Last month I got a Fujitsu Lifebook P1510D, an ultraportable (2.2 pound) notebook computer with a touch-sensitive screen that swivels around and folds flat backward tablet-style. However, it's not a "true" Tablet PC (no active digitizer) so there's no easy way to right-click. No button on the stylus and since it doesn't have WinXP Tablet, no software option to right-click when you tap and hold.

The passive digitizer is, on the whole, a feature as far as I'm concerned because it means you can easily click things and drag windows around with your fingernail, even when the machine's in notebook configuration. You don't get pressure sensitivity and there's no way for the screen to tell where you're pointing without clicking, which means no Alias Sketchbook, but I can't draw so that doesn't matter to me. Plus if you lose your stylus it's cheap to replace since it's just a bit of plastic. So, no foul.

Fujitsu's solution to the lack of right-click functionality is a task bar icon that you tap to make your next tap a right-click. This is pretty much exactly as inconvenient as it sounds and it's the only thing about this machine that I don't absolutely love.

I Asked MetaFilter to tell me the name of a program that would bring tap-and-hold right-clicking to my machine. They came up blank. (A perennial problem for me and AskMeFi. Apparently if I can't figure something out for myself, nobody else can either. I hasten to add it's not the site's fault; I do ask some damn obscure questions.)

I decided to see if I could at least program one of the hard buttons next to the display to right-click using what we used to call a "macro program" in the old days -- something that could record and play back user mouse actions and keystrokes. I did find a free, capable macro utility, AutoHotkey, which could easily generate the required mouse click with one line of script, and could even compile it to a standalone EXE. (Amusingly, that EXE is 180K, larger than an Apple II floppy disk.) Unfortunately I had forgotten that Fujitsu doesn't let me assign the hard buttons to launch applications. The hard buttons are hard-coded to PageUp/PageDown (which is convenient when you're reading, so again, no foul) and you can only reprogram Fn + hard button to launch programs. That's even less convenient than the taskbar icons.

So I was stymied. Still, AutoHotKey looked cool, and I started digging around a little bit to see what it could do. And discovered that one of the "showcase" scripts that comes with it is a mouse gesture interpreter. You hold down the right mouse button, draw a shape, and the script runs a corresponding subroutine. The source code for it is all there.

Wait a minute. AutoHotKey can trigger scripts when you click a mouse button? I wonder if that applies to the left mouse button... I mean, it would be kinda weird to trigger a script that way, but you never know...

Long story short: I can use AutoHotKeys to trap the left mouse button and have the script generate a right-click if I hold the stylus down in the same spot for a while, but pass through the left-click otherwise. There were some exceptions I had to work out (for example, how to make it NOT deselect a selection if you tap and hold on it -- you might think you want to always pass through the initial left mousedown, but you don't; also, if you drag something out of a window, you probably don't want to right-click if you pause in the middle of the drag) but in the end, I was able to get the script to work just the way I wanted. The performance is fine; it's not sluggish at all. And of course AutoHotKey let me make it into an EXE with a tray icon that has its own little context menu.

That's right. I've just written my first piece of Windows software. Which feels kinda weird for a longtime Mac nerd like me. Still, I have to say, writing scripts for AutoHotkeys feels a lot like scripting OneClick for the Mac, which was a favorite of mine back in the day. Except it's all free. Even the compiled EXEs are free to distribute or even to sell. So...

Re: SoftRightClick

There are 23 messages in this thread, displayed in the order they were posted.

TFJ 11/1/2005 4:17:33 PM Pacific

Do you know anything about converting a P1510D into a Tablet PC? Here in Korea, where I bought my P1510 a month or so ago, there is no word yet from Fijitsu about future plans to provide their customers with information about how to "convert" (I bought the device assuming the company would shortly provide the necessary drivers and the like). There is a lot of software that I would like to use, but for installation require a Tablet PC edition.

