Messages

Sometimes you'll be working on a document but need to see something on another document for reference. Usually this involves tiling both windows side-by-side, or shrinking one down, or moving your work document back and forth with its title bar. The situation is made even worse if both documents need to be maximized, because you can't tile, shrink, or move them. Using Alt+Tab is possible, but flicking between them like that is inconvenient due to needing to release both keys between each window switch.

AlomWare Toolbox to the rescue! Here's an action (that comes as default with the app in the "Windows" group) that you simply assign a hotkey to. When you hold down the hotkey, your current work window drops temporarily to 10% transparency so you can see what's underneath it (that is, the other document being referenced). When you release the hotkey, your work window goes back to its original transparency level again. So unlike Alt+Tab, you just hold the hotkey down to view underneath your work document, and then let go to return to your work document.

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 Action: Comment "This action requires a hotkey to be used."
0002 Window: Assign active ""
0003 String: Assign "wint$"
0004 Window: Transparency "10"
0005 Wait: For action hotkey to be released ""
0006 Window: Transparency "string$"
(End)
Here's an animation showing pressing and releasing of the hotkey with AlomWare Toolbox's window. As you can see, the window's transparency has gone to 10% so you can see this forum topic underneath it. You can change the transparency level in step 4 of the action if you prefer.

Yes, this is handy. You can set as many hotkeys (or other triggers) as needed to show the app at a particular tab; and if its window isn't open, it'll auto-open as well.

I've clearly misunderstood the use of the IDs for variable storage. Can you set me right, please?

String IDs are just a way of saving the string to disk with a name (the ID). You can later assign it back into the string, like this:

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 String: Assign from random number "1-6"
0002 String: Save as ID "dice"
0003 String: Clear ""
0004 String: Assign from ID "dice"
0005 Alert: Show a message "The saved string was: string$"
(End)
So, they're used for string permanence for when you might need to use the string's content again in future. They're not used as a string variable per se, but as a way to assign a string variable.

For your action, it's good if it's working for you. I personally might use the "data$" variable instead of "counter$" (below), but it's up to you.

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at [url="http://alomware.com/paste.png"]alomware.com/paste.png[/url]
0001 Action: Comment "Remove quote chevrons, rewrap then replace chevrons"
0002 Action: Abort if no clipboard text ""
0003 Alert: Ask for a choice "#Wrap to what width?~20~30~40~50~60~70"
0004 Data: Assign "alert$"
0005 Action: Do next step if "data$=blank$"
0006   Data: Assign "68"
0007 String: Assign from clipboard text ""
0008 String: Replace text "~>>=~"
0009 String: Replace text "~>=~"
0010 String: Replace text "~~=[para]"
0011 String: Replace text "~=space$"
0012 String: Replace text "[para]=~~"
0013 String: Word wrap at "data$"
0014 String: Replace text "~=~>space$"
0015 Clipboard: Assign text "string$"
0016 Action: Do this block if "clip$<>"""
0017   Wait: For milliseconds to pass "200"
0018   Keyboard: Paste ""
0019 Action: End of block ""
(End)

By default, AlomWare Toolbox shows all tabs for all its functions:



This may be overwhelming to new users, but you can change which ones to show, and/or their order. To do this, click the "Settings" button, and then choose "Toolbox's Window > Display and behavior > Set the tab order (and/or tabs not to show)":





You'll get a prompt where you can set which tabs to show, and in which order. Here, we're choosing to only show Clipboard, Screenshots, and Automation tabs:



After clicking the "OK" button to set the changes, AlomWare Toolbox will restart with your new tab preferences:



As you can see, this is a lot less clutter if you don't need to use any particular tabs.

@GCRedditor136: I agree that it should be changed. I'll look into the best way to do it that doesn't break existing actions.

@oblivion: I hope it works for your needs.

