Switching to tasks, windows inside a task, documents, monitors and icons
A few (a bit old) video's demonstrate task switching and translating this grammar into another language:
Terminology- With task an application on the taskbar is meant.
- With a window, when switching tasks, one of the windows of an application is meant.
- With a document, in multiple documents or tabs applications (like Chrome), a tab of this application is meant.
- With an icon a little image in the system tray is meant (not very much in use, I believe)
- With a monitor one of your displays is meant.
Switching monitors
command | comment |
monitor {monitors} | Switch to one of the monitors in the list, click at the top of the screen and goto to (0.3, 0.3) of the monitor. |
When you have for example two monitors, you can configure them with something like:
[monitors]
one = 1
left = 1
right = 0
two = 0
With trial and error you should find out which one is left and which one is right. In this example the right monitor appears to be 0.
This feature uses functions from the module monitorfunctions.py.
Taskbar switching by position
When the tasks positions on the taskbar are known (see below), so the grammar knows about the task positions, then the application numbers of fixed programs are always the same, and they can be called by number and sometimes by name.
Task switching by name- You can also define application names, to call with the task command, if they are always on the same position on the taskbar see below and configuration.
- Within a session you can give a window (possibly one of many inside a stacked application) a name, and return to this window by saying task <name>.
Task switching by number
This can be implemented in two ways: - By giving the positions of the first task on the taskbar and one of the others. These positions are remembered until you change the placing of your taskbar. See link(get the taskbar positions).
- By connecting to Show Numbers Plus!, which always displays the taskbar numbers. See there for more details, in the rest of this page the first method is assumed.
Switching tasks and doing task actions
command | comment |
task {number} | switch to the numbered task on the task bar |
task {application} | switch to a named application, through the
BRINGUP action. |
task back | switch to the previous task (just { alt+tab }) |
task give name <dgndictation> | give the application in front the name you dictate. This can also be done in combination with all the other task specifications, like task 3 first window give name abacadabra. |
task {dictated name} | The name you defined can be used the same way as all the other task commands, except for stacked windows |
window <1-20> | <firstlast> window | - if in a stacked taskbar window, select the desired window (see below for more examples)
- if in an application, select the sub-window, if implemented.
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task <specification> {taskaction} | go to the task, and perform an additional action, like close | maximise | minimise | other display | tile |
task {taskaction} | perform the task action on the active window. So task close is identical to the built-in command close window.
- special actions for stacked windows: close all | close multiple, can also be turned around (in other languages this may be easier to speak): all close | multiple close. With multiple, you can also define as others, all windows except the first in a stack are closed.
- For task positioning and resizing, see below
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Task positioning commands (not checked recently)
command | comment |
task (move|stretch|shrink|position) ({direction}|{angle}) [further specification] | Move or resize the window in one of the directions or a specified angle. How much is given (optional) in [further specification]. |
Stacked tasks
command | comment |
task one window {number} | switch to sub window of task one |
task one {firstlast} window | alternative rule, firstlast below |
task one first window {taskaction} | all these task commands can be followed with an action, for example close |
task one close all | As special action you can include close all, with a nearly hard coded action (relying on the mouse pointer still being on the task icon of the taskbar) |
Switching documents (tabs) inside a task (application)
Note: see get document position for applications that are relevant.
Note: you can define synonyms for document, eg. doc. Speaks faster.
command | comment |
document {number} | switch to numbered document of the foreground application |
document [{number}] {documentaction} | go to the document and do an addional action eg. close, kill, refresh |
(next | previous) document [{documentaction}] | the same, but now for a document relative to the current tab. |
(next | previous) {2-20} documents {documentaction} | for example close multiple tabs in chrome. |
Notes on {application}:
More details on
BRINGUP details page.
Notes on {taskaction}:- show or edit with show tasks and edit tasks.
- task other display now uses the Unimacro Shorthand Command TASKOD. See also page on monitorfunctions, and link(/installation/inifilestrategy.html, inifile strategy).
- task tile (or task n tile) operates the taskbar shortcut menu. The actions are a bit complicated: RW remembers the active window, TOCLOCK right opens the shortcut menu on the windows clock, h chooses horizontal tiling, and RTW activates the window it came from.
Notes on {firstlast}
This list can have entries like (show or edit with show tasks and edit tasks):
- first=1
- second=2
- last=-1
- before last=-2
Notes on {direction} and {angle} (not checked recently)- show or edit with show tasks and edit tasks.
- default directions: left|up|right|down| leftbottom|lefttop|rightbottom|rightdown| righttop|leftdown|leftbottom
- possible angles: (0|10| ... |360) degrees
Notes on (optional) [further specification] (not checked recently):
- show or edit with show tasks and edit tasks.
- pixels: (1, ... , 200) [pixels*] (word *pixels is optional again)
- relative: (10|20| ... |100) percent
- centimeters, millimeters, inches: (1, 2, ... , 20) (centimeters|millimeters|inches)
- pixels per inch given in .ini file (_tasks.ini), in section [general], key screen dots per inch (default 90)
Positioning the mouse after a task action
With the variable center mouse (in section general of the tasks inifile, say edit tasks to control this variable) you can enable or disable this feature. It is demonstrated in the demo movie.
- With centre mouse = T (or 1) the mouse is positioned 30% from the top left position of the active window.
- With centre mouse = F (or 0) this positioning is not done.
Reaching icons (a bit obsolete)
Note: the clock position has to be recorded first, see get the positions page.
command | comment |
icon {number} | switch to the icon by number |
icon (left|right|up|down) [n]; | move relative inside the system tray (left and up are identical, and right and down are identical)
Sometimes this commands seems not to work, although the focus is on an icon. |
(icon|icon n|icon direction| icon direction n) {iconaction} | perform an action on the current icon, or the icon you switch to.
See the icon actions with show tasks or edit them by saying edit tasks. |
Managing the Start (obsolete)
command | comment |
start menu | just open the Windows start menu |
start menu {startmenucommands} | use additional commands, which you can specify in your _tasks.ini configuration file (nearly obsolete in Windows 8) |
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