Jerry Kindall

11/1/2005 4:30:40 PM Pacific

From what I've heard, you just need a copy of Windows XP Tablet Edition and it will install and work on the Fujitsu.
Getting a copy is easier said than done, though... it's almost impossible to do so legally. If you know someone who is a Microsoft developer and a member of MSDN, you can get them to download a copy, but this is licensed to be used for testing and development purposes only, and only by the MSDN subscriber, so technically you're not allowed to use it.
That said, there are almost certainly bootleg copies floating around at user groups and at various places on the Internet. 'Nuff said about that. I just have a real problem trusting an operating system I downloaded from Bob's House of Warez.
Fujitsu is planning to release a version of the P1510D with XP Tablet this month. Perhaps they'll offer a low-cost OS upgrade to early purchasers. Give it a couple months and then check with the retailer wehre you bought your computer.
Keep in mind that many programs that require a Tablet PC are going to want an active digitizer. An active digitizer can detect where you are pointing without the stylus touching the screen. A passive digitizer, such as the one in the P1510D, cannot. Active digitizers can also detect levels of pressure. The digitizer in the P1510D cannot do this, either. This means no Alias Sketchbook -- or at least, the program is much less useful and interesting on the P1510D.
(The new version of the P1510D will come with XP Tablet but will still have a passive digitizer. This represents a loosening of restrictions by Microsoft on what constitutes a Tablet PC -- until recently, in order to sell XP Tablet with your computers, they had to have an active digitizer.)
Hope this is of some help even though it is overall pretty negative.

Tricky

11/25/2005 3:21:52 PM Pacific

Jerry,
Great stuff...
Above you say: "An active digitizer can detect where you are pointing without the stylus touching the screen". This is, of course, useful for web pages with "mouse over" actions, windows tool-tip, etc.
How can the same effect be achieved on P1050D's passive digitizer?
If it can't, do you think we can use AutoHotKey to achieve that?

Jerry Kindall

11/25/2005 5:40:02 PM Pacific

The latest version of SoftRightClick has a "corner tap" feature that modifies the next tap to perform a left, right, middle, or no click (the latter simply moves the pointer, i.e., hover). Download it and give it a try. ;)
http://www.jerrykindall.com/download/softrightclick.rar

Tricky

11/26/2005 7:39:59 AM Pacific

Jerry, that's excellent news! But when I downloaded "http://www.jerrykindall.com/download/softrightclick.rar" it sent me softrightclick.sit, I opened that file and found v1.3 in the archive!!
Now, I went to the downloads section and downloaded softrightclick.zip. This turned out to be v1.8 (Nov 8th version). Is this the one with the new "corner tap" feature?

Jerry Kindall

11/26/2005 10:50:34 PM Pacific

Both of those files should be the same, but obviously they're not. 1.8 is the version you want.
I'll fix that when I get back home...

Alec Burney

11/29/2005 12:30:49 AM Pacific

you = my hero. this p1510 is very happy right now, as am i.
two things, though:
where can i find the SoftRightClick readme (i'd like to know more about corner shortcuts),
and would you happen to know anything about restoring automatic screen orientation and the special buttons after...driver trouble...? fujitsu's limited driver downloads aren't helping and i can't seem to read my recovery cds in my desktop, and i never got the USB cd drive...
and thanks!

Jerry Kindall

11/29/2005 11:04:35 AM Pacific

The readme I'm referring to is the file README.txt in the zip archive.
I haven't had any driver trouble with the machine so can't help you out there, I'm afraid.

Alec Burney

11/29/2005 5:03:51 PM Pacific

hehe, i see it now... just missed it before. softrightclick rocks...
well, uh... why can't the recovery CDs be read in a normal CD drive? i'd muchly like to make ISOs of these for use with daemon tools.... so, if you find any info on reading them in a not-fujitsu computer, that'd be great.
some weird copy protection, though. i can't even access them with dd :(

Deryk Piper

7/26/2006 7:52:56 PM Pacific

Hi Jerry
First off, awesome program. The utility of a pen computer with passive digitizer increases exponentially with it.
I've got a Fujitsu Stylistic 3400 with Win2k. For the most part SRC works fine, but sometimes (like now) and for completely unknown reasons it will stop sensing tap-and-hold and gestures. The icon is still green and restarting the program does nothing.
I know I'm not giving you much to go on but perhaps something will stand out.
Again thanks for the killer utility!

Tony C.

