answer hotkey F2

[dieterkairat]

Hello,

I´m using the cisco communicator 8.6.1.0 and I know the funktion to pick up an incomming call with the hotkey "F2".

The problem is, that this hotkey only works when the focus is on the communicator application.

I´m well awared that I can set the focus automaticly with the funktion "bring to front on active call" but this feature is very annoying because I work in a group and for every incomming call my communicator pops up.

Does anyone knows a solution, to pick up an incomming call via hotkey without setting the focus before?

Thanks

Dieter

[will.alvord]

You could try a 3rd party hotkey manager type app for that. 

This should get you going in the right direction.  I don't use Windows so I can't vouch for any unfortunately.

http://lifehacker.com/5886866/the-best-global-hotkey-manager-for-windows

edit: Corrected the link.  Thanks Anthony!  Auto Hot Key is the first one reviewed on this link also.  Must be good.

[Anthony Holloway]

The lifehacker link provided by Will did not work for me, so I cannot see what the article is saying.

However, I have used Auto Hot Key (http://www.autohotkey.com/) to automate windows tasks and it's really powerful.

Anthony Holloway

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[dieterkairat]

Hello Anthony,

I´m afraid but I´m no developer. Could you give me an exsample for autohotkey how I could use it with the communicator?

Dieter kairat

[Anthony Holloway · Accepted solution]

Just working with this for like 10 minutes and sending F2 to the application with the latest version of AHK was keeping CIPC on top until I restarted AHK.

That code looks like this:

F2::
     IfWinExist ahk_class CIPCOMMUNICATOR
     {
          WinActivate ahk_class CIPCOMMUNICATOR
          Send {F2}
     }
return

To overcome that issue, I still capture F2 from the user, but I send CTRL+Shift+A to CIPC.  That code looks like this:

F2::
     IfWinExist ahk_class CIPCOMMUNICATOR
     {
          WinActivate ahk_class CIPCOMMUNICATOR
          Send ^+a
     }
return

Not sure what the difference is, but it could be a bug in AHK.

Three things to note:

1) You need to install AHK on the machine(s) you are running CIPC on, in order for this to work.

2) You need to start up this AHK script (just name it cipc.ahk and then place it in the startup folder) everytime the user logs in.

3) By making this a global F2 hotkey, you are taking away the F2 funcitonality from other programs.  E.g., Edit a cell in Excel

To overcome number 3, you could train your users to use a different hotkey for globally answering CIPC.  Code to use Windows Key + A is below.

#A::
     IfWinExist ahk_class CIPCOMMUNICATOR
     {
          WinActivate ahk_class CIPCOMMUNICATOR
          Send ^+a
     }
return

Hope that helps.  Good luck.

Anthony Holloway

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[dieterkairat]

Hello Antthony,

thank you for your support. It works fine!

Dieter Kairat

[Anthony Holloway]

Awesome! I'm glad it worked out for you.  Just curious did you stick with the F2 or move to Windows Key + A?

Anthony Holloway

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[dieterkairat]

Hi Anthony,

that one doesn´t work properly:

F2::
     IfWinExist ahk_class CIPCOMMUNICATOR
     {
          WinActivate ahk_class CIPCOMMUNICATOR
          Send {F2}
     }
return
I imagine that it is caused, by the communicator. The Communicator works also with F2 but only, wenn the focus is on ist.

That one works great, but I´ve changed to F12:

F12::
     IfWinExist ahk_class CIPCOMMUNICATOR
     {
          WinActivate ahk_class CIPCOMMUNICATOR
          Send ^+a
     }
return


Now I´m able to pick up every call without looking for the application on my computer to keep my focus on ist. And if I want to quit my call while I did something else on my computer whereby I´ve lost the focus, I push only F12 and ESC and the call is terminated.

I gave this workeround to some of my colleagues and they are also very happy.

Many thanks for your good help.

Dieter