Question about making hotkeys

Hello! So I am new to multiboxing and these forums, so I apologize if I come off as being really noob-ish. I am currently interested in trying out multiboxing with only two separate accounts on the same computer. I am able to run WoW fluently in two separate windows and have just finished setting myself up with a trial account that I created using the recruit-a-friend option. If I feel like I enjoy multiboxing, then I'm considering buying a month or two of WoW subscription time and the first game bundle that includes the original WoW game as well as BC.

I've been reading various guides online almost all day now and I am still very, very confused. I have everything set up fine except for one thing: I can't for the life of me figure out how to use hotkeys. I've been using HotKeyNet, just because it's free and I had read that it was one of the suggested clients to use, and I've used 3 different pre-made configuration files that I've found online and I just can't figure out how to use the hotkeys at all.

What I want is incredibly simple: I'm going to be leveling up a Paladin to be my party leader, and a mage to support my paladin with DPS and Food/Drink and whatnot. My problem is that I don't want to keep on having to alt+tab into the window that I'm playing my Mage on, because that's just a huge pain in the butt. I thought that the hotkeys were used to control different windows of WoW while you're just using a different one. In essence, all that I want to be able to do is control my mage from my Paladin's WoW window. Is that possible at all?

What I did was find a pre-configured script for HotKeyNet that utilized the F1-F12 keys for three separate instances of WoW. I edited this, or so I thought, so that the hotkeys programmed to the F1-F12 keys were only being sent to the WoW2 window, which was the one that my mage was using. I then created a macro in-game for my mage only to assist my paladin and cast a fireball at whatever he was targeting. I went into the Key Bindings menu inside my mage's instance of WoW and assigned his first action bar skill slot to be used when I press F1, and then I put the newly created macro in the first action bar button.

I alt+tabbed back into WoW1, which was where my paladin was, and targeted the closest mob I could find and began auto-attacking it. I pressed the Caps Lock button, which was what I wrote in my script to enable hotkeys in HotKeyNet, and then I immediately pressed F1 on my keyboard--and nothing happened. I alt+tabbed into WoW2 to make sure that there wasn't an error message of any sort, but nothing had happened at all. When I alt+tabbed back into WoW1, I saw that my Paladin was getting attacked and not attacking back because he had just selected himself, which is the default key binding for F1 on my version of WoW.

So my question is, how the heck do I tell HotKeyNet to ONLY use WoW2 when I hit the F1 key on my keyboard, and what do I have to do both in and out of game to get my mage to use the macro that I created without having to alt+tab or minimize out of my WoW1 window?

Thank you!

If you're alt-tabbing, you're doing it wrong. WoW should only be run in windowed mode, not fullscreen. Then the keys can pass to both windows.

I'd suggest going to the HotKeyNet tutorial link in my sig and starting from scratch. Then if you're still having issues, post the details, including the errors and the script you are using so that I can troubleshoot what's not working.

After you have the basic broadcasting working, then we can work on editing the script to do specific things.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Khatovar

If you're alt-tabbing, you're doing it wrong. WoW should only be run in windowed mode, not fullscreen. Then the keys can pass to both windows.

I'd suggest going to the HotKeyNet tutorial link in my sig and starting from scratch. Then if you're still having issues, post the details, including the errors and the script you are using so that I can troubleshoot what's not working.

After you have the basic broadcasting working, then we can work on editing the script to do specific things.

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Thanks for the reply. I managed to figure it out, but I'm still having a bit of trouble.

I've assigned a macro for my secondary character in WoW2 to follow my main character in WoW1 and set it to be key mapped in-game to the F1 key. I assigned Hotkeynet to only use the F1 key on WoW2. But whenever I press the F1 key, yes, it works, but it also immediately switches windows to WoW2, which is not what I wanted it to do.

Also, I have to alt-tab out a lot, because whenever I need to accept or reject a quest or pick up loot or track how far along my secondary character is in a specific quest. I've seen several macros around to get my secondary character to just accept the quest but that really doesn't work--the character is just non responsive.

I'll show you the code for hotkeynet that I made to utilize the F1 and F2 keys for my secondary character. Both of the hotkeys now work, but they immediately switch the active window in Windows 7 to WoW2, and then I have to alt+tab back into WoW1.

And I have both WoWs in Windowed mode. Before I had them in Windowed [Fullscreen] since I find it annoying to not be utilizing my laptop's entire screen, but I'd just imagine that playing in Windowed mode just makes everything a whole lot easier.

