28 replies to this topic

[avellant]

Flicks² is utility that extends Windows's built-in pen&touch flicks capabilities and brings more sophisticated gestures to tablet/umpc users.
It allows users to make two flicks in a row to execute certain commands.

Features:
-Faster way to make right click
-Editing flicks ( copy, paste, delete, enter, backspace, undo etc... )
-Navigation flicks ( Back/Forward, Close/New/Next/Previous tab )
-Application control flicks ( close, minimize, maximize/restore etc... )
-Resize window by drawing new size on the screen -Move window by grabbing -built-in mediaControlsPanel ( play, pause, volume etc.. )
-built-in DisplayPanel ( control screen brightness and rotate display )
-built-in finger-frienly launcherPanel( TouchLaunch )
-built-in Sketch on the screen -tool
-built-in QuickNote -tool

Requirements:
- Windows 7/Vista
- .Net Framework 3.5
- Tablet PC or UMPC

List of flicks:


This is early alpha version, so please tell me what you think of it.

more info & downloads from:
Flicks² homepage

Edited by avellant, 06 May 2010 - 11:32 AM.

[avellant]

Anyone tried yet? I saw 18 downloads :)

[skysea]

Thanks very much! I wanna try... however, the monitor of my T91MT has some blue line on it. Let me repair my T91MT and then install it the first thing! I want to have more customized flick action!

Edited by skysea, 25 March 2010 - 04:46 AM.

[skysea]

Thanks for the s/w! Here are some comments:

- it is great to use 2 gestures combined for actions! Very creative and useful!
- can I/you help to customize my own command for the gesture? Some command may be:
- F11 (i.e. full screen)
- right click (cos there is no fast way to do right click on T91MT)
- middle click (same as above)
- Ctrl 3 (cos for Foxit Reader, this allows auto-fit width function, which is very good for ebook reading!)
- Ctrl Atl Left (= portrait mode of rotation of screen)
- Ctrl Atl Up (= landscape mode of rotation of screen)
- Some other commands that enable open link in new tab in firefox, chrome, etc.

The above is from an frequent user point of view of this tablet function, esp. for ebook reading and browsing internet.

[avellant]

skysea, thanks for the comments!

-Fullscreen gesture would be nice, I been using this ModLock for F11, but F11 is not
really universal for fullscreen, so I think i'm going to write a gesture that recognizes topmost window and send the key based on that.
-about right and middle clicks, there's quite risk for accidental clicks if tied to flicks... It's possible, though
I think "press and tap" two-finger gesture is quite efficient. But there's nothing for middleclick and
two-finger right click isn't nice if you are holding stylus.

Ctrl Alt Left, Up? Which program uses these?
I modded the touchhome key to rotate screen instantly. And with flicks^2, you can rotate screen also,
by doing upleft-downright gesture and pressing the rotate button on the powersettingdialog.

I will add some customizable gestures, with you can open programs, send keystrokes etc. after I'll got the basic gestures figured out.
I want them to be quite natural and so the program would have more "complete" feeling at the start.


Thanks for comments! And feel free to give more ideas :)

PS. I'm working on version 0.3, it has gesture to take screenshot and paint ink on it. And maybe usb eject function.
Edit. And also grab and move windows function, and found it very useful with some programs that have dialogs that aren't really
designed to view with 1024x600.

Edited by avellant, 26 March 2010 - 10:14 PM.

[skysea]

Thanks Avellant!

The below commands are hotkey control for screen orientation by built in device driver of T91MT. However, you have to turn on the hot key to use it:
- Ctrl Atl Left (= portrait mode of rotation of screen)
- Ctrl Atl Up (= landscape mode of rotation of screen)

Thanks for Flick2 command, actually, I am thinking if a quicker way of rotating screen is possible to mimic the effect of iPad, esp. in reading books...

:)

Keep the work up!

[avellant]

Just added new version: Flicks² homepage

0.3.0 [3.4.2010]
-More intuitive interface
-Better instructions
-Upper-right flick simulates mouse right click
-Sketch on the screen
-Move window by grabbing it
-Free-resize ( draw window's new bounds on screen )
-3 Custom flicks, send keystrokes or launch applications
-TouchLaunch
-MediaControls work in any application
that supports multimedia keys
-Vista compatible

Edited by avellant, 03 April 2010 - 08:55 PM.

