Help with script - Copy clipboard content into custom field in Project Settings

Hi Audrey Demers,

I use Dragon commands, not AHK, but something weird happened when I updated to Studio 2019.

As usual, some of my Dragon commands stopped working when I updated to Studio 2019.

Strangely enough, it turned out that Studio was suddenly ignoring, for example, an "Enter" key sent by a Dragon command when an "Enter" key sent by the keyboard still worked. Or Studio was suddenly ignoring an "Alt-m" key combination sent by Dragon that still worked when sent manually with the keyboard.

I am not saying that this is what is happening in your case, but just that it is something to keep in mind as a possibility if Studio seems to be ignoring AHK key sequences that work fine when entered manually using the keyboard

I still don't know exactly what was happening. As far as I can tell, the dialog boxes were not losing focus, as I was able to find a workaround using other key sequences -- which I don't think would have worked if the focus had switched to another window.

Good luck with your macro :-)

Studio's user interface is non-standard and old, so I guess we should just be happy that it works as well as it does most of the time.

Hi again Audrey Demers

I thought I should also mention how I discovered the problem I described in my previous post.

For the "Alt-m" key combination, for example, pressing that key combination on the keyboard moved the cursor to an entry field and highlighted the contents, which could then be replaced with something else.

After trying everything else, I finally inserted a "MsgBox" command after the "Alt-m" key combination to stop the Dragon command and see what was happening.

I found that the cursor had not been moved into the field and the contents were not highlighted. But if I then used the keyboard to manually press "Alt-m", the cursor moved into the field.

It did not matter how long I waited in the Dragon command, the "Alt-m" key combination simply did not work any longer when used in the Dragon command. But if the command was stopped at that point, then "Alt-m" worked when the keyboard was used. And the "Alt-m" still worked fine if the entire sequence of keystrokes was manually entered.

The same thing happened in another Dragon command that pressed the "Enter" key. Studio simply stopped recognizing the "Enter" key from the Dragon command, but if I stopped the command at that point, then pressing "Enter" on the keyboard still worked and if the entire sequence was manually entered using the keyboard the "Enter" key still worked.

Very strange. But luckily I was eventually able to find workarounds in all of the cases.

I am looking forward to SDL upgrading to an up-to-date user interface, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting.

Hi Audrey Demers,

I haven't tried your script, so sorry if I can't help.

On the other hand, I've used some scripts to open the Project Settings dialog box and I always noticed the the first time this dialog box is open it takes quite a long time. More than one second, if I recall correctly.

If I'm right, you'd need to increase the first Sleep to something like this:

Sleep 2000 ; wait for 2 seconds

And see if it works.

Otherwise I'd recommend to debug your script. To do so, you can comment some lines (inserting a semicolon character [;] at the beginning of the line), save it, reload it, and check that the script works as expected until your commented lines. If it works, uncomment a few lines more and re-check. Otherwise you know that there is something you need to change in your uncommented lines.

☛ Probably you should be able to decrease all the timers of your script, but the first one, that I recommend to increase it as mentioned above.

I hope it helps,

Hi Audrey,

I tested your script and it worked fine for me. However, I first had to disable F2 as a shortcut for another program, as a screenshot was being taken instead of the Value field becoming active. Could you have some interference for your selected shortcuts? If the field is being activated correctly but nothing is getting pasted, I would look into what could be possibly emptying the clipboard or putting something in it that cannot be pasted into the field. Like I said, I had the issue of my screenshot program taking screenshots, and it was replacing what I had placed in the clipboard, so nothing was getting pasted. Once I disabled F2 as a shortcut for my screenshot program, the script worked fine.

Nice job!
This one seems to work for me:

#p::
Send !p
Sleep 2000
Send Proj
Sleep 300
Send Lang
Sleep 300
Send All
Sleep 300
Send TR
Sleep 300
Send U
Sleep 300
Send {Tab 2}
Sleep 300
Send {F2}
Sleep 999
Send ^v
Sleep 999
Send {F2}
Sleep 999
Send {Enter}
return

Anyway, I doubt that just adjusting the sleep times this way will solve your problem once for all. Retaining focus with AHK (on a field, a window or anything) is sometimes a mystery to mee too, and it can change from session to session.

You might want to try and play with ControFocus (by getting the name of the control via Window Spy). But I could never get it to work and normally use some workaround.

Thanks for  all the info! I used Dragon too but didn’t seem to run into that kind of problem.

You seem to have really described that is happening - anything done manually works, continuing the script manually if it stops at any step works fine - It just won’t work consistently when automated!

Thanks Jesús!

That’s how I wrote the script, one line at the time, and it works fine sometimes, both if I do the steps manually and if I run the script line by line. What I Don't understand is that it’s not consistent - sometimes it works perfectly, other times Nothing is copied.

You’re right about the first timer, a longer sleep time would allow for first/subsequent openings of the Project Settings.

Thanks Nora!

That’s a good possible problem, but I checked different scenarios and the F2 key doesn’t seem to trigger anything else at any step of the script. And when used manually, the F2 key works every time.

From what I can see, the F2 opens up the Field, and I see the cursor flashing indicating that I can type, but Nothing is copied.

I’m quite puzzled by this issue!

Luca Tutino said:

Anyway, I doubt that just adjusting the sleep times this way will solve your problem once for all. Retaining focus with AHK (on a field, a window or anything) is sometimes a mystery to mee too, and it can change from session to session.

You might want to try and play with ControFocus (by getting the name of the control via Window Spy). But I could never get it to work and normally use some workaround.

Thanks Luca!

I think you’re right about retaining focus on the field. I’m not at all familiar with ControlFocus and Window Spy, but I’ll do some research online!

I don't think ControlFocus works with Studio. I've tried it before and never got it to work, mostly due to the Controls changing names. It sounds like a clipboard issue, rather than a focus one, from what Audrey is describing. If focus is the issue, though, then maybe adding a left mouse button click at the right coordinates could help.

Good to know!

I often use the mouse coordinates, but in this case I need to share the script with several project managers who work on different monitor setups, so it’s not an option.

I’ll have a deeper look at Raphaêl Toussaint’s suggestion for the clipboard in this thread and see if I can integrate some of that to resolve the clipboard issue.

Hi Audrey Demers

I tried alternate ways of using the keyboard, then checked them in my Dragon commands until I found something that worked.

In the case where Alt-m suddenly stopped moving the focus to an entry field, I eventually found that a simple right arrow key would also move the focus to the field. I then tried changing the Alt-m to a right arrow key in the Dragon command and found that it worked reliably.

I don't remember what I did when an Enter button stopped responding to an Enter key sent by the Dragon command, but it was essentially the same thing. I found an alternate way to use the keyboard to activate the button, tried it in the Dragon command and found that it worked.

Of course, the nasty thing is that parts of the decades-old Studio user interface now appear to depart so much from Windows standards that you can no longer assume that if it works using the keyboard in Windows then it will also work using AutoHotKey or other keyboard simulators.

I was definitely not expecting that when I was debugging my Dragon commands.

So, when writing a Dragon command, I now also have to keep in mind the possibility that the command might not work even if it has been written correctly. That makes life with Studio a bit more complicated.

Let's hope the situation doesn't deteriorate further.