Lastly, a quick question: Say I decide to not Multibox on the same computer and instead use a separate computer for my secondary account. My main computer is a Windows computer using hotkeynet but my secondary computer runs only Mac OS X. Is it possible to share my keys with a computer that is running an entirely different OS? Does hotkeynet support Windows-to-mac or vice-versa key sharing?

Thank you.

Here's the coding that I have loaded in hotkeynet as of now:

Code:

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<Label w1 Local SendWin "WoW1"><Label w2 Local Sendwin "WoW2">


<Hotkey CapsLockOn F1>
<SendLabel w2>
<Key %Trigger%>


<Hotkey CapsLockOn F2>
<SendLabel w2>
<Key %Trigger%>

---

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shinderhizzle84

Thanks for the reply. I managed to figure it out, but I'm still having a bit of trouble.

I've assigned a macro for my secondary character in WoW2 to follow my main character in WoW1 and set it to be key mapped in-game to the F1 key. I assigned Hotkeynet to only use the F1 key on WoW2. But whenever I press the F1 key, yes, it works, but it also immediately switches windows to WoW2, which is not what I wanted it to do.

Also, I have to alt-tab out a lot, because whenever I need to accept or reject a quest or pick up loot or track how far along my secondary character is in a specific quest. I've seen several macros around to get my secondary character to just accept the quest but that really doesn't work--the character is just non responsive.

I'll show you the code for hotkeynet that I made to utilize the F1 and F2 keys for my secondary character. Both of the hotkeys now work, but they immediately switch the active window in Windows 7 to WoW2, and then I have to alt+tab back into WoW1.

And I have both WoWs in Windowed mode. Before I had them in Windowed [Fullscreen] since I find it annoying to not be utilizing my laptop's entire screen, but I'd just imagine that playing in Windowed mode just makes everything a whole lot easier.

Lastly, a quick question: Say I decide to not Multibox on the same computer and instead use a separate computer for my secondary account. My main computer is a Windows computer using hotkeynet but my secondary computer runs only Mac OS X. Is it possible to share my keys with a computer that is running an entirely different OS? Does hotkeynet support Windows-to-mac or vice-versa key sharing?

Thank you.

Here's the coding that I have loaded in hotkeynet as of now:

Code:

---

<Label w1 Local SendWin "WoW1"><Label w2 Local Sendwin "WoW2">


<Hotkey CapsLockOn F1>
<SendLabel w2>
<Key %Trigger%>


<Hotkey CapsLockOn F2>
<SendLabel w2>
<Key %Trigger%>

---

---

So after reading your noob guide I re-set some things up and it just did not help at all. It only made it worse, lol. I made one macro in WoW2 to set my slave character to follow my master and keymapped it to the F1 key. First I tried the [ key, and that didn't work, so I thought I'd try switching to the F1 key. Still completely non-responsive.

I also have a macro assigned to the 1 key for my slave toon that assists my master character and casts his main attack spell, shadow bolt (he's a warlock). Everything is non-responsive. I can move and attack around fine in WoW1, where my master toon is, but nothing translates over to WoW2--I still have to alt-tab into WoW2 if I want it to do anything at all, ever.

Here are the two macros that I gave my slave character:

1. Assist:

/assist Erryn [that's the name of my toon]
/cast Shadow Bolt

2. Follow:

/follow Erryn

Simple enough. I'm not really looking to get into anything too complicated to start out with--just something as basic as this will be suffice for the noob zones.

I have Macro 1 assigned to the 1 key inside WoW2 and macro 2 assigned to the F1 key. When I am playing WoW in the main window, WoW1, and hit the 1 key, nothing happens in WoW2. When I hit the F1 key in WoW1, nothing happens in WoW2. I have no idea if my scroll lock button is on or off because I'm running on a laptop and there is no actual scroll lock button--instead it's a small combination of 3 keys that I have to press. Perhaps this is the issue? If this is the case, what button do you recommend using to make my keymappings in hotkeynet turn on/off? I'd love to use the capslock but then whenever I spoke to anybody in the game I'd be yelling at them :P

Here is the .txt file that I've had loaded in hotkeynet. I just switched the function button to Caps Lock and it didn't help at all. In fact, not only is WoW2 completely nonresponsive, but for some reason whenever I click any of the hotkeyed buttons Windows screws up somehow and I have to re-click on the WoW window to get back into it. In other words, my mouse and keyboard in Windows 7 seem to get triggered into acting outside of WoW everytime I use a hotkeyed key. And it's still completely unresponsive in both windows of Wow.

