Is there a setting on ConEmu similar to the "Flash inactive tabs" setting in the Console app?
When I run three scripts in three different tabs in ConEmu I would like either of the two tabs that are currently not 'in front' (inactive) to blink/flash/highlight/alert me somehow when something new has printed within them.
Console calls this 'Flash inactive tabs' in their similar app. I'd like to move to ConEmu because it seems to be more powerful/feature packed generally, though as far as I can tell via experimentation and research it lacks this feature which is important to me.
Thanks.
Related
I'm making a GUI application in C++.
Is there a simple way to make the narrator of windows 10 to speak some text ?
Given of course that it is currently active.
A trick that sometimes works is to select some text in a text field and then focus it briefly. But
It doesn't work all the time
The focus is moved out and back. Even if it's for a short time, it's invasive and may disturb whatever the user is currently doing
The text field must be present at some place on screen, what is not always desired
If possible, I would like a solution without these three issues.
Other screen readers, in particular Jaws and NVDA, provide API to do this.
I'm even the author of a library, UniversalSpeech, which allow to make the currently running screen reader, if any, to speak text, abstracting the need to detect yourself which one is running.
Given that the narrator has greatly improved with the last 3 or 4 releases of windows 10, it would probably be interesting to support it, not only in my own program and for my particular usecase, but for everybody in my library.
However, I can't find any documentation or anything telling me if the narrator has an API similar to those of Jaws or NVDA.
In fact if there is currently no such API for Narrator, it would probably be interesting to suggest Microsoft to add one.
Note that this question is different from such as this one
where the answer suggests to use speech API directly. Using screen readers API and not speech API directly has great benefits:
Screen reader users are used to specific voice settings (voice, rate, pitch, language and regional accents, etc.). The default settings set in the control panel may not at all be similar. It implies
whether the user must configure speech settings in the control panel, what is global for all applications; not very good
and/or managing application-specific speech settings in a business application which isn't at all devoted to speech stuff; it would be rather strange to find speech settings in a financial app for example.
Using both screen reader and independent speech engine simultenously means that both can speak at the same time, what is of course extremely annoying. In fact in practice it happens quite often, I have already tested.
So, is there a simple way to make narrator to speak some text ?
My program is in C++, the library is in C, so in theory I have access to the whole winapi, through LoadLibrary/GetProcAddress if needed.
Please don't give any C# or VisualStudio-dependent solution.
Thank you.
After quite a while, I answer my own question !
IN fact, the simplest to make narrator speak something is probably to:
Define some label as being a live region
When something has to be spoken by narrator, change the text in the label and then send an update notification
Turning a label into a live region and sending a notification whenever the text changes is explained here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility-tools-docs/items/win32/text_livesetting
Live setting can be set to 0=off, 1=polite and 2=assertive. The meaning of polite and assertive are the same as in WAI ARIA.
Though as present (april 2021), narrator always interrupts speech as soon as the text of the label is replaced, even in polite mode.
What changes in assertive mode is that the text even take priority against interruptions due to normal keyboard navigation, i.e. you may not hear where you are when pressing tab, arrow keys, etc.
For that reason, I don't recommand it at all.
Note also that live setting only works on static text controls (win32 STATIC window class).
It is totally ignored when applied to text fields and text areas (win32 EDIT window class).
The label with live setting still works when placed off-screen or even hidden.
As far as I know, Microsoft Narrator doesn't expose the API for developers, and you can suggest a feature for it using Feedback App on Windows 10.
I want to achieve the same behavior as in a live region, i.e. have some text read by the SR as it appears at the bottom of a multiline rich text field, but in a native GUI app. For info, I'm using WXWidgets.
You can use the UI automation events to subscribe the property change of rich text field so that you can get notified when the text is updated. And since you are using third-party control, you also need to implement providers for any third party controls that do not include a provider. And below are links about UI automation provides and
UI Automation events for your reference:
UI Automation Events Overview
UI Automation Providers Overview
I have a number of user-defined metrics in Google Stackdriver. Then I edit one of them using "Edit metric", edit the filter, and click Save.
When I look at a different user-defined metric via "Edit metric", my previous change seems to show up here too. Wtf?!?
Does anyone else have this problem? Am I doing something obviously wrong?
It's us, not you—this is a known issue with that piece of UI at the moment. We're working on getting it fixed and it should be addressed soon. Direct API access is unaffected and is a workaround for the immediate future.
By the way, if you use the feedback widget in the speech balloon in the top toolbar when you see issues like this, it captures a detailed report including things like browser version/platform/etc. that can help us track issues down. We don't need it in this case (this one is well in hand), but that may be a good course of action for the future.
Thanks for trying out Stackdriver, and for your patience with beta issues. =)
i work on a Windows CE 6.0 Image and added a Audio driver to my Solution (my solution is based on a image without audio). Sound works fine but i dont know how i can add the standard Windows CE 6.0 Sound Settings dialog to the control panel.
MSDN says the following:
"The Windows CE Control Panel allows users to set a variety of system-wide properties, such as mouse sensitivity, network setup, and the desktop color scheme. You can select specific functionality to include in your Control Panel by specifying them in your Cesysgen.bat file."