[orangepigeon]

I didn't like the first version, but the new one is actually pretty nifty. Gonna take a while to get used to it all though.

a few comments:

1 The single flicks page lists down-left as alt tab It actually sents a ctrl-tab.

2 On the other flicks page, selecting any of the options under Custom 1 gives an error message saying "testi"

3 The backspace command is difficult to use, and delete has two listed commands. just sayin...

and some questions...

1 I am assuming that the displayed gestures are the directions to flick in order of flickage. I think it would be more intuitive if you just showed the shape made and mark the start/end points. For example, undo has up and then down-left ( like |/ ), but you start the down-left at the top of the up flick. (like /| )

2 Does it use the same sensitivity as on the pen and touch control panel? In order for them to work, I have to go really fast, which isn't very comfortable nor accurate since I'm hurrying. I'm lazy and want to increase the time between gestures that it will recognize. ** NM ** I saw the delay on the general settings page right after i posted.

Edited by orangepigeon, 04 April 2010 - 05:34 PM.

[avellant]

orangepigeon,
thanks for the comments!
1. It actually sends ctrl-alt-tab, which makes the alt-dialog to "stick" on the screen. Maybe it should say something like alt-tab dialog or something like that...
2. You found a bug! :) btw. "testi" is finnish and mean "test". Something I must forgot to erase when switching from debug build to release. But it doesn't seem affect the program anyway, just adds up annoying factor.
3. Any suggestions for backspace? Left flick could be possibly to assign send backspace, but i don't know there could some problems with some programs.

Answers to your questions:
1. Yes it's kinda of complex, but decided to present those in that way, because it's clearly show that they are individual flicks and show which one comes first. But I'll take this under consideration.

2. The way that this program works is that it uses the built-in windows's flick commands. It reconfigures them to send keystrokes CTRL+F1-F8 ( with those reg files found in zip package ). Then it register itself to respond in those keystrokes. Not the most elegant solution but seems to work for now.
So long story short, Yes it uses same sensitivity settings than then pen and touch control panel defines. But the time between to strokes can be adjusted from Flicks2 - Settings ( "Gesture reognition delay"). You have remember that the delay that you set is also the "lag" between single flick and action.

**Read your edit after submitting :)** but maybe the answer serves somebody else.
**"testi" messagebox bug fixed on version 0.3.0.1, available at flicks2 homepage

Edited by avellant, 04 April 2010 - 07:04 PM.

[skysea]

Thank you very much for the new version!

Tried and have some comments:

- instead of ATL TAB, can we use "Ctrl+WIN+TAB", i.e. using the sticky windows aero effect of alt-tab?
- Following up the above, in custom command, I tried to set WIN key by using the send key function mentioned in your help menue for custom command. However, I cannot find the proper key for WIN key. Can you help?
- Frequently, I use maximize windows (e.g. F11) for Foxit PDF Reader and Firefox, and I hide the windows task bar to maximize the screen space. Hence, I have to use "WIN+T" to bring up the taskbar. Do you think it is possible to have some commands for F11 and WIN+T?
- I appreciate your effort and response to add "right click", this is handy and thanks for listening & improvements!

Flicks2 made finger actions for table PC more intuitive and easy to use! ^_^

Edited by skysea, 04 April 2010 - 11:10 PM.

[avellant]

skysea,
-I'll add option to use flid3d instead of regular alt-tab to the next version. Actually in very early non-public version
I had that way, but I found it to be cool but not very useless :) But I'll add the option.

-F11 can be send just typing {F11} in the "key" textbox, see the reference.
In summary (+ for shift, ^ for ctrl and % for alt ) and the key code. E.g. ctrl+shift+A would be "^+a". Microsoft
hasn't implement win-key handling to Sendkey function for some reason.
But I can make it working by calling native windows api's, but I would have to write whole lot of code,
so it will take some time.
I think that autohotkey supports sending win key, so for now you either can
wrote ahk script and execute it with custom flick, or use ctrl+esc ("^{ESC}") to open startmenu and to show taskbar.

I always appreciate good ideas like the right-click ( even though my first thought was that there's no need for that, especially with multitouch screen ),
so thank you for that :)

Btw. there's a hidden feature in flicks2, the counter flick which says "NA - reserved" actually search a file named USB_Disk_Eject.exe from the programs folder
and if it finds it, it'll execute it. So you can go [url=http://quick.mixnmojo.com/usb-disk-ejector"]here, download USB Disk Ejector, and put the exe file to the flicks2's program folder.
It's handy if you use lots of usb devices.

