Duplicate Keys

[tonyroder]

Is it possible to assign a macro to the keypad "down arrow" and retain the original function of the other "down arrow"?

 

Thank you for any suggestions

 

T.

[jason]

Unfortunately, no. Windows treats the keys as the same key when the NumLock is off.

[tonyroder]

That's unfortunate. Other keyboard programs, notably Hot Keyboard, automaticall recognize the difference.

 

T.

[jason]

OK, I think we may be having a disconnect. You can assign a hotkey to the "2" on the keypad, provided that NumLock is turned on. If NumLock is turned off, the down arrow on the "2" is indistinguishable from the standard down arrow.

 

The above is due to how Windows works. If the NumLock is on, the keypad keys send keycodes that are different than the keycodes on the left-side of the keyboard. If the NumLock is off, the virtual keycodes match the keycodes sent by the normal keys (i.e. arrows, home, page up, etc). Also to note, with NumLock turned off, the "5" on the keypad has no keycode, and as such, no macro can be assigned to it.

 

So, in short, make sure that your NumLock is on and you should be ok.

[tonyroder]

I appreciate your explanation, Jason, and understand how it applies to Macro Express; which is to say that this is the solution I am now using.

 

What I do not understand is how a program such as Hot Keyboard manages to circumvent these restrictions by allowing me to define keypad keys without affecting the default function of their keyboard counterparts. Which is also what I would hope Insight could implement as well.