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Snippets with User Input Prompts lose Focus
- Snippets with User Input Prompts lose Focus
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Snippets with User Input Prompts lose Focus
Andre09 > 2020-11-30 20:56
Good morning,
This is my first time posting on the forum. I love this software application. During lockdown, my partner was working form home, and I was able to watch how she worked, specifically how repetitive the tasks were, and I knew that there would be an opportunity to improve the processes that she was using.
When I found Quick Access Popup, I realised that it would be able to accomplish so much to make her workflow simpler, more accurate, and allow her to focus on more important aspects of her work. Hats off to a Jean for a great piece of software!
The question I have relates to Snippets. I apologise if this has already been answered, I was unable to find any other reference to this problem.
I have created multiple snippets which have in some cases multiple input prompts for the user to enter information. Usually it will be the Client's name and also the Business name. Below is an example:
Good morning {Input:Enter Client Name:}, the Company Statement for {Input:Enter Company Name:} has been sent to your nominated email address...
This snippet is usually entered into a field on a webpage using the following steps:
1. User selects the field where the text will be entered:
2. User brings up the QAP Menu(Middle Mouse Click) and selects the snippet.
3. The Input box appears prompting the user for the required information.
4. User pastes information into the input box and presses enter.
The problem occurs because the information gathered for the message comes from another small program as seen in the attached jpeg. Those buttons are populated with data from a PDF document and when the user presses the button, that information is copied to the clipboard. This is one way to easily copy data between different applications.
So what happens is that the when the user activates the PDF Document reader program to copy data, the field on the webpage where the snippet is to be pasted no longer has the focus. So when the user presses Enter on the last input box, the snippet does not get delivered(at least not to the field on the webpage).
The only way to get around this is to enter information into the all input boxes, then click into the field where the snippet is to be entered, go back to the Input box of the snippet and hit Enter.
Is there a way to avoid this?
When the user selects the field where the snippet will be pasted and then Activates QAP to grab the snippet, can it store that field, so that it doesn't matter if the field loses the focus? This would make it far simpler for the user.
The PC is running Windows 8.1, so it doesn't have the option of the Windows Clipboard history function, but even if it did, you don't always remember to copy the required data to the clipboard first. It is much easier to be prompted for the information, go and get it, then press Enter and have the snippet pasted where intended.
I apologise for the long message, I just hope that I was clear in the problem i'm trying to overcome. Either way, I really love QAP
Kind Regards,
André -
RE: Snippets with User Input Prompts lose Focus
Jean Lalonde > 2020-12-01 09:01
Hi André,
I understand your issue. There are other examples where the application wants to paste a snippet acts in a way that prevent or alter the way the snippet is inserted in the app.
> This snippet is usually entered into a field on a webpage using the following steps...
Usually, snippets with inputs (as the example you give) work in "regular" web forms. The form on this specific page seems to have some internal code that cause the loss of focus. I say this in case there would be an alternative to this page.
You could try this:
- Invoke the snippet using a keyboard shortcut or a hotstring instead of the menu; this way the browser *may* keep the focus.
- Try using a different browser; Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc. may react differently to the code behind this page.
Let us know...
Jean -
RE: Snippets with User Input Prompts lose Focus
joeNOR > 2020-12-01 09:05
Hi and welcome to the forum!
I apologise if I misunderstand the problem.
But, Text Snippets are basically key presses/text that gets entered into whatever is in focus.
If a text field on a web page loses focus the snippet is similar to typing on the keyboard, not much happens.
I'm not quite sure if I understand this....
Do you want QAP to enter information into a window that is out of focus?
(Because from step 2 in your description all interaction is between QAP and the PDF app, and the browser is now third in "queue" on the desktop).
Or, is the problem that when the browser loses focus, the field also loses focus even if you just alt-tabs between the browser and f.ex. notepad?
Regardless, you can try this:
In the snippet settings under Advanced Settings, in the field "Prompt before pasting the snippet":
Enter some text, f.ex. "Switch to browser" (without the quotes)
Save.
Workflow:
1. Trigger the snippet (don't mind the web page).
2. Fill inn the information using the PDF app and snippet/Input-function.
3. Hit enter on the last Input.
4. QAP displays a message.
5. Switch to the browser and the input field on the web page and hit Enter (within 10 seconds).
Drawback:
This prompt setting seems to mess with ALT-TAB so you probably have to use the mouse to switch to the browser window in step 5.
(Don't know if this is intended behaviour from QAP or a bug).
Regards,
joeNOR -
RE: Snippets with User Input Prompts lose Focus
Andre09 > 2020-12-02 08:33
Hi Jean & JoeNOR,
Thankyou both for your replies.