[skysea]

Thanks Avellant again for the reply and work!

In future release, is it possible to allow user customized action (including "windows" key) for each gesture, i.e. similar to the original "Flicks" in windows 7?

It would be perfect if I can customize my own action (e.g. I don't use "delete" function and I can customize my flicks by replacing ALT-TAB, etc.).

BTW: I love the "Sketch on screen function"!

[avellant]

New version:
0.3.1.0 [7.4.2010]
-Added option to start with Windows
-Added option to use Flip3D instead of standard alt-tab switcher

All the flicks will be more customizable in the future, I just first want have "solid" default layout. So it could as intuitive to use as it could be in the second you first launch it.

There's a known bug on the "Sketch on the screen" feature. That the screenshot which it takes includes the last flick's icon.
Those overlay icons are caused Windows flicks feature. And for now there's nothing that can be done with it, except adding some kind of delay when taking screenshot, but it would
also add delay when starting sketch function.
0.4 or 0.5 version will be having a new gesture engine that doesn't rely on Windows flicks. It eliminates sketch bug and makes possible to this program run on XP.
Maybe more advanced gestures, also...

[skysea]

Thanks for the flip 3D change! I love it!

There seems to be a problem in assigning a program for custom 2. I tried to assign penwritehide.exe from you by there is no action. However, if I set it in custom 3, it can work! Strange...

I tried to use the touch launch by upflick on start button, however I wait for 1 minute and there is still no action.

Besides, if my task bar is moved to the left side, I guess both the touch launch cannot be launched as my start button is located at top of the screen. Note: I can still use upflick to bring up "Power Panel"...

As there is 2 delete actions, can 1 of them be changed as "middle mouse click"? it is usefully esp. for opening new link as new tab from firefox and other function of middle click.

Thanks for improving the s/w!

Edited by skysea, 08 April 2010 - 02:34 PM.

[avellant]

There's typo was my code. Custom2 run action was checking if custom1s run box were checked. I uploaded fix to my website.
Also, I removed icons from the touchlaunch. It isn't so pretty anymore, but runs faster.
And yes, currently the upflicks on the taskbar only works properly if taskbar is on the bottom edge. Activating flick
should be always directed away from taskbar. But the gesture engine remake is going to change program so much internally
so I rather write the taskbar improvement after that.

About those delete flicks. There's two flicks for that because the two-flick combination was ment to remind like writing the letter X and there's
multiple ways to write that. So I think i keep it that way now.
But there is currently 27 two-flick combination in use out of 64 ( Windows had 8 original flicks, Flicks² adds 8^2 flicks more... That's story behind the name ).
So there's 37 two-flick combination free.

There's a little problem when assigning middle-click to two-flick combination. There's two start points, using first would be most logical.
I think the first flick should up-right ( like with right-click ), and the second either left or down. Both of which are allready in use, but that can be changed.

Edited by avellant, 12 April 2010 - 03:31 PM.

[orangepigeon]

I got a couple more pointers for ya.

It doesn't seem to be saving the setting for the gesture delay between reboots. I always forget to set it back up to about 450 and go crazy wondering why it isn't working before realizing I have to bump it back up manually.

The sketch on the screen is quickly becoming my favorite function. Its great to take quick notes or doodle in a boring meeting :D However, sliders and drop down menus aren't very finger friendly. I would like to see 3 separate buttons to go between screenshot/white/black backgrounds and 2 + and - buttons to change the pen size.

Thanks!

[skysea]

Hi Avellant, haven't heard from you for a while. May I know when is the next version of Flick2 scheduled? Looking forward to some new cool features, e.g. allowing win + T for bring up hidden win7 task bar... etc.!

Thanks for creating this s/w! :)

[avellant]

Hello everyone!

There's a new version out there:

0.3.2.0 [6.5.2010]
-Added: A flick to perform middle-click
-Added: QuickNote tool ( 5 page inknotepad )
-Added: Check for updates -feature
-Bug fixed: losing gesturedelay between reboots

orangepigeon: there's now better tool to take Quicknotes included :)
skysea: sorry this doesn't have win + a key combination yet. But it's coming. Hang on there :)

Edited by avellant, 06 May 2010 - 11:43 AM.

[rscasas]

Thanks!
BTW Check your web pages. There is an error.

"an error occurred while processing this directive"

[avellant]

rscasas, Thanks for informing. Webadmin has seems to have been testing new "security" settings. But now it's fixed.