I just got my Droid Pro and I'm loving it. My old Galaxy phone had arrow keys and I'm getting used to not having them on the DP. I can't figure out how to do something that used to be easy on the Galaxy.
In certain apps that have history lists, like the Market app, I could easily modify an existing search term by using the down arrow key to auto-fill it, and then edit the text and search for it. On the DP this doesn't seem possible since I can't arrow down, and if I touch the history item it immediately searches on it, and then I can't edit the search term.
For example, say I search the market for "volume" but don't find anything useful so I need to search again. On my Galaxy I could just type "v" and the history list would show "volume", I click the down arrow once to fill the search box with that and then type " scroll" after that, to search for "volume scroll".
Is there any way to do this on the DP? I've googled a while but its not an easy thing to search for, haven't found anything on how to do this.
Well, after hours of googling and testing, I found some solutions. There are a number of virtual d-pad and trackball apps out there, but I wanted something a little more seamless. I found ButtonRemapper (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=850464) and I used it to remap the Voice key on my DP, and now that key is equivalent to the down-arrow key.
Sigh of happiness. Now I can keep my fingers on the keyboard when filling out forms on a web page, so no more type then touch then type then touch then type. And I can edit history list items like form-fill and such, so I don't have to keep re-typing my searches to modify them.
I still haven't found what I'm really looking for... I'd like a way to dynamically remap hard keys. For example, if I'm in the Market app or a web browser, the volume rocker would get converted into up and down arrow keys. If I'm not in those apps then the volume keys would act normally and adjust the volume.
Related
What is the Jog Button program?
It seems to have installed itself on one of my hardware buttons and ocassionally scrolls through several functions when that button is pressed.
I know how to change the button assignment but am wondering if there is something about Jog Button that we will want to use?
JogButton was just a freeware app we liked which allows multiple functions to be controlled by a single button. Feel free to re-assign the apps using JogButton's 'Tools' menu, or to use the button for something else entirely.
X
Thanks for the quick reply.
Do you know where I can find a help file for instructions for Jog Button?
I couldn't find it within the device and in playing with the program it just doesn't come to me.
JogButton Instructions
Fairly simple once you get the hang of it...
1. Press-and-hold the contacts button to activate JogButton. This causes the programs in its list to scroll/cycle
2. Release the contacts button when the icon of a program that you want to activate appears
Setup
1. Press-and-hold the contacts button
2. Click on the tools menu at bottom of screen
3. Select setup from the tools menu
4. The dialog that shows lists the programs and order of cycle.
5. Add/Delete/Edit as desired
6. The Snd check box is a toggle for sound/no-sound (a beep as each program is shown)
7. Duration is the number of milliseconds that an icon is shown
Hopefully that answers you questions
I'm the author...
Tek
Thanks for the reply. You are a genius!
This seems like a very handy app.
Joe_PDA
other buttons
What about using this very simple app on the calender button.
Have your "serious" stuff on one side,
then "toys" on the other..
I presume you have future plans, so give us a clue please
Perhaps even ask for ideas...
Martin
JogButton - Future Plans...
I started coding an alt-tab like feature into JogButton, but was not sure if that would be useful for anyone other than me. As you may know alt-tab in the Windows world scrolls you through the open list of of apps in a Last-in-first-out/Most Recently Used fashion. This would be useful for switching between two apps, the downside would be that you would have to remember the order. I was thinking of putting a toggle on either the menu or in the setup dialog to select this mode.
As for using two buttons, it is possible,but the way PocketPC handles the programs assigned to a button they have to have different names. I would of course have to make a few minor adjustments to allow for this, but it is possible.
I'm up for any suggestions to make this program more useful. Start a list and let's see what we get.
8)
Re: JogButton - Future Plans...
tekknogenius said:
I'm up for any suggestions to make this program more useful. Start a list and let's see what we get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bug: by timing a quick press just right, I can get it in a mode where it keeps cycling through the programs even though I've released the button already.
I think I was unable to map it to both the hardware buttons using a different list of programs to cycle through for each button. Since a single short press still does the same thing, there's really no reason not to map it to the second button also. (?? Quick hack: map second button to patched Jogbutton2.exe, using different set of registry keys. Better: multiple small stubs which start the real exe telling it which stub was executed. ??)
Maybe map a special action to pressing both buttons at the same time?
