How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

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How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by lphilpot »

That is, if ePIM is running in the background (minimized to the tray, taskbar, whatever), I'm in another program and hit a key combo that's defined as a shortcut in ePIM, it intercepts the key combo and pops to the foreground. That means if I want to use a shortcut in another program that's also defined in ePIM, I have to shutdown ePIM in order to use it.

I can see a certain (limited) use in having globally-available shortcuts if you only use a few of them, but I use the keyboard heavily in virtually every application. I'd like to be able to make ePIM respond to shortcuts ONLY when it's the foreground task.

How?

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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by Max »

Hello,

EPIM should only hijack the global shortcuts, which you see in Tools-> Options-> Shortcuts-> Global
You can change those Global shortcuts.
If some other shortcuts are hijacked- please make screenshots of the shortcuts setup in EPIM and tell which shortcuts behave unexpectedly.
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by lphilpot »

Problem is, there's no equivalent shortcut under Mail, only under Global (new message). It appears the shortcuts can be dragged and dropped from one category to another, but once picked up from Global, the "no" symbol never goes away (so I can't drop it on the Mail category).

I want shortcuts, just not global.
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by bofh »

I agree with the OP, and I consider this a quite important issue.
EssentialPIM is not the most important program for every user, therefore it must not rely on being able to use "global" shortcuts.

Is there a local shortcut for every entry in the "global" shortcut list?

For example in Tasks, the menu item "Actions -> New task" doesn't show a shortcut, but the help file says Ctrl-R is "Add to root".

So what's the difference between these three?
* Ctrl-R (in Tasks)
* Shift+Ctrl+O
* Actions -> New task

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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by admin »

You can always disable global shortcuts if you don't wish to use them.
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by bofh »

The point was not about disabling the global shortcuts but about the "local" equivalents resp. the ambiguities in them.

What's the difference between these three?
* Pressing Ctrl-R in Tasks, mentioned in the help as "Add to Root"
* Default "Shift+Ctrl+O" global shortcut
* Actions -> New task

BTW: Ctrl-R doesn't work initially after switching to the task view. I have to select a task entry. Didn't yet see how to do this with the keyboard.
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by admin »

Default shortcuts work outside EPIM, while the rest of shortcuts work only when EPIM is active. That's the difference.
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by Keldi »

The difference between global/local shortcuts is clear, but the issue here is that the actions in the
Options > Shortcuts > Global
aren't duplicated in
Options > Shortcuts > General

If I want to create a New Task from anywhere in EPIM (while I'm in Notes/Calendar/... module) by simply pressing one key (i.e. F1) I'd have to assign F1 as a global hotkey. But F1 isn't a key I'd want to lose in all other applications. And there is no way to have that action without it being global, I'd have to use far more than one shortcut to create a task from anywhere in EPIM but without using the system-wide shortcut:
- type Alt F N T (to open the menu > File > New > Task)
- or even hit the shortcut to switch to the Task Module, TAB, TAB, shortcut for Add to Root in Tasks (or menu Action > New Task).
But all that is nowhere near as fast as F1.

I myself use an AutoHotKey script to use F1 only inside EPIM to trigger the default global shortcut:

Code: Select all

; When EPIM window is active, on pressing F1 the hotkey Ctrl+Shift+O is sent
#IfWinActive, ahk_exe EssentialPIM.exe
{

F1::
Send ^+{vk4F}
return
}
#IfWinActive
return
But if somebody wants to disable the global shortcuts, they are out of luck even with such workarounds.
EPIM made all the add New (task/appointment/note/...) shortcuts an all or nothing kind of thing: either global or not at all.
IMHO, it's reasonable to expect everything that can be done with a global shortcut also to be possible with a local one. Some programs even make it possible to add several shortcuts for one action and to determine which are global by a checkbox:
shourtcuts_example.png
shourtcuts_example.png (8.08 KiB) Viewed 3306 times
 
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by lphilpot »

Personally I can see a limited value in some global shortcuts but if I had to choose I'd prefer all local (per app, no global) shortcuts over global ones that steal focus. I have Ctrl+Shift+D mapped to command prompt, use Win+<x>, etc. but that's about it.
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by admin »

Keldi, you mean you'd like to have some (if not all) of the shortcuts applicable regardless of your location in EPIM and at the same for the shortcuts to not function outside of the program?
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by Keldi »

Yes, almost like that. I'd like
admin wrote: Tue Dec 22, 2020 6:33 pm to have some (if not all) of the shortcuts applicable regardless of your location in EPIM
and at the same time to keep the existing set of shortcuts that function outside (and inside as they are global) of the program and configure the two separately.

In other words, to have an option to choose:
1) for which actions I want to have a shortcut that works everywhere (I use the global shortcut 'Show All Stickies' when EPIM is minimized and when it's not);
2) for which actions I want to have two different shortcuts, global+local (for 'New Task' I use the global shortcut Ctrl+Shift+O when EPIM is minimized (and as a global shortcut it'll work inside EPIM too), but I use F1 when EPIM is active because it's faster than using Ctrl+Shift combo);
3) for which actions I want to have the shortcut that works only in EPIM but not outside (for "New Contact' I use F3 when EPIM is active, but I don't need the global shortcut for when EPIM is minimized)
4) for which actions I want to set no shortcut (for "New Mail" I set the shortcut to None as I don't use the Mail module).

I believe lphilpot and bofh were also talking about 3). I just went a little further with the idea.


To illustrate, it might look something like this in the settings:

[Global] (global hotkeys that work inside and outside the program)
Minimize to System Tray
New Appointment
New Task
New Note
New contact
New Message
New Password Entry
Insert Date and Time (why this one is in the Global section? It works only inside EPIM...)
Show All Stickies

[Switching Between Modules]
...

[General] (shortcuts that work throughout EPIM but not outside)
Switch to Next Module (why isn't it in the Switching Between Modules section?)
Hide/ Show Private Items
Focus on Search Box
Advanced Search
Attachments Manager
Tags Explorer
Toggle Read-Only
Toggle Private/Public
Paste as Plain Text
New Appointment
New Task
New Note
New Contact
New Message
New Password Entry
Show All Stickies
...

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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by lphilpot »

I'd just like epim shortcuts to be limited to epim, not global. Beyond that I'm not too particular, but it would be nice (IMO) to have a given shortcut key combo be limited to a single function (i.e. not do one thing in one module and another in another).
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by admin »

Keldi, interesting concept, thanks very much for the detailed explanation. Will surely consider implementing it.

lphilpot, got it, thanks. Meanwhile, you can set all the global shortcuts to None if you don't wish them to function outside EPIM.
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by bofh »

My request was more about the documentation and application consistency (I already disabled global shortcuts):

In Calendar, the menu Actions -> New Appointment has a shortcut listed (Ins).

In Notes, the menu Actions -> New Note has a shortcut listed (Ctrl-R).

In Tasks, the menu Actions -> New Task has no shortcut listed.

The CHM help tells me that Ctrl-R makes a new task although the menu doesn't show it. But Ctrl-R works not always, for example if I use Ctrl-2 to switch to tasks, Ctrl-R works not yet. But if I click in the task list, Ctrl-R works. This might be a bug, else (if intentional) it should be documented.

Maybe it's a good idea to use the same shortcut for new task/note/appointment.

To be extended to other modules, I use only calendar, tasks and notes.
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Re: How to prevent ePIM from stealing keyboard shortcuts when not foreground?

Post by admin »

bofh, in Notes you can also use Ins, in this case a new child note will be created. You can change the shortcut, if you wish. Confirm the small inconsistencies with tasks, though. Will address that in the nearest release.
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