AutoHotkey Community

I have a constant battle with my laptop's built-in pointer device randomly repositioning the focus of the screen to wherever the mouse pointer is located. I can be typing along in a text box (like this one) and suddenly what I am typing moves somewhere else in the text box or goes outside the text box and is seen as an attempted hotkey by by browser. I want to be able to "tie" the mouse pointer to the same location as the text cursor so that it follows along while I type in a text box. I'd love to do this in Autohotkey, but can't seem to figure out how to tell the position of the text cursor so that I can set the mouse location to that. If it is even possible, how could you then leave the text box when you were ready to do so? Anyone have any ideas?
D.

Just adding on to what BoBo wrote. Instead of using Two seperate hotkeys, you could use one:

Hope this helps

Freezing the mouse location would work, but is not the solution that I am looking for. For example, when I click the button to reply to your message, the mouse cursor stays in that location, while screen focus shifts to the reply text box on the resulting page. I *could* remember to manually move the cursor to someplace in the text box and freeze it, but that would only work if the location of the text that I was typing stayed in a constant relative position to the mouse cursor. Otherwise, when my screwed up laptop changed the focus back to the mouse, the cursor (and the location of the text I was typing) just changes to a pre-defined position and not to where the text cursor was originally. The only way freezing the cursor in a specific position would work is if it could be positioned at the very bottom right corner of the text box before freezing it, and there would be no need to correct or insert text above where you already had some.

Somehow, Windows knows when you are in a text entry area because the mouse cursor changes shape. Somehow, Windows knows where your text cursor is. I want to automatically, or with a set of hotkeys that can turn it on or off, tell Windows that if I am in a text input area, "marry" the text cursor location and the mouse cursor location.

Does that make sense?
D.

It makes sense. And I'm sure somewhere out there is information that will allow you to do that.

Unfortunately, I am not the source of that information. Though, I think BoBo's solution should work for you in the meantime. If your laptop's mouse is "misfiring", then blocking the input should prevent the OS from reading those false inputs.

I think it's worth a try untill you can come up with a better way to work it.

P.S.- 3rd choice: buy a f$@%! new laptop!

EDIT: Remember to change the IfWinActive


EDIT AGAIN: Fun to make, but don't work - unable to move the mouse cursor!

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AutoHotkey 2

Does keeping the mouse from moving also eliminate whatever is changing the focus to that location?

Would love to. Doesn't quite fit into my fixed disability income though.
D.

Check ---> Start/ControlPanel/Mouse/Button/ClickLock (disabled?)

I'm on Windows 200 (this clinker won't run XP) and don't have a ClickLock option.
D.

I've made a slight revision of my script make lbutton work as a toggle, click to release lock and click to lock at new position.
Still need some work, though.

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You may also have a function key on your laptop to disable your touchpad if you use an external mouse or keyboardstick.

The variable A_Cursor contains the name of the type of cursor that is on the screen. IBeam is the name of the cursor you get over a text field.

With this script when you press F1 it starts a loop that checks the name of the cursor.If the name is IBeam it disables user mouse movement, clicks to focus the window then "marries" the mouse cursor to the text cursor.

F2 unmarries it by reloading the script

@jps: Nice script, works perfectly

I had kind of the same issue but I solved it another way. When you start typing the mouse gets disabled and when you stop typing it renables.
http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15816

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@jps: Very cool! Works great. The programming is a little above me though. I'll have to study it and learn from it. I have 20 years of programming experience but, for two years now, have suffered from neurological condition that keeps me from being able to do the mental stuff that once came so easy to me. The guys (and gals) on this forum are excellent sources of information though. You rank right up there with some of the most helpful people on the net. Thanks.
D.


EDIT: Why would this work when typing in a forum text box in IE or in Notepad or such, but *not* work in forum textbox in Firefox? In Firefox running on 2000, the mouse cursor goes to the top left corner of the screen. On XP, it goes to the top left of the text box.
D.