9/5/2006 9:38:15 PM Pacific

Hi Jerry,
SoftRightClick is a very useful program for Fujitsu P1510. Thanks to you for dedicating it to all P1510's users.
I've problem with SoftRightClick and hope you may assist me to solve it. When I type fast, the curser would moved to where the Mouse Pointer is. Wonder there's anyway to solve this problem ?
For example, coz my mouse pointer is at the URL of this screen, while typing fast (probably due to vibration), the curser where I type this line of text would shift to the URL above. It's quite annoying and I must type very slow to avoid this problem. Hope there's a way to solve it. Thank you

Jerry Kindall

9/5/2006 9:40:21 PM Pacific

That should have nothing to do with SoftRightClick. It's not triggered by keystrokes at all.

aleina

9/16/2006 3:39:11 PM Pacific

hi there, do you know if a fujitsu tablet pc 3400 is pressure sensitive? i would need to use for artwork, so the pressure feature is very important. i couldn't understand if it's a hardware or software thing. I heard about installing the xp tablet edition would make it pressure sensitive, but i've read that those kind of fujitsu tablet pc can only support nothing more than windows 2000.
could anyone help me?
thank you very much, aleina

howie

2/26/2007 4:49:06 PM Pacific

just a quick question for a computer dummy, i have a 1610 and dont know how to run your program, anyhelp would be great, thanks.

Jerry Kindall

2/26/2007 8:47:07 PM Pacific

Just download the zip file, open it, and drag the SoftRightClick folder somewhere convenient (such as Program Files). Then open the SoftRightClick folder and launch SoftRightClick.exe. The icon for SoftRightClick will appear in the system tray. There's a readme file in the folder that'll tell you how to use its features.

Kirk Israel

4/27/2007 12:08:35 PM Pacific

Wow, this is great!
I didn't expect a Google search for
fujitsu lifebook "right click" p1510d
would get me such fast results!
It's really a shame there doesn't seem to be an easy way to remap that A/B key (actually I didn't realize they were default pgup/pgdown) to ctrl. In fact, you can't even remap Fn-button to ctrl, it has to be ctrl plus another key.
But, it feels like you came up with a pragmatic compromise. So my thanks to you.
I'll maybe Google a bit more and see if there's any way to override the pgup default, though given that ctrl is a modifier and pg up is a key, and Fujitsu seems fairly close-lipped about stuff like this, I'm not too optimistic.
It's a spiffy pieceof hardware, eh? Sometimes I miss having a CD, but it's a great stow and go machine.

Jerry Kindall

4/29/2007 12:45:19 AM Pacific

It might actually be possible to get the buttons to do something useful. I was digging around in the registry a couple months ago and I think I found where the default page up/page down behaviors are set. (Just because there's no UI for changing them doesn't mean it can't be changed!) I'm pretty busy right now, but if I ever get a chance to do some more work on SoftRightClick, this is something I'll definitely investigate.

Kirk Israel

4/29/2007 4:01:50 AM Pacific

Cool.
The one thing I remember, though, is that given the legacy issues of PC keyboards, it might be tougher than it should be.
I mean, historically, (if memory serves!) I think the modifier keys, ctrl, alt, etc, didn't generate keystrokes on their own, but tagged along when "real" keys were hit. (Obviously now in Windows they can be polled)
Like, the way the Function+A/B app doesn't let you send a "straight" Ctrl...I'm not sure if that was just the app writer being dumb, or if that registry setting corresponds to a "pure key click" combination, and can't ask as a "I need to be polled" kind of key.
Just some thoughts. I don't want to be too much of a negative nelly here... if you do find something, maybe you should send a ping email to anyone who has commented here :-)

lars

6/30/2007 7:09:25 AM Pacific

Hey Jerry, just wanted to say: THANKS.
This makes my stylistic 3400 with the mexp.dk addon for winamp a very cool jukebox. Finally.
regards
Lars

Jeremy T

11/29/2007 3:28:39 PM Pacific

GREAT app, Jerry. Thanks for all the hard work.
I recently converted my p1510 over to Vista (works great, btw, especially with an SSD) and I was wondering if anyone has been able to make it work under that OS. I continuously get errors regarding the icon file.

Eric V.

12/3/2007 7:06:18 PM Pacific

Great program, I only wish it allowed me to permanently change to the special functions, because the side of my digitizer screen that I scroll on does not respond well and it would be nice to have every hold be a middle mouse click for easy scrolling. Still yet, this a must have for my stylistic.w

Mike Manila

4/18/2009 12:28:23 PM Pacific

Hi, just wanted to ask if passive digitizer of TX-1000 is upgradable to active digitizer??
Is it a software of hardware thing?
I appreciate the help.

Mike G.

11/18/2009 4:44:33 AM Pacific

I love this application but i can't run it on windows 7.
This is a screenshot of what happens
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7002/srcscreenshot.jpg
Thanks in advance!

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Re: SoftRightClick