Also, something like 'double-press' and 'triple-press' found in some other programs to quickly go to the second and third item (or completely different items) without looking at the phone would be handy. I never really use the rocker-switch, but it could be handy for app starting: just keep the hardware button pressed and hit one of the four directions or the center, giving you 5 new things (per hardware button) to start.
JogButton...
Good suggestions. I can enhance it to use all available buttons. I prefer to use one hand, but others might like to have more options available.
hmm, must be a n00b suggestion, but perhaps it would be possible to use the volume control button? i dont use it for anything anyway.
Only two options... that I know of...
On the XDA/MDA PPCPE there are only two mappable buttons, unlike other PPC that have four or five. It's either the contacts button or the calendar button. Now once an app is mapped to either button and the app is launched, it can control any of the buttons. As a side note, the volume button would be great if it were dual functioning: a press-and-release brings up the volume dialog; a press-and-hold would bring up the record function.
Hi all,
I really miss the keyboard popup from a longpress on the menu key from Android v1.6.
Anyone found a way to implement this on the 2.2?
Its a big help when using things like emulators that want a keyboard.
that would be interesting to know... especially when searching for songs i'd appreciate to have this function
yeah I've searched everywhere for a solution to this problem and I'm really surprised at the lack of interest in this. If you are in an app that needs a text input but doesnt display a text field, then there's no way of opening the keyboard! And I cant seem to find any way to map a keypress to keyboard either, there seem to be lots of examples of how to map key presses to apps, or search, but not the keyboard.
Phones with physical keyboards have a definite advantage here.
Hi all, I'm trying to add the following actions as the 3 keyboard shortcut keys:
Button 1: Voice Input (voice-to-text)
Button 2: Home key
Button 3: Back key
So far, I've only had success with Home key by choosing my Launcher app as the shortcut.
Anyone have any advice on how to make these actions work as shortcut keys?
There is a guide in the development section, I forgot the name, but its an older guide so just look carefully for it. Also, try searching for it.
Sent from my HTC Vision
why would you need this? you can just reach up with your right thumb and hit the buttons lol.
As far as voice search (or voice dialer), there's actually an app for that so you should be able to just apply that as the app to launch on key press.
martonikaj said:
why would you need this? you can just reach up with your right thumb and hit the buttons lol.
As far as voice search (or voice dialer), there's actually an app for that so you should be able to just apply that as the app to launch on key press.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm lazy ok, lol.
Voice search is different from voice input I think.
Voice input is the one that's only for text-to-speech. The virtual keyboard has a button for it, but not the hardware keyboard.
EDIT: Cool, I found the guide to add Home and Back buttons.
I just needed to change vision-keypad.kl
Now to find out how to add Voice Input to the button on the left!
Hahutzy said:
I'm lazy ok, lol.
Voice search is different from voice input I think.
Voice input is the one that's only for text-to-speech. The virtual keyboard has a button for it, but not the hardware keyboard.
EDIT: Cool, I found the guide to add Home and Back buttons.
I just needed to change vision-keypad.kl
Now to find out how to add Voice Input to the button on the left!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well if you're really lazy, you'd want to keep the home, back and search buttons where they are, and use the 3 quick launch keys for 3 apps that can't be created with the capacitive home back and search keys.
martonikaj said:
Well if you're really lazy, you'd want to keep the home, back and search buttons where they are, and use the 3 quick launch keys for 3 apps that can't be created with the capacitive home back and search keys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The concept got me intrigued lol.
So I got my Nexus 7, and think its awesome! I got mine so I can install it in the dashboard of my car to use as media player/navigation, all that good stuff.
I thought it would be great to use a bluetooth media remote attached to the steering wheel to control basic functions. I purchased the Satechi Media Remote, and for the most part it works perfect! There is only one main issue and one minor issue.
Main Issue:
The remote has a button on the bottom middle that has a square on it. It works just like pushing the Home button.
While it is in my dashboard, it will be rare that I need to go to the actual home screen, and instead i would like it to take me to the car dock app I use. I have been trying many things to get it to work and I can not get it to function as anything else!
I tried using the app "External Keyboard Helper" and it worked for remapping the other 2 lower buttons on the remote (which is part of question 2), but I can not get it to remap the middle button. When I use the degugger in External keyboard helper, if I push that button it doesnt log the keypress and goes to the home screen like it is supposed to. I tried manually setting the keycode (102) to run an app and it still just goes to the home screen.