Can anyone explain how this works exactly via Cesysgen.bat? In my project i cant find any entry for cplmain in my Cesysgen.bat.
Could it be that those standard Applets are integrated into the control panel automatically? (maybe with "getProcAddress()" when a specific driver is loaded?) - This idea comes from "cplmain.def", there is written:
EXPORTS
CPlApplet
; These functions are exported for componentization
; We use GetProcAddress on ourselves to dynamically discover
; what components we have
I found a quite good explanation from Andrew Pearson here:
http://www.itlisting.org/4-windows-ce-embedded/a57eef4103191b7a.aspx
but i tried a few different things an nothing worked! So this confuses me even more. The only statement there i really understand now is:
The control panel, unfortunately, is about the single most confusing thing
to build in the whole tree.
Yes it is! Would be nice if anyone had an idea.
Kind regards,
Martin
I've created custom control panel applets before, and to be honest, trying to modify the existing applet is about the worst thing you can try. Generally what I do is just create a whole new applet, which is really just a DLL renamed to have a .cpl extension and that exports the CPlApplet entry point.
There's an example in MSDN that shows the expected values the OS will pass in to get your icon, tell you to start and those types of things.
Basically just build your own applet as a completely separate project, then include it in the MODULES section of your BIB file. Don't even mess with the existing train wreck of control panel code.
Win32 look nasty, how to make it look better by custom skins?
I mean something like Adobe products, iTunes, Autodesk 3dsmax and Softimage XSI, Windows media player, Blender, Comodo firewall, Winamp, Babylon client, and few download managers etc.;
there are many similar applications out there but I can't find any proper tutorial or guideline, it looks like secret recipe!
only -two- tutorials available online:
old and useless: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/20497/Draw-Skin-Window-Using-Pure-Win32-API
only cover opaque background (and this is what I avoid, I need more about GUI components):
http://www.flipcode.com/archives/Win32_Window_Skinning.shtml
Is there any book or proper guideline to learn how to build skins for Win32api?
Edit: I accept David Rodríguez comment, down there ↓↓
I have done this before using C++ Builder. The approach I took was to create a form, set it to be borderless and color the entire form the same color. Then I set the form transparency to this color. I then add images to the form which create the desired skin.
I'm sure this can all be done through standard win APIs, but I can't describe (or advise) doing it solely through API calls.
The operating system handles "skinning" for you automatically.
In "classic" mode (or Windows 2000 and earlier versions), this gets you a, well classic-looking interface. The windows are drawn just like they always were since Windows 95. Presumably, this is what you are referring to when you say that "Win32 look nasty". However, you need to realize that many people like this look and specifically choose to enable it on their machines. [WARNING: Personal opinion coming up!] I'm one of those people, and judging from the screenshots that get posted here from developers' machines, I'm definitely not the only one.
Windows XP actually introducing the "skinning" or theming engine, which lives in a set of Windows DLLs. By explicitly linking to version 6 of ComCtl32.dll, your application would automatically get these visual effects. Some people said this version of Windows looked "Fisher-Price", while others were perfectly happy with the term "gaudy". The option was retained to allow the user to switch to the "classic" theme (as described above), if desired.
Windows Vista completely overhauled Windows's theming engine and introduced a new UI known as "Aero". This provides flashy-looking windows and controls, complete with transparency effects—that is, as long as your graphics card supports it. Again, by explicitly linking to version 6 of ComCtl32.dll, your application would automatically get all of these styles applied.
It's worth noting that through all of this, Microsoft has provided users with the ability to customize the colors (and fonts and other things) used in the user interface. For example, Aero defaults to blue. If you don't like blue, you can change it. I change my UI colors periodically for fun and to re-energize myself. If you can't read or don't like the font, you change it, too.
Thus, if you choose to do something different with your application, defining your own custom color palette and ignoring the options chosen by the user through the provided customization interface, your app is going to look broken and stick out like a sore thumb on the user's desktop. When designing a UI, the last thing you want to do is to be or look different.
In short, upgrade your computer to Windows Vista or later and enable the Aero interface if you want flashy. Don't override the user or try to custom draw all of your controls. You'll just end up with an application that is hard to use, doesn't work as expected, is a pain in the rear to maintain, and just generally looks worse than if you'd simply left it alone.
I would like to enable tabbing for my application. And so far it seems I could use a tab control. The problem with it is, though, that it creates a border around the client area. What I want, is more like a FireFox tab control, that only takes up a row in the application and doesn't create any frames around client area.
Does anyone know if it is possible with the default control?
I'm using MFC, but that shouldn't change things much I hope.
I'm pretty sure the tab control consists of two parts - the tab headers and the tab page. So you should be able to use the tab header only. It will take more work, but I think you can get what you want.
Look at CTabCtrl and CHeaderCtrl - will those do it? I've never customized them, but it seems possible.
There is also a CPropertySheet that's a good control. But so far it seems disabling and changing some things is simply impossible. No solution for the problem except full ownerdraw path.