Draw your first gesture
This page uses the starter set from the welcome. If you chose Start from scratch, make an action first on Make a gesture do something, then come back.
Draw it
- Open a program whose window isn't maximized, for example Notepad.
- Point at the window. Press and hold the right mouse button.
- Without letting go, move the pointer up and to the right in a straight line, about two or three centimeters, as in the picture.
- Let go of the button.
The window maximizes. Draw the same line again over it and the window goes back to its earlier size. That is the starter set's Maximize or restore window action, in the Global app group, which works in every program.
What you see while drawing
- The trail. Once the pointer has moved a few pixels with the button down, a trail follows it. How it looks depends on what you chose in setup and on the Appearance page. See Gesture trails.
- The hint. After 150 milliseconds or 24 pixels of drawing, a small window near the pointer shows what your stroke matches so far: the app group, the action's name, and its hint note if it has one. It changes as you draw. When the stroke matches nothing, the hint disappears, and it comes back as soon as the stroke matches something again. See Hints and messages.
When you let go, Input.Observer brings the window you started drawing over to the front, then runs the matched action.
When nothing matches
If the stroke matches no action when you let go, nothing happens. The right-click doesn't reach the program either: it was used for drawing. See How a stroke is matched.
A right-click is still a right-click
- A plain click. If you press and let go without moving the pointer 5 pixels, Input.Observer sends the program an ordinary right-click, so its context menu opens as usual.
- Press and wait. If the pointer stays still for half a second while you hold the button, the gesture is cancelled and the program gets the button press, as if Input.Observer weren't there. Use this to right-drag in programs that need it. Moving the pointer while drawing restarts the half-second wait, so a slow gesture isn't cancelled.
- Skip it entirely. Hold Ctrl while you press the right button, and the press goes to the program untouched. See Pause, bypass and exit.
The half second and the 5 pixels are the defaults. Both can be changed on the General page. See Drawing a gesture.
Other gestures to try
These are some of the starter set's Global actions. They work in every program, unless an app group for that program does something else with the same shape.
| Draw | Action |
|---|---|
| A straight line up | Copy (Ctrl+C) |
| A straight line down | Paste (Ctrl+V) |
| A straight line left | Back (Alt+Left) |
| A straight line right | Forward (Alt+Right) |
| A diagonal line down and to the left | Minimize window |
| The letter C | Center window |
| A square | Show desktop |
Every starter action is in the Examples category on the Actions page, with the gesture that runs it. The gestures themselves are on the Gestures page. See The gesture library.