Can I send keyboard command to a background app?
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Can I send keyboard command to a background app?
Also, can I use Palette controls to start an application?
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Official comment
Great question! At the moment, you can use Palette to send keystrokes only to in-focus/foreground apps. System utilities can receive keyboard shortcuts from Palette as well.
You can also take advantage of the latter as a workaround to start apps, run scripts, etc., through a workaround using Keyboard Maestro or AutoHotKey. Create a script that opens your application upon a keystroke or MIDI trigger, then map that trigger to a Palette button.
Can I ask—what's your use case for this? Happy to learn more if this is an important feature for you.
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Hi Andy,
I was creating monitor dimmer control for my company’s simulation system utilizing ddc/ci interface. The simulation system runs in dark room so controlling the brightness of monitor is a big deal. I know your product offers dimmer functionality for a single monitor system, but our product has dual monitors. (Q1) Is there anyway to control brightness of two monitors connect to the computer?
I was planning on sending keyboard commands to my ddc/ci control application that is running background, but that does not seems to be an option according to your comment.
I was also thinking about the possibility of invoking the exe or a batch file with command line with argument. I think that is what you were referring as a workaround using AutoHotkey. I guess you meant to let AutoHotkey capture the key event and have it run a script to interact with the software. However, I thought AutoHotkey runs background. Isn’t that the case? (Q2) How would Palette send the key command to AutoHotkey? (Q3) Will the AutoHotkey appear as selectable application in the Palette software? If not, what is the software that I need to target to?
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We have modified a retail monitor model with the circuitry that we control the luminance of back light directly. We have been using this monitor for a few years, but the monitor has been discontinued. We do not want to repeat this since different customers have different requirement on the models and sizes, but we cannot meet all the demands. If we can utilize your product to control the application I was planning to use, that will solve a lot of problems.
We have two manual control panel models. It is cluster of knobs, buttons, and sliders. Customers often times ask us for different arrangement, but those requests are very expensive to satisfy. I am thinking about utilizing Palette to meet this kind of demand. It will be really nice if I can display my company's logo in the Core module.
Thanks for your help.
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Ahh, I understand. To answer your questions:
1. I don't believe you can select the monitor that our Brightness function controls—it's made with the use case of a single integrated monitor (laptop, iMac, etc.) in mind.
2. Based on my understanding, AutoHotKey and similar utilities detect ALL keyboard inputs regardless of the focused app, whereas most apps only detect shortcuts
3. You can target any software, or build the same function across multiple profiles. You can also use Joystick mode as a de-facto generic profile, as it doesn't bind to one specific app.
Lastly, I think there may be a better option than an AHK workaround, now that you've shared your use case. Please contact us direct through the link at developer.palettegear.com if you're interested in early Beta access.
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