The next thing I tried was to edit the actual keylayout files like what is outlined here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695936
Doing it this way I can not seem to get it to change any of the three buttons to anything else. At first I couldnt figure out which .kl file to edit, so I searched and replaced all instances of HOME and MOVE_HOME in all the files, and moved them back to the device, still no change.
Do I need to make a cutom .kl with the vendor name and id in the title?
Where do I get that information from?
I tried editing the file Vendor_05ac_Product_0239.kl since in its comments it says its for a "Apple Wireless Keyboard", which this device is supposed to emulate to work with ipods/ipads, still nothing.
I am at my witts end trying to find the right way to remap this one button on this little remote hahaha
The second issue which is very minor, which might not be solved in here. I want to map one of those other lower buttons to google voice search. When I run the setup for "External Keyboard Helper" it has a section for mapping the running of an app to a key, which worked for car dock and a car music player. The problem is, when I go to the Application shortcuts portion of the app, the only thing I see listed in there is "com.google.android.voicesearch". If I set that as the app to run when I press a key I see this..
"com.google.android.voicesearch is not installed"
Is there a way to launch google voice search without having to click on the microphone in the search bar?
I got the thing working! I had to make a new KL file for the "keyboard"
I found this thread that told me how to get the vendor and product id, that seemed to be what was missing.
http://www.thriveforums.org/forum/toshiba-thrive-development/9626-how-create-customized-keylayout-any-usb-bluetooth-keyboard-rooted.html
The file name needs to match those.. its information is
Vendor ID 05ac
Product ID 023c
so the kl file is named
Vendor_05ac_Product_023c.kl
The scan codes for the three lower buttons are
161 (bottom left with the keyboard logo)
172 (middle bottom with the square)
113 (bottom right with the mute logo)
I changed the one for the bottom middle to SEARCH, and from that point on I could remap the key with the app External Keyboard Helper.
Next thing I need to do is figure out how to run a app from a keypress without using that remapper.. and how to start google search from a keypress
ShreddinPB said:
I got the thing working! I had to make a new KL file for the "keyboard"
I found this thread that told me how to get the vendor and product id, that seemed to be what was missing.
http://www.thriveforums.org/forum/toshiba-thrive-development/9626-how-create-customized-keylayout-any-usb-bluetooth-keyboard-rooted.html
The file name needs to match those.. its information is
Vendor ID 05ac
Product ID 023c
so the kl file is named
Vendor_05ac_Product_023c.kl
The scan codes for the three lower buttons are
161 (bottom left with the keyboard logo)
172 (middle bottom with the square)
113 (bottom right with the mute logo)
I changed the one for the bottom middle to SEARCH, and from that point on I could remap the key with the app External Keyboard Helper.
Next thing I need to do is figure out how to run a app from a keypress without using that remapper.. and how to start google search from a keypress
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you made any progress on this? i'm interested in this as well...
I got one of these remotes as well to use as a music/gps remote in my vehicle mounted Nexus 7. It works well, but let's hope a smart developer will make a better "external keyboard helper".
Hi can someone share his .kl file.
The Satechi device doesn't work at all with my MK888b box.
Interesting in this too
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Know this is an old post, but this helped me immensely. Got a Satechi remote and this quick tutorial helped me a ton. Seemed a little pain in the ass-ish at first, but realistically only took 5 minutes to get situated. Now to figure out how to bind a key to a specific app.
You probably don't even have this device anymore, if you change the keycode for whatever button you want to have open Google search to look like
key XXX VOICE_ASSIST
It'll open up Google voice search for you.
Coming from the Note 1, I didn't realize that I would miss the lack of a search button until I opened the browser and had to click on the URL bar before I could type into it. With one hand, that's almost impossible. Used to just tap on the search button and it would highlight the URL text so I could erase and type something else. Now I either need to use two hands or readjust so my thumb can reach the top and then readjust again to type on the keyboard.
So my question is: can I re-map anything to replicate this function? I tried to find something to re-map a long-press of the back button but had no luck. And I don't want to do a combo-button press such as Home+Back in Home2. I don't even know what function I would assign to it anyway, that would highlight the text in the URL field. Any help is appreciated.