VLC is not selected.
Question: did you set the key as application specific hotkey or GLOBAL hotkey?
Opened video, tried space, it worked. selected other programs, tried it again, it still worked.
Tried to type this reply and couldn't since each space press changed play/pause status on VLC and I lost spaces because VLC ate them.
It also seemed to work with Paintshop pro X5 so drawing programs are not exception to it.
So to recap, I believe it will work even if VLC is not selected.
Question: did you set the key as application specific hotkey or GLOBAL hotkey?
That might or might not be a problem, for my logitech G15, media play/pause button works as global hotkey just as well as space does.
That works for me though, it might not work with all keyboards though.
I also tested it on another non-admin account but.. it still worked fine.
That said, I cannot find a way to get it to NOT work globally without video player being active. (I had it on 2nd screen though but 2 or 3 screens should not matter) and having other applications open.
In case windows has issues with your keyboards media keys, you could try to set it as space, as a test? (yes, it would stop space from working for anything else as long as VLC was open but.. as a test it would tell if windows hates media key on your keyboard or not)
Besides that, I fear I am out of ideas. 🙁
Edit: Upon testing more, I found out that if i press modifier key (control, alt, shift) at same time as I press the global hotkey button, it will not work. This might be somehow part of the reason why it seems to not work for you for some reason.
That works for me though, it might not work with all keyboards though.
I also tested it on another non-admin account but.. it still worked fine.
That said, I cannot find a way to get it to NOT work globally without video player being active. (I had it on 2nd screen though but 2 or 3 screens should not matter) and having other applications open.
In case windows has issues with your keyboards media keys, you could try to set it as space, as a test? (yes, it would stop space from working for anything else as long as VLC was open but.. as a test it would tell if windows hates media key on your keyboard or not)
Besides that, I fear I am out of ideas. 🙁
Edit: Upon testing more, I found out that if i press modifier key (control, alt, shift) at same time as I press the global hotkey button, it will not work. This might be somehow part of the reason why it seems to not work for you for some reason.
I don't know what to say, it simply doesn't play unless the video window is selected. The global setup means nothing to it. They work fine when my window is open so my keys are in working order. Space does the exact same thing, nothing. I am not hitting control alt and shift. I just have it bound to the keyboard play button globally.
well, I fear the issue is then with Zbrush software, which you noticed yourself already. Most sofware doesn't really care about taking full control of keypresses. Leaving global hotkeys to work (along with common windows keys like alt-tab and windows button) but some seemingly care and are all "It's mine, I was active, that key press is for ME!!!"
In short, simple ways wont work. It might or might not work but... having second mouse/keyboard for 2nd screen either could fix it or.. not.
Problem with it is, I have no prior experience how it would work and it isn't free:
https://pluralinput.com/
Sorry I couldn't help more.
In short, simple ways wont work. It might or might not work but... having second mouse/keyboard for 2nd screen either could fix it or.. not.
Problem with it is, I have no prior experience how it would work and it isn't free:
https://pluralinput.com/
Sorry I couldn't help more.
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