Actions
An action is the unit of work in Input.Observer. It has two halves:
- Triggers say when it runs: a gesture you draw, a hotkey you press, or text you type.
- What it does is a list of steps, a script, or an AutoHotkey script.
Every action belongs to one app group, which decides in which programs its triggers work. Inside a group, actions are checked in list order and the first one whose trigger matches runs (Matching).
The pages in this section
| Page | What it is for |
|---|---|
| The Actions page | Create, edit, order, enable and delete actions and their triggers. |
| Steps, Script and AutoHotkey | The three ways an action can run, and switching between them. |
| Snippets | Reusable steps or scripts that actions call by name. |
| Macro recorder | Record what you do with the mouse and keyboard, then reuse it as steps. |
| Sandbox | Try steps on pretend windows, without touching your real desktop. |
| Global events | Actions that run on fixed events instead of triggers. |
To build what an action does without writing code, see Steps. To write it as code, see the Script language reference.
tip
The quickest way to make a first action is Quick create… in the configuration window (Make a gesture do something). It builds the trigger and the steps for you, and you can change both on the Actions page afterwards.
- The Actions page — Create, edit, order, enable and delete actions, and give them gesture, hotkey and text triggers.
- Steps, Script and AutoHotkey — The three ways an action can run, when to choose each, and what happens when you switch.
- Snippets — Your library of reusable steps and scripts: naming, categories, calling one from an action, and what deleting one affects.
- Macro recorder — Record what you do with the mouse and keyboard, then reuse the recording as steps in a snippet or an action.
- Sandbox — Try steps or a script on a pretend desktop with stand-in windows, and watch the run replayed, without touching your real desktop.
- Global events — Scripts that run when something happens anywhere: a mouse button, the wheel, a gesture's outcome, startup, shutdown, hardware and focus changes.