re-mapping keyboard shortcuts?

[timoteo]

I find some of the keyboard shortcuts annoying, especially the shortcut that causes files to be protected. It appears there is only one (or is it two) keyboard shortcuts for this but somehow I seem to accidentally type this fairly frequently by accident. I'm always scrolling through my files and finding file that have been accidentally protected. Since they are protected, I can't see the thumbnail and have to stop and, on each protected file, select VIEW-<PROTECTED FILES VISIBLE, then I have to select each of those files and toggle the little badge icon to toggle the file protection.

I don't want any file protection, ever. I don't need it; it only irritates me.

On August 08, 2015, user "Ulrich" asked about remapping keyboard shortcuts and Mario told him it wasn't allowed. I have used a number of programs of various kinds over the years that let you re-map the keyboard. This is a feature that I very much need. Many of the shortcuts make no sense to me and if I could I would re-map the shortcut to make it more accessible to me and I would re-map other shortuts out of existence. You allow customization of everything else imaginable. This feature infinitely helpful for some of us. Even Capture One allows this and it does not seem to me to particularly be very well thought out or planned - far less so than iMatch.


Please tell me that you have re-though this since 2015 and that it is possible to do this now!

August 08, 2015, 02:50:29 PM

Hi all,
is it possible to configure the keyboard shortcuts in iMatch? I can't use many of the predefined shortcuts, because I'm on a laptop without the seperate numbers block. Also, some very frequently used commands (e. g. lossless JPEG rotation) have no shortcut at all.
Many thanks for any pointers,
Ulrich

[Mario]

This has nothing to with "being allowed". It's just not supported.
If it would be supported, it would be documented in the IMatch help system.
There is too little demand for this kind of customization.

I find some of the keyboard shortcuts annoying, especially the shortcut that causes files to be protected.

Alt+Shift+P is not a shortcut (for toggling file protection) is, I think, not some shortcut to easily use.
As is <F9>,<0> to show/hide protected files.
Which keyboard shortcut do you use "fairly frequently by accident"?

[timoteo]

It appears that I have not communicated my issue well. I will clarify.

There is an option in the View menu that enables/disables file protection ("Protected Files Visible"). This is disabled by default when imatch is started.

I select a folder from the Media and Folders view. This displays a page full of thumbnails for the images in the folder. As I scroll through the images in this view, I often see a thumbnail that does not represent the selected images. Instead, it shows what I am calling a "shield" image on an otherwise blank thumbnail. This indicates that the file is protected. 

Another, very small "shield" icon is displayed on the left side of this image. When I mouseover this icon, the tooltip shown says "toggles the file protection".  If I click on this small shield icon now to attempt to toggle file protection, I get an error message:  "You cannot remove protection from files while file protection is active. Go to the View menu and disable file protection".

Once I select "View->Protected Files Visible", the correct thumbnail for my image appears in place of the "shield" image. However, this has not disabled the protection for this file. In order to do so, I must click on the very small shield icon on the left edge of the thumbnail.

This is a feature that I not choose to use and never intentionally enable file protection on any file in imatch. Therefore I am enabling file protection by accident. I do not see any option to enable file protection on a file through the menus, so it appears that I have somehow enabled file protection on some of my images through some previously unknown (to me) keyboard shortcut. 

I do not consciously type a specific keyboard shortcut with the intention of enabling file protection on a file.

Reading the keyboard shortcuts section of imatch help, I find only one keyboard shortcut for toggling file protection on an image. That shortcut is:

Toggle File Protection

Alt+Shift+P

I did not know of this keyboard shortcut until now. 

It appears I am accidentally and unintentionally typing this shortcut; I mis-typed - accidentally typing some combination of keys that activates file protection on an image.

As imatch has many customizable options, I thought that perhaps it had the ability to disable this keyboard shortcut entirely. I consulted the imatch help system to see if this were possible but no relevant results were returned by my query and I searched the imatch forum for other information on this feature. Several years ago, another user asked if this were possible and you told him that it was not. The purpose of this post was to find out whether this feature had been implemented since that user had asked about it in the past.

Since I accidentally and unintentionally activate file protection on some of my files, I wondered if perhaps there were a way for me to avoid doing so by disabling file protection entirely, disabling file protection when imatch starts, or disabling the keyboard shortcut.

Is there an imatch solution to this problem? Is there some solution outside of imatch - some keyboard mapping in Windows ltself maybe? 

[rolandgifford]

This is a feature that I not choose to use and never intentionally enable file protection on any file in imatch. Therefore I am enabling file protection by accident. I do not see any option to enable file protection on a file through the menus, so it appears that I have somehow enabled file protection on some of my images through some previously unknown (to me) keyboard shortcut.

I also do this on occasion but it is always because I have accidentally clicked the shield on the thumbnail, rather than a keyboard shortcut, when selecting multiple images. Not being able to immediately click the shield again to turn off protection for these images is an irritant.