Code:

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<Label w1 Local SendWin "WoW1"><Label w2 Local Sendwin "WoW2">


<Hotkey CapsLockOn 1-9>
<SendLabel w1, w2>
<Key %Trigger%>


<Hotkey CapsLockOn F1>
<SendLabel w1, w2>
<Key %Trigger%>

---

i would advise against using the "F" keys unless you are sure they are unbound and unlinked from everything possible (windows included) you also need to get jamba, that will solve a lot of your quest issues it will also help with following.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jstanthr

i would advise against using the "F" keys unless you are sure they are unbound and unlinked from everything possible (windows included) you also need to get jamba, that will solve a lot of your quest issues it will also help with following.

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I already have Jamba and read the guide somewhere on here on how to efficiently set it up. And thanks for the advice on the F keys. I tried using the [ key but hotkeynet showed up with an error message saying that it did not recognize the key.

And I'm still having the same problem that I've been having this whole time. I've re-named the windows WoW1 and WoW2, but whenever I turn hotkeys on and press any key that I have configured to be a specific hotkey, the game is unresponsive and the mouse and keyboard on my computer immediately get taken out of WoW. I am going to try recording a video of my screen when I press the hotkeys so you can understand what exactly is going on, because I think that the way that I am describing it might be making it kind of confusing and this doesn't seem like an issue that should be happening.

I need your entire script. I also need the error messages that HotKeyNet is posting in the "Actions on this PC" window. And I still suggest you don't make any changes other than what is needed to make the default script function for you. That is to say, change nothing but the path name for the location of WoW.

Quote:

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I can move and attack around fine in WoW1, where my master toon is, but nothing translates over to WoW2--I still have to alt-tab into WoW2 if I want it to do anything at all, ever.

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This sounds to me like the broadcasting isn't even on. Or you haven't renamed the windows. Or the labels are wrong.

Quote:

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whenever I press the F1 key, yes, it works, but it also immediately switches windows to WoW2

---

This sounds like you're using the wrong sendmode. Or you are using the mouse to pass focus.

Code:

---

<Hotkey CapsLockOn 1-9>
<SendLabel w1, w2>
<Key %Trigger%>


<Hotkey CapsLockOn F1>
<SendLabel w1, w2>
<Key %Trigger%>

---

I don't know what this is. HotKeyNet's default scripts should already have these keys all defined. This looks like you've just redefined keys that are already defined, which I'd have to guess is causing conflicts and thus HotKeyNet is ignoring the second set of definitions.

Quote:

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keymapped it to the F1 key. First I tried the [ key, and that didn't work, so I thought I'd try switching to the F1 key. Still completely non-responsive.

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Is the [ defined in your script? Are your Fkeys on? Does your laptop require you to use another key to activate a Function Key as a normal Fkey?

This is why I need the entire code and the error messages.

No, HotKeyNet is not something that will work on Mac. I don't think any broadcasting program is able to do that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Khatovar

I need your entire script. I also need the error messages that HotKeyNet is posting in the "Actions on this PC" window. And I still suggest you don't make any changes other than what is needed to make the default script function for you. That is to say, change nothing but the path name for the location of WoW.



This sounds to me like the broadcasting isn't even on. Or you haven't renamed the windows. Or the labels are wrong.



This sounds like you're using the wrong sendmode. Or you are using the mouse to pass focus.

Code:

---

<Hotkey CapsLockOn 1-9>
<SendLabel w1, w2>
<Key %Trigger%>


<Hotkey CapsLockOn F1>
<SendLabel w1, w2>
<Key %Trigger%>

---

I don't know what this is. HotKeyNet's default scripts should already have these keys all defined. This looks like you've just redefined keys that are already defined, which I'd have to guess is causing conflicts and thus HotKeyNet is ignoring the second set of definitions.



Is the [ defined in your script? Are your Fkeys on? Does your laptop require you to use another key to activate a Function Key as a normal Fkey?

This is why I need the entire code and the error messages.

No, HotKeyNet is not something that will work on Mac. I don't think any broadcasting program is able to do that.

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Okay, thanks for the response.

By code, do you mean the script that I have loaded in Hotkeynet? Because I literally copied and pasted the entire .txt file's contents into that post above. I tried using one of the larger recommended scripts that are part of the tutorial that you have in your sig but those were the ones that weren't responsive. And yes, my laptop requires me to use another key as a function key--maybe that could be it. Either way, I made my own script (the one that I posted above) and it seemed to work for my WoW2 window, but as I said before, the second that I click it it either brings the WoW2 window to the front of my screen or it just sort of alt+tabs out of both windows to the desktop, even though the WoW window is still the front-most object in my desktop--I just have to use the mouse to click on my WoW1 window to get the keyboard and mouse back into WoW.

