Solved Are "Programable Keyboards" still in use today?

[Mike Lynch]

I believe they went out of use being replaced by Macros?

I have what I believe is a use for one in spite of Macros.

To use a Macro, like in Excel, the user must be in Excel, right?

If the user is using multiple Applications like Excel, Word, Anything, wouldn't the Keyboard method be better.

Using that is, having three Application running at the same time / open.

Better in the sense that the user would NOT have to switch between Applications to execute a sequence of keystrokes.

Just guessing!

Your feedback will be appreciated.

Mike

 

[BlueBonnett]

Why would you need a macro app for every individual app? You only need one. Autohotkey, look into it.

 

[Alejandro85]

There are many uses for programable keyboards, mice and all sorts of devices, even though Macros in Excel are also widely-known. The option shown by BlueBonnett is also interesting and worth mentioning. I think all 3 have their uses and none superseedes the others.

Programable keyboards
They just limit to send keystrokes to the computer, but they can be reprogramed so that certain keys behave diferently or execute a sequence of keys in a certain way. A few typical uses include remaping keys to more comfortable places, define key shortcuts with a single key or change the general behavior of any keys.

An important advantage of these devices is that they don't depend on the computer at all. The same device will work with zero-configuration or software on the PC, you just plug the keyboard and use it. It can also do a few things that you can't reasonably do in software, like simulating rapid keypresses (like rapid repeated shoting in games) or changing the secure atention sequence (by default ctrl+alt+del which Windows don't allows to remap). It's also cross-platform, the same keypresses will work even in Linux or Mac, for example (should they make sense in the target platform).

A con is that a keyboard has zero context of what it's doing. It just sends keystrokes and don't cares about the result. It's up to you to point the keys to the right window where they make sense.

Excel macros
The polar opposite are Excel macros. I name Excel itself, but any program that can be scripted is equally valid for this purpose. You can write a macro to do certain things in Excel that you could do with programming a few dedicated keys on a keyboard, but they can go far from that. For example, macros have full awareness of the entire Excel and can control it at will, reacting to cell values, doing calculations and changing the whole sheet if you really want to, that's much more than what the keyboards can do, because you're much closer to the data and have full context and control of the program.

Of course, it only works in Excel and sometimes in that particular file you're editing, that's why while they're powerful, thay're also very limited in scope. Not to mention that other programs may have their own macros that you need to learn and use separately.

Autohotkey and similar
Those are programs that you write a script for and they create sort of "global" shortcuts and hotkeys. They can be as simple as to replace the keyboard special keys or even to write some full programs with them. But while also powerful, you need to take into account that those macros are still somewhat restricted in what they know and what they can do. They're mostly optimized around creating shortcuts and remaping keys, you can do some key combinations to and are better than simple keystrokes, but at the cost of a background program constantly running (and you making that script). Also they neither have enough knowledge as Excel macros do, as they're more general purpose, but tend to have some more access to the system than them.

All in all, I think all 3 tools can be used, even together, but greatly depends on what do you want to do. All options overlap to some degree, but not engouh to make any obsolete, as you can see them all still in active development and use.