AHK Beginner...Specific Need: Does AHK Apply?

[Scribble]

Taking inspiration from my Corsair programmable keyboard (the older version of the K95 with 18 G-Buttons on the left), I'm wondering if I can create a graphic button set with image icons on the buttons and set them up on a second, touchscreen monitor to use as a hotkey set for programs such as 3ds Max, Photoshop, CorelDraw, AutoCAD, etc.

First, is this possible, especially having a touchscreen interface that won't cause Windows to lose focus on my program, second, to have Icon image buttons, and finally, to have profile switching so that I can have a specific set of buttons for each program and even a separate set of buttons for different states within a program (in 3ds Max, for instance, Object Sub-Level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and Parent levels each having their own set of buttons, each with their own functions?

In other words, I have this 24" touchscreen monitor I've decided not to use as my main monitor anymore, and I'd love to know if I can use it as a huge customizable keyboard.

As a bonus, I wonder if the profile switching for Max and other programs might also affect my Corsair CUE profiles...

No, no. I'm not asking for much of anything at all, am I?

[Guest]

Haven't read your long post as it is too long but yes you can have a big GUI (buttons) floating on a(ny) screen and click the buttons without activating that GUI (and thus loosing focus of your current window).

When you make your GUI give it the style +E0x08000000 = WS_EX_NOACTIVATE and AlwaysOnTop of course.

That is about as much help as you are going to get without you trying to create a script first and posting some code in ask for help if you get stuck.

There are GUI creators (so you can draw a Gui and have it generate the code) to get you started, but start with the tutorial to get the basics of AutoHotkey first before diving into Guis as they are rather complicated to begin with.

[Scribble]

Thank you.

After your answer and a little more research both here and elsewhere on the 'net, I think I've found enough to know that AHK is what I need. Yup, I do understand that I'll need to dive into it to get the functionality that I actually want, but I wasn't even sure if AHK was what I needed or not, so I figured I'd ask to see if it was capable of what I was asking. If it wasn't, I wouldn't even need to try to learn it.

But thank you. You answered the last remaining question I had.

[guest3456]

sounds like a great use for AHK