Can a keyboard shortcut be a sequence such as Ctrl, f b ?

[Bruce Thomson]

In MSWord you can have multi-press shortcuts, such as Hold down Alt, then press f and then press b

 

Can MacroExpress do that? 

 

I want to be able to organize set of conveniently named keyboard shortcuts that quickly access various Facebook pages like this...

Alt-  f, a      Facebook art movies group

Alt-  f, m     Facebook materials science group

Alt-  f, c      Facebook cycling group
Alt-  y, c     YouTube channel page
Alt-  y, u     YouTube upload a movie page

 

I realize the option of a Shortkey but I want to launch directly from a keyboard shortcut (instead of having to type text into an app, disturbing the current activity)

[acantor]

When you assign hotkeys like that in Word, you're using a technique called "deadkey hotkeys. The system has been around since at least the 1980s. Today few people use them.

 

Although Word's implementation of deadkey hotkeys is a bit flaky, the system works well enough. The idea is that you press a hotkey, but nothing appears to happen. (Thus it appears "dead").

 

But what's really happening is that the application is playing possum. The application is waiting to see what you do next.

 

Then you press another key. If the application recognizes the second press as part of a sequence, a command or macro is triggered. But if the application doesn't recognize the second key, the process is aborted. That's what happens in Word. In some old applications, pressing an unrecognized second key causes the initial hotkey to be triggered.

 

Yes, you can trigger deadkey hotkeys via Macro Express:

 

Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <CONTROL>f
Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): a

 

But the hotkeys you are showing for Facebook don't appear to be deadkey hotkeys. Instead, they may be the key sequences built into almost every application for activating menu or ribbon commands. If this is the case, you may need to insert a short delay between the two steps, similar to the following sequence, which chooses Save As from the File menu:

 

Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <ALT>f // Activate the &File menu
Delay: 100 milliseconds
Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): a // Choose "Save &As..." from the menu

 

Edit: Rereading your message, I think you're asking whether you can implement deadkey hotkeys using Macro Express. The answer is yes, although it's a little different. When creating the macro, choose "Build as a Popup Menu." After selecting the macros you want to appear on the menu, set "Menu Style" to "Windows Default."

 

In this example, Ctrl + F causes the pop up menu to appear. Then press "D" to delete a column, "E" to delete a row, or "L" to delete a slide.