This is my second day using AutoHotkey and I'm wasting way too much time playing with it.
Here's my first more serious script. Maybe others also find it useful. It's a window switcher which shows the matching window titles as you type in your search string incrementally. If only one window is left it is activated immediately (configurable). Otherwise, you can type in more characters (or delete some with backspace) or select between the matching windows using cursor up/down/enter or you can cancel the window with esc.
You can use any substring of any window. For example, if you want to switch to word then you can type
The idea comes from Emacs where it is used to switch between opened files. After a while it gets addictive, it's so efficient. At least it is my experience with emacs.
Enough talk. Here's the script. There are still some issues with it. I listed them in the TODO section. If you have ideas how to improve the script I'm interested. I'm still a clueless newbie.
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Edit: From now on the latest version of the script will always be here.
Change log:
2006-04-20: Fixed handling of down-arrow and up-arrow keys which was broken by AHK v1.0.38.04.
2005-04-20
[*:dnrinmah]Fixed handling of windows with apostrophe character in the title. Thanks twwilliams!2005-02-18
[*:dnrinmah]Added option to update the list of windows every time the contents of the listbox is updated. This is usually not necessary and it is an overhead which slows down the update of the listbox, so this feature is disabled by default.2005-01-21
[*:dnrinmah]Added option to filter out titles from the window list.
Thanks to Serenity for the idea.2005-01-16
[*:dnrinmah]Windows can be selected with a single click instead of double click.
Thanks Serenity!
[*:dnrinmah]The switcher cannot be moved out of the screen with the left/right arrow keys.
Thanks jtran21!
[*:dnrinmah]Added option for closing the switcher window automatically if the user activates an other window.
It does not work well if activateselectioninbg is enabled, so currently they cannot be enabled together.
Thanks to Serenity for the idea.2005-01-06
[*:dnrinmah]Fixed unwanted selection change when the switcher window is moved horizontally with the arrow keys. Thanks Chris!
[*:dnrinmah]Added required AutoHotkey version
[*:dnrinmah]Added option to show the process name before the window title. The extension (.EXE) is trimmed from the process name. The width of the switcher window has been increased a bit, so that the titles are visible when this option is enabled.
Thanks to mo for the idea.2005-01-02
[*:dnrinmah]The currently selected window can also be activated with a double click. Mouse users can change the activation key to a mouse button (e.g. middle button) and this way the switcher can be operated with the mouse only.
[*:dnrinmah]The switcher window can be moved horizontally with the left/right arrow keys if it blocks the view of windows under it. If you hold the arrow key down instead of pressing it several times the current selection changes in the listbox. I think it's a limitation of AutoHotkey (but Chris is the authority in this question), because the script cannot move the window fast enough and the arrow key presses reach the listbox while the result of the previous Input command is being processed. It's not a big deal, I usually press the right/left arrow key 2-3 times. There is no need to hold it down.2004-12-19
[*:dnrinmah] Windows are activated by id, not by title. No more messing with title match mode, no more problems with windows having the same title, etc.
[*:dnrinmah]Windows with pipe (|) character are handled properly. The pipe characters are simply replaced with dash (-) characters. It causes no problems, since windows are not activated by title anymore.
[*:dnrinmah]If activation in background is enabled the selected window is not activated when the switcher is invoked. Sometimes it was confusing when the active window was changed right after the switcher window appeared.2004-12-12
[*:dnrinmah] The switcher window is always on top. The keyboard focus is grabbed when the switcher is activated and it can be confusing that the keyboard seemingly does not work when the switcher window is behind other windows.
[*:dnrinmah] GUI close event is handled to avoid leaving the keyboard grabbed when the switcher is closed with the mouse.
[*:dnrinmah] Added first letter match mode where the typed search string must match the first letter of words in the window title (only alphanumeric characters are taken into account)
For example, the search string "ad" matches both of these titles:
AutoHotkey - Documentation
Anne's Diary
Thanks to Soapspoon for the idea.
[*:dnrinmah] Added option for activating the currently selected window in the background, so that the user can see which window will be activated. The background activation can be immediate or delayed (by default 300 ms).2004-12-05
[*:dnrinmah]Using exact title match setting to avoid faulty activation when a window's title contains the title of an other window.
Thanks Sandeep!
[*:dnrinmah]Added option for digit shortcuts if there are ten or less windows in the list.
Thanks to Guest for the suggestion.2004-11-27
[*:dnrinmah]autoactiveifonlyone is disabled by default. It takes a bit of time to get used to, so it is disabled for novice users.
[*:dnrinmah]If enabled possible completions are offered when the same unique substring is found in the title of more than one window.