[janb83]

Is there an imatch solution to this problem? Is there some solution outside of imatch - some keyboard mapping in Windows ltself maybe?

Yes, you can probably use a combination of Powertoys Keyboard Manager and keymapperto change how keyboard keys behave for photools or disable a specific combination by redirecting it.

[Mario]

Not being able to immediately click the shield again to turn off protection for these images is an irritant.

This behavior is by design. The sole purpose of protecting files is to prevent them from being accidentally displayed, e.g. during a client sitting or whatever.

If you accidentally click icons often enough, maybe enable the icon lock (File Window toolbar/ribbon) to de-activate the icons?
See The Icon Lock

[Mario]

Of, if this is a nuisance bad enough, change the hotkey assigned to the ID_CMD_COLLECTION_PROTECTION_TOGGLE resource in the resource file for your language. You will have to do that every time a new IMatch version ships, but...

I have pondered the idea to allow users to define they own keyboard shortcuts. It would be doable, even if I would settle on a simple JSON file that overrides specific commands. Maybe a few days of development, test and documentation time.
But there is just not enough demand for such a feature ti justify the cost.

[rolandgifford]

If you accidentally click icons often enough, maybe enable the icon lock (File Window toolbar/ribbon) to de-activate the icons?
See The Icon Lock

Excellent!

I'm pleased that I commented as I hadn't noticed that feature

[Mario]

[Jingo]

If the shortcuts are stored in a JSON file, this could also easily be done via an APP... and could auto-restore the file each time a new version is installed.  If there is enough interest in this, let me know and I'll look into creating something!

[Jim K.]

The Icon lock works fine with the icons in file viewer, but unfortunately does not affect the star rating bar underneath. For me personally it happens quite often, that I accidently click on the rating bar, setting a rating (and wondering days later why a avarage foto was rated 5 stars).

Is there a similar way (like for the icons) to "lock" star rating in file viewer?

[janb83]

I would definitely upvote a custom keyboard shortcut feature

[thrinn]

If the shortcuts are stored in a JSON file, this could also easily be done via an APP... and could auto-restore the file each time a new version is installed.

Just replacing a newly shipped resource file with an older version might be harmful. What if new commands, menus, etc. were added? You might lose access to new features this way.

[Jingo]

If the shortcuts are stored in a JSON file, this could also easily be done via an APP... and could auto-restore the file each time a new version is installed.

Just replacing a newly shipped resource file with an older version might be harmful. What if new commands, menus, etc. were added? You might lose access to new features this way.

My thoughts were to:
 a) create a custom namespace and store the user modified shortcuts
 b) write the shortcuts to the master XML file - just overwriting the modified items.

In this way, the new resource file is always used - just the specific requested changes are written to this file.   

In general, I always just learn to use the provided shortcuts that a software provides... and don't modify them unless it is a very special case.  In this way, the help files and supporting docs/user help always remains consistent and makes things easier to discuss/diagnose down the road.  Can only imagine the cases of: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Y isn't working for me when I do this... and everyone else knows this command as Ctrl-I....  or the shortcut is set via override and 10 months later, users don't recall why the standard shortcut isn't working.

[Mario]

Just replacing a newly shipped resource file with an older version might be harmful.

That would be desastrous. Never do such a thing. Resources in IMatch are very dynamic and restoring an older resource file on top of a newer file will cause damage.

For me personally it happens quite often, that I accidently click on the rating bar, setting a rating (and wondering days later why a avarage foto was rated 5 stars).

Hm. Maybe add a feature request to also lock the Rating & Label bar when the icon lock is enabled?
Maybe more users frequently accidentally click into the bar and would welcome the feature?

[timoteo]

This behavior is by design. The sole purpose of protecting files is to prevent them from being accidentally displayed, e.g. during a client sitting or whatever.

I understand the purpose of the feature, but it gets in my way.

Could you add a Preference setting to allow "Protected Files Visible" to be set to False on imatch startup? The default would be as it is now - "Protected Files Visible" set to false.

[Mario]

Protected files are hidden when IMatch starts. You have to explicitly enable them when you want to see them.
This ensures that protected files are not accidentally shown.

[Damit]

For me personally it happens quite often, that I accidently click on the rating bar, setting a rating (and wondering days later why a avarage foto was rated 5 stars).

Hm. Maybe add a feature request to also lock the Rating & Label bar when the icon lock is enabled?
Maybe more users frequently accidentally click into the bar and would welcome the feature?

Its funny, I suggested this months ago and you panned the idea. The same with my suggestion to make keyboard shortcuts customizable. Each time you told me no one requests this. Hopefully now that it is your idea, maybe you are more open to it because the rating shortcut is incredibly easy to hit by mistake. That is probably why initially it was accompanied by a ctrl to make it so.

I would definitely upvote a custom keyboard shortcut feature

If anyone else wants to customizable keyboard shortcuts, please like my post where I request this feature here. A like is a vote for the feature.