Okay, I think you want this action:

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 String: Assign "My starting text~is rather like this~with short lines~that nevertheless form~a¬
 paragraph.~~Then there's another~paragraph of text~separated from the~previous paragraph~by a blan¬
k line.~~What I want to do~is issue a rewrap~that preserves the~sense of the text~as paragraphs~sep¬
arated by line~breaks."
0002 String: Replace text "~~=[para]"
0003 String: Replace text "~= "
0004 String: Replace text "[para]=~~"
0005 String: Word wrap at "72"
0006 Alert: Show a message "string$"
(End)

Which turns this:

My starting text
is rather like this
with short lines
that nevertheless form
a paragraph.

Then there's another
paragraph of text
separated from the
previous paragraph
by a blank line.

What I want to do
is issue a rewrap
that preserves the
sense of the text
as paragraphs
separated by line
breaks.

Into this:

My starting text is rather like this with short lines that nevertheless
form a paragraph.

Then there's another paragraph of text separated from the previous
paragraph by a blank line.

What I want to do is issue a rewrap that preserves the sense of the
text as paragraphs separated by line breaks.

Am I right?

I don't follow (sorry). Can you put your before/after examples in colors, so I can better visualize what you mean?

I'm also confused by this bit of your post (which I've colored):

Original:

> I could use that function IF I could tell it only to remove one out of every two consecutive line breaks.

Wanted:

> I could use that function IF I could tell it only to remove one out

> of every two consecutive line breaks. If I remove all of them,

Why is there a line break after "one out" in the green wanted text, when there's none in the red original text? Where did that break come from?

Do you mean you want the red text to become the green text?


> I could use that function IF I could tell it only to remove one out
> of every two consecutive line breaks. If I remove all of them,
> actual paragraphs delineated by a blank line between them, also get
> joined together.

> So what I want to achieve is


> I could use that function IF I could tell it only to remove one out
> of every two consecutive line breaks. If I remove all of them,
> actual paragraphs delineated by a blank line between them, also get
> joined together. So what I want to achieve is


If so, you want this action:

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 String: Assign "> I could use that function IF I could tell it only to remove one out~> of eve¬
ry two consecutive line breaks. If I remove all of them,~> actual paragraphs delineated by a blank ¬
line between them, also get~> joined together. ~~> So what I want to achieve is"
0002 String: Replace text "~~> ="
0003 Alert: Show a message "string$"
(End)
Which results in the green text from the red text.

I think you want the "String: Remove line breaks" step:

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 String: Assign "So what I want to be able to do is~rewrap a paragraph that's only really appar¬
ently a~paragraph but is actually a group of lines~of varying lengths~into something that looks lik¬
e a genuine paragraph."
0002 String: Remove line breaks "1"
0003 Alert: Show a message "string$"
(End)
So this:

Code Select Expand

So what I want to be able to do is
rewrap a paragraph that's only really apparently a
paragraph but is actually a group of lines
of varying lengths
into something that looks like a genuine paragraph.
Becomes this:

Code Select Expand

So what I want to be able to do is rewrap a paragraph that's only really apparently a paragraph but is actually a group of lines of varying lengths into something that looks like a genuine paragraph.

any chance of a function that could rewrap plain text to a specified width

Done for the next release. But check your email to get it now.

Confirmed here. Looks like something changed in a recent Win 11 update. I've fixed it for the next release, but there's also some missing functions for some other Control Panel items, too. I'll look into them all this weekend. Thanks for reporting.

When you have a lot of processes running on your PC, the "Details" tab of Task Manager can require long scrolling to view them all. If you run AlomWare Toolbox with admin rights, you can make the Task Manager use a compact view instead, for a better "birds-eye" view of the processes. This can make finding and selecting a process a lot faster and simpler.

The setting is here: "Tweaks for your PC > Windows > Win 10+ specific > Task Manager 'Details' tab uses compact view".



The difference in the "Details" tab as shown as a toggle animation:

GCRedditor136: The new v8.0.0.1 is out now with the fix, as well as some other things.

Paul, I assume this means we'll all get the updated version soon?

For the next release. Maybe this weekend.

It worked immediately.

Great to hear!