For example, the user typed the string "co" and the list is narrowed to two windows: "Windows Commander" and "Command Prompt". In this case the "command" substring can be completed automatically, so the script offers this completion in square brackets which the user can accept with the TAB key:
co[mmand]
This feature can be confusing for novice users, so it is disabled by default.2004-10-17
[*:dnrinmah] A configurable sound is played if the substring the user typed in does not match any windows
[*:dnrinmah] Cleaned up the script a bit2004-10-13
[*:dnrinmah] Handled case when there is no window on the screen.
[*:dnrinmah] The gui is shown only if necessary.
[*:dnrinmah] Fixed input hanging if there is only one window and autoactivateifonlyone is set.
; ; iswitchw - Incrementally switch between windows using substrings ; ; Required AutoHotkey version: 1.0.25+ ; ; When this script is triggered via its hotkey the list of titles of ; all visible windows appears. The list can be narrowed quickly to a ; particular window by typing a substring of a window title. ; ; When the list is narrowed the desired window can be selected using ; the cursor keys and Enter. If the substring matches exactly one ; window that window is activated immediately (configurable, see the ; "autoactivateifonlyone" variable). ; ; The window selection can be cancelled with Esc. ; ; The switcher window can be moved horizontally with the left/right ; arrow keys if it blocks the view of windows under it. ; ; The switcher can also be operated with the mouse, although it is ; meant to be used from the keyboard. A mouse click activates the ; currently selected window. Mouse users may want to change the ; activation key to one of the mouse keys. ; ; If enabled possible completions are offered when the same unique ; substring is found in the title of more than one window. ; ; For example, the user typed the string "co" and the list is ; narrowed to two windows: "Windows Commander" and "Command Prompt". ; In this case the "command" substring can be completed automatically, ; so the script offers this completion in square brackets which the ; user can accept with the TAB key: ; ; co[mmand] ; ; This feature can be confusing for novice users, so it is disabled ; by default. ; ; ; For the idea of this script the credit goes to the creators of the ; iswitchb package for the Emacs editor ; ; ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; User configuration ; ; set this to yes if you want to select the only matching window ; automatically autoactivateifonlyone = ; set this to yes if you want to enable tab completion (see above) ; it has no effect if firstlettermatch (see below) is enabled tabcompletion = ; set this to yes to enable digit shortcuts when there are ten or ; less items in the list digitshortcuts = ; set this to yes to enable first letter match mode where the typed ; search string must match the first letter of words in the ; window title (only alphanumeric characters are taken into account) ; ; For example, the search string "ad" matches both of these titles: ; ; AutoHotkey - Documentation ; Anne's Diary ; firstlettermatch = ; set this to yes to enable activating the currently selected ; window in the background activateselectioninbg = ; number of milliseconds to wait for the user become idle, before ; activating the currently selected window in the background ; ; it has no effect if activateselectioninbg is off ; ; if set to blank the current selection is activated immediately ; without delay bgactivationdelay = 300 ; show process name before window title. showprocessname = ; Close switcher window if the user activates an other window. ; It does not work well if activateselectioninbg is enabled, so ; currently they cannot be enabled together. closeifinactivated = if activateselectioninbg <> if closeifinactivated <> { msgbox, activateselectioninbg and closeifinactivated cannot be enabled together exitapp } ; List of subtsrings separated with pipe (|) characters (e.g. carpe|diem). ; Window titles containing any of the listed substrings are filtered out ; from the list of windows. filterlist = ; Set this yes to update the list of windows every time the contents of the ; listbox is updated. This is usually not necessary and it is an overhead which ; slows down the update of the listbox, so this feature is disabled by default. dynamicwindowlist = ; path to sound file played when the user types a substring which ; does not match any of the windows ; ; set this to blank if you don't want a sound ; nomatchsound = %windir%\Media\ding.wav if nomatchsound <> ifnotexist, %nomatchsound% msgbox, Sound file %nomatchsound% not found. No sound will be played. ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Global variables ; ; numallwin - the number of windows on the desktop ; allwinarray - array containing the titles of windows on the desktop ; dynamicwindowlist is disabled ; allwinidarray - window ids corresponding to the titles in allwinarray ; numwin - the number of windows in the listbox ; idarray - array containing window ids for the listbox items ; orig_active_id - the window ID of the originally active window ; (when the switcher is activated) ; prev_active_id - the window ID of the last window activated in the ; background (only if activateselectioninbg is enabled) ; switcher_id - the window ID of the switcher window ; filters - array of filters for filtering out titles ; from the window list ; ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- AutoTrim, off Gui, Add, ListBox, vindex gListBoxClick x6 y11 w300 h250 AltSubmit Gui, Add, Text, x6 y264 w50 h20, Search`: Gui, Add, Edit, x66 y261 w240 h20, if filterlist <> { loop, parse, filterlist, | { filters%a_index% = %A_LoopField% } } ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; I never use the CapsLock key, that's why I chose it. ; CapsLock:: search = numallwin = 0 GuiControl,, Edit1 GoSub, RefreshWindowList WinGet, orig_active_id, ID, A prev_active_id = %orig_active_id% Gui, Show, Center h294 w313, Window Switcher ; If we determine the ID of the switcher window here then ; why doesn't it appear in the window list when the script is ; run the first time? (Note that RefreshWindowList has already ; been called above). ; Answer: Because when this code runs first the switcher window ; does not exist yet when RefreshWindowList is called. WinGet, switcher_id, ID, A WinSet, AlwaysOnTop, On, ahk_id %switcher_id% Loop { if closeifinactivated <> settimer, CloseIfInactive, 200 Input, input, L1, {enter}{esc}{backspace}{up}{down}{pgup}{pgdn}{tab}{left}{right} if closeifinactivated <> settimer, CloseIfInactive, off if ErrorLevel = EndKey:enter { GoSub, ActivateWindow break } if ErrorLevel = EndKey:escape { Gui, cancel ; restore the originally active window if ; activateselectioninbg is enabled if activateselectioninbg <> WinActivate, ahk_id %orig_active_id% break } if ErrorLevel = EndKey:backspace { GoSub, DeleteSearchChar continue } if ErrorLevel = EndKey:tab if completion = continue else input = %completion% ; pass these keys to the selector window if ErrorLevel = EndKey:up { Send, {up} GoSuB ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled continue } if ErrorLevel = EndKey:down { Send, {down} GoSuB ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled continue } if ErrorLevel = EndKey:pgup { Send, {pgup} GoSuB ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled continue } if ErrorLevel = EndKey:pgdn { Send, {pgdn} GoSuB ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled continue } if ErrorLevel = EndKey:left { direction = -1 GoSuB MoveSwitcher continue } if ErrorLevel = EndKey:right { direction = 1 GoSuB MoveSwitcher continue } ; FIXME: probably other error level cases ; should be handled here (interruption?) ; invoke digit shortcuts if applicable if digitshortcuts <> if numwin <= 10 if input in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 { if input = 0 input = 10 if numwin < %input% { if nomatchsound <> SoundPlay, %nomatchsound% continue } GuiControl, choose, ListBox1, %input% GoSub, ActivateWindow break } ; process typed character search = %search%%input% GuiControl,, Edit1, %search% GoSub, RefreshWindowList } Gosub, CleanExit return ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Refresh the list of windows according to the search criteria ; ; Sets: numwin - see the documentation of global variables ; idarray - see the documentation of global variables ; RefreshWindowList: ; refresh the list of windows if necessary if ( dynamicwindowlist = "yes" or numallwin = 0 ) { numallwin = 0 WinGet, id, list, , , Program Manager Loop, %id% { StringTrimRight, this_id, id%a_index%, 0 WinGetTitle, title, ahk_id %this_id% ; FIXME: windows with empty titles? if title = continue ; don't add the switcher window if switcher_id = %this_id% continue ; show process name if enabled if showprocessname <> { WinGet, procname, ProcessName, ahk_id %this_id% stringgetpos, pos, procname, . if ErrorLevel <> 1 { stringleft, procname, procname, %pos% } stringupper, procname, procname title = %procname%: %title% } ; don't add titles which match any of the filters if filterlist <> { filtered = loop { stringtrimright, filter, filters%a_index%, 0 if filter = break else ifinstring, title, %filter% { filtered = yes break } } if filtered = yes continue } ; replace pipe (|) characters in the window title, ; because Gui Add uses it for separating listbox items StringReplace, title, title, |, -, all numallwin += 1 allwinarray%numallwin% = %title% allwinidarray%numallwin% = %this_id% } } ; filter the window list according to the search criteria winlist = numwin = 0 Loop, %numallwin% { StringTrimRight, title, allwinarray%a_index%, 0 StringTrimRight, this_id, allwinidarray%a_index%, 0 ; don't add the windows not matching the search string ; if there is a search string if search <> if firstlettermatch = { if title not contains %search%, continue } else { stringlen, search_len, search index = 1 match = loop, parse, title, %A_Space% { stringleft, first_letter, A_LoopField, 1 ; only words beginning with an alphanumeric ; character are taken into account if first_letter not in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z continue stringmid, search_char, search, %index%, 1 if first_letter <> %search_char% break index += 1 ; no more search characters if index > %search_len% { match = yes break } } if match = continue ; no match } if