sootymatt wrote:
Hi, I'm a professional television captioner and stenography student working in Sydney, Australia.
We use Swift at work and I would like to control the software with my steno machine, particularly the numpad keys which control the video and colouring of captions.
Unfortunately, Swift seems to take control of the numpad in a way which precludes my steno software (Plover) from controlling it - I make it hit numpad 5 and Swift doesn't respond at all, even though the key command works fine when Swift is closed. As far as I know, Plover takes the input from my stenograph and translates it so that Windows just thinks I'm pressing keyboard keys really quickly.
Does anyone here have experience controlling Swift with something other than the keyboard or through alternate macro programs like autohotkey?
I am reaching out to Softel as well but I think there's a good chance the users might know more about something so obscure than whoever I find at Softel.
Hi sootymatt,
From what I understand, you're using steno while working in SWIFT, and SWIFT somehow takes forceful control of your keyboard input, thus not letting Plover translate your input into what you want it to be. I do recall people saying that SWIFT does that, so no surprise here.
AutoHotkey might work, but I am rather skeptical. Let's try this:
1. Download and install AutoHotkey;
2. Create a script (right-click on your desktop > New > AutoHotkey Script);
3. Right-click the script > click Edit Script;
4. Under the header paragraph, add:
F12::
Send, {Numpad5}
Return
F3::ExitApp
5. Launch the script by double-clicking it. Whenever you want to turn it off, press F3.
Now your F12 should act as Numpad5. See if SWIFT intercepts this input.