Make many Enterpads out of one

For those of you who own an Enterpad programmable keyboard, you probably have had to replace a useful macro with another more useful one… because you had used every available key on your keyboard. When having 120 spaces is no longer enough, you need to find more space quickly to keep yourself efficient. However, you do not want to replace all your macros one by one, over and over again.

Indeed, it is always heartbreaking to let go of a very useful macro only because it seems the least useful among all the others. Since I use my Enterpad, I went through the process many times after all my keys were assigned to a macro. And it happened often enough that I go back in time and put an older macro back into place on my keyboard.

With AutoHotkey, programming my macros was an easy thing. Open the script in Notepad, build up macros with the online doc when needed, save and reload the script. When I started using a graphic design program, I found out two things: I have no time to spend on remembering all the shortcuts (was it Ctrl+J or Ctrl+Shift+J already), and no hope at all of doing so.

I was left with two options. Option A was to try to remember the shortcuts, or not to use them at all (what a waste of time). Option B was to remove over 40 of my common macros to replace them by my graphic design ones.

It is then that I’ve been told to create another AutoHotkey script for my graphic design software only. Since it is rare for me to use both my common and design macros at the same time, I found useful to have them separate for I wouldn’t have to look for my design macros among the others.

I created a second AHK file which I placed in the same folder as my default one. In both scripts, I configured keys #9 and #10 on the Enterpad to have buttons to load any of my scripts, and to save and reload the script in real-time.

Then I had to decide how to display all the information about the hotkeys on my Enterpad, since many of my keys now held two different macros, depending on the script I use. I first thought of separating my keys in half to write both macros, then to write in different colors.

The easiest way to get it done was even simpler. In fact, I found out the overlay printout (available on CEDEQ website at http://www.cedeq.com/enterpad-p120/download/ep_lay_ahk.pdf), and made one copy for each of my scripts. Therefore, when I switch script, I just change the overlay at the same time!

Now with my two keyboards in the same one, I have the possibility to create as many as I need. And it is simple: create a script, print the overlay and add a shortcut to my other scripts. Another way for the Enterpad to make me save time and effort!

Edmond

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