winlist <> winlist = %winlist%| winlist = %winlist%%title%`r%this_id% numwin += 1 winarray%numwin% = %title% } ; if the pattern didn't match any window if numwin = 0 ; if the search string is empty then we can't do much if search = { Gui, cancel Gosub, CleanExit } ; delete the last character else { if nomatchsound <> SoundPlay, %nomatchsound% GoSub, DeleteSearchChar return } ; sort the list alphabetically Sort, winlist, D| ; add digit shortcuts if there are ten or less windows ; in the list and digit shortcuts are enabled if digitshortcuts <> if numwin <= 10 { digitlist = digit = 1 loop, parse, winlist, | { ; FIXME: windows with empty title? if A_LoopField <> { if digitlist <> digitlist = %digitlist%| digitlist = %digitlist%%digit%%A_Space%%A_Space%%A_Space%%A_LoopField% digit += 1 if digit = 10 digit = 0 } } winlist = %digitlist% } ; strip window IDs from the sorted list titlelist = arrayindex = 1 loop, parse, winlist, | { stringgetpos, pos, A_LoopField, `r stringleft, title, A_LoopField, %pos% titlelist = %titlelist%|%title% pos += 2 ; skip the separator char stringmid, id, A_LoopField, %pos%, 10000 idarray%arrayindex% = %id% ++arrayindex } ; show the list GuiControl,, ListBox1, %titlelist% GuiControl, Choose, ListBox1, 1 if numwin = 1 if autoactivateifonlyone <> { GoSub, ActivateWindow Gosub, CleanExit } GoSub ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled completion = if tabcompletion = return ; completion is not implemented for first letter match mode if firstlettermatch <> return ; determine possible completion if there is ; a search string and there are more than one ; window in the list if search = return if numwin = 1 return loop { nextchar = loop, %numwin% { stringtrimleft, title, winarray%a_index%, 0 if nextchar = { substr = %search%%completion% stringlen, substr_len, substr stringgetpos, pos, title, %substr% if pos = -1 break pos += %substr_len% ; if the substring matches the end of the ; string then no more characters can be completed stringlen, title_len, title if pos >= %title_len% { pos = -1 break } ; stringmid has different position semantics ; than stringgetpos. strange... pos += 1 stringmid, nextchar, title, %pos%, 1 substr = %substr%%nextchar% } else { stringgetpos, pos, title, %substr% if pos = -1 break } } if pos = -1 break else completion = %completion%%nextchar% } if completion <> GuiControl,, Edit1, %search%[%completion%] return ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Delete last search char and update the window list ; DeleteSearchChar: if search = return StringTrimRight, search, search, 1 GuiControl,, Edit1, %search% GoSub, RefreshWindowList return ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Activate selected window ; ActivateWindow: Gui, submit stringtrimleft, window_id, idarray%index%, 0 WinActivate, ahk_id %window_id% return ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Activate selected window in the background ; ActivateWindowInBackground: guicontrolget, index,, ListBox1 stringtrimleft, window_id, idarray%index%, 0 if prev_active_id <> %window_id% { WinActivate, ahk_id %window_id% WinActivate, ahk_id %switcher_id% prev_active_id = %window_id% } return ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Activate selected window in the background if the option is enabled. ; If an activation delay is set then a timer is started instead of ; activating the window immediately. ; ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled: if activateselectioninbg = return ; Don't do it just after the switcher is activated. It is confusing ; if active window is changed immediately. WinGet, id, ID, ahk_id %switcher_id% if id = return if bgactivationdelay = GoSub ActivateWindowInBackground else settimer, BgActivationTimer, %bgactivationdelay% return ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Check if the user is idle and if so activate the currently selected ; window in the background ; BgActivationTimer: settimer, BgActivationTimer, off GoSub ActivateWindowInBackground return ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Stop background window activation timer if necessary and exit ; CleanExit: settimer, BgActivationTimer, off exit ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Cancel keyboard input if GUI is closed. ; GuiClose: send, {esc} return ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Handle mouse click events on the list box ; ListBoxClick: if (A_GuiControlEvent = "Normal" and !GetKeyState("Down", "P") and !GetKeyState("Up", "P")) send, {enter} return ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Move switcher window horizontally ; ; Input: direction - 1 for right, -1 for left ; MoveSwitcher: direction *= 100 WinGetPos, x, y, width, , ahk_id %switcher_id% x += %direction% if x < 0 x = 0 else { SysGet screensize, MonitorWorkArea screensizeRight -= %width% if x > %screensizeRight% x = %screensizeRight% } prevdelay = %A_WinDelay% SetWinDelay, -1 WinMove, ahk_id %switcher_id%, , %x%, %y% SetWinDelay, %prevdelay% return ;---------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; Close the switcher window if the user activated an other window ; CloseIfInactive: ifwinnotactive, ahk_id %switcher_id% send, {esc} return[/b]