Jean, Unfortunately in this situation, the browser can't be changed, we are stuck using Internet Explorer for this task.
I actually gave you some false information in my description of the problem.
I wrote: "2. User brings up the QAP Menu(Middle Mouse Click) and selects the snippet."
when actually, the Snippet was being activated using a hotstring. Apologies for that.
When I assigned a keyboard shortcut(Windows + U) to the snippet, it works as I hoped it would. Also, when I did bring up the QAP Menu, and selected the snippet, it also worked.Even if Internet Explorer was minimized, upon Pressing Enter on the last Input Box, Internet Explorer would be activated, and the text pasted into the correct field.
So, that is exactly the behaviour I was hoping for. Is there a specific reason why that behaviour can't be replicated when using a hotstring? I have one other website (Hellosign.com) which has a problem when a hotstring is used, that being that it loads the snippet fine, but it doesn't erase the whole hotstring when it replaces it with the snippet.
eg. If the hotstring is "asic7`", the field will look like "asText Snippet..." instead of "Text Snippet...". It is not always consistent how many characters of the hotstring remain, sometimes it is 1, sometimes it is 3. I do have the "Do not wait for ending key" selected.
We get around this by using the QAP Menu(Middle Mouse Click) and selecting the snippet that way. We will do the same for the original problem I discussed also, as well as following JoeNOR's Suggestion of using the "Prompt before pasting the snippet" option.
What I find most useful, and what works best for my partner is assigning Hotstrings to Sub-Menus of snippets, so that even though you might not remember the exact snippet hotstring, you should be able to remember the Sub-menu hotstring, as its given a logical name, and then only that menu is displayed. That is very very handy
JoeNOR, thanks for the suggestion about using the "Prompt before pasting the snippet" option. As I said above, what I was asking for does work if you use a Keyboard Shortcut, or the QAP Menu(Middle Mouse Button) to launch the snippet. I found that the only circumstance where the snippet would not be pasted into the webpage field, was if I opened a new browser Tab, and that Tab remained active, or if, while I was in the process of entering data into the Input Boxes, I clicked into the webpage and removed the focus off the designated field that way. Your solution is definitely a good one, and will work for us.
Cheers to both of you,
André -
RE: Snippets with User Input Prompts lose Focus
joeNOR > 2020-12-02 09:39
Hi!
Nice that you got it sorted, and happy to help!
Keyboard shortcuts vs hotstrings are two very different animals.
Keyboard shortcuts (sometimes called hotkeys just to confuse the matter further) are key combinations registered with, and "known" globally by the operating system.
I have a keyboard shortcut in QAP, Ctrl-Win-Z, assigned to a favourite.
When QAP starts it registers that combination in Windows.
(A little tool called HotKeysList by NirSoft will show all combinations known by the OS. It does not show what application owns each combo)
Hotstrings are strings of text interpreted by QAP alone (Jean will correct me if I am wrong in that assumption).
The operating system has no knowledge, afaik, that this particular string of text has a special meaning.
QAP then depends to a degree on the fact that the receiving application/text field/something behaves.
If it does not, then it is anybody's guess what happens, as with your "asic7" example.
I suspect that it is somewhat complicated to track down why the hotstring, in that text field, on that particular web site behaves erratic.
Regards,
joeNOR -
RE: Snippets with User Input Prompts lose Focus
Isaias Baez > 2020-12-07 08:19
(2020-12-02 09:39)joeNOR Wrote: Hotstrings are strings of text interpreted by QAP alone (Jean will correct me if I am wrong in that assumption).
The operating system has no knowledge, afaik, that this particular string of text has a special meaning.
This is correct. The hotstring is interpreted by QAP, the OS has no knowledge of the meaning of that string or what to do with it. -
RE: Snippets with User Input Prompts lose Focus
Jean Lalonde > 2020-12-07 09:32
> I suspect that it is somewhat complicated to track down why the hotstring, in that text field, on that particular web site behaves erratic.
If I was a Javascript expert, I would take a closer look to the code behind this page. There may be some code involved when the text field lose and regain focus.
> eg. If the hotstring is "asic7`", the field will look like "asText Snippet..." instead of "Text Snippet...". It is not always consistent how many characters of the hotstring remain, sometimes it is 1, sometimes it is 3. I do have the "Do not wait for ending key" selected.
There is a similar situation that occurs when you use a snippet+hotstring in the Chrome address bar. When QAP (in fact, when the AHK function used by QAP) pastes the snippet, it erases the hotstring trigger ("asic7`" in your example) by sending one backspace to the target application for each character of the trigger. It seems that, in Chrome's address bar, one of the backspace (probably the first) is "lost" because the first character of the trigger is not removed. Unfortunately, there is little QAP can do in these situation.