And I always rename both windows using Hotkeynet before I even log into my characters. I just log into the realm character-selection screen and then alt+tab out to hotkeynet and rename both windows. I even did it using that subroutine or whatever in one of those premade hkn scripts and still got the same results.

As far as error messages go, there never have been any error messages. It always says that the hotkey was successfully sent to instance WoW1 and WoW2, I forget what the exact text says--but there are no error messages. I am on the same computer using two separate windows of WoW, so I have the "are you connecting to another pc?" Option turned off. Also, I have no idea what send mode I should be using. I looked at the send mode setting window and took a screenshot that I will attach to this post.

And as far as broadcasting being turned off or on, do you mean that I haven't pressed the correct button to turn the hotkeys on? Right now I've got the text CapsLockOn to activate the hotkeys, and whenever I try this my capslock button is always on.

Yes, I need the entire script. At this point, however, I'm going to suggest you just go with ISBoxer. You've got too much going on for me to be able to troubleshoot everything that could possibly be going wrong with your setup. ISBoxer isn't very expensive, there's a 7day trial and it has a wizard that will do all the setup for you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Khatovar

Yes, I need the entire script. At this point, however, I'm going to suggest you just go with ISBoxer. You've got too much going on for me to be able to troubleshoot everything that could possibly be going wrong with your setup. ISBoxer isn't very expensive, there's a 7day trial and it has a wizard that will do all the setup for you.

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I actually did a fresh install of HotKeyNet and managed to get it working. Thank you for the help--it turned out that in the Send Mode Settings window I needed to check off the box that said "Use New SendWinM and SendWinMF" and it is now working. So thank you for being so helpful and patient.

I've started to make macros and have been enjoying basic multi-boxing at this point, but I'm still having a bit of trouble and I'd love it if you or someone else could help me out. Basically I went into WoW keybindings and set "Interact with target" to the key \, or the "Oem5" key. What I want to do with this is allow both of my characters to simultaneously loot or accept/turn in a quest. My problem is that even though I have an assist macro that tells my slave to assist my master. I have that set to alt+2 in WoW's key bindings. So I hit Alt+2 in my master window and then hit the \ button, but for some reason my slave doesn't have the quest giver that my master is talking to targeted, so he just ends up doing nothing.

What is the easiest way to get your slave to accept/turn in quests or loot bodies at the exact same time and command as your master? I had read in one of your guides to set the interact with target button to something, but I'm not sure what the best way is to get your slave to target your master's targeted quest-giver/dead body.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Khatovar

Yes, I need the entire script. At this point, however, I'm going to suggest you just go with ISBoxer. You've got too much going on for me to be able to troubleshoot everything that could possibly be going wrong with your setup. ISBoxer isn't very expensive, there's a 7day trial and it has a wizard that will do all the setup for you.

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I'm on the ISboxer site and it seems like it is rather expensive? :S

It says that I have to buy some Lavish Software Suite for $50 bucks a year. Is there any way to just get the ISBoxer software, and how much would it cost as a standalone?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shinderhizzle84

I'm on the ISboxer site and it seems like it is rather expensive? :S

It says that I have to buy some Lavish Software Suite for $50 bucks a year. Is there any way to just get the ISBoxer software, and how much would it cost as a standalone?

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ISBoxer isn't standalone and it's already free, think of it as a GUI for Inner Space. If you can't afford $50/year for Inner Space (which is $4.17/month on top of the cost of your account subscriptions), there's always the $15 for 90 days option available as well.

It really comes down to how much is your time worth? If ISBoxer wasn't available I would be using HKN as well, however, ISBoxer is readily available. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shinderhizzle84

My problem is that even though I have an assist macro that tells my slave to assist my master. I have that set to alt+2 in WoW's key bindings. So I hit Alt+2 in my master window and then hit the \ button, but for some reason my slave doesn't have the quest giver that my master is talking to targeted, so he just ends up doing nothing.

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Go back into HotKeyNet > Options > Send Mode Settings > UNCHECK "Clear Modifiers before Executing Hotkey"

Quote:

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What is the easiest way to get your slave to accept/turn in quests or loot bodies at the exact same time and command as your master? I had read in one of your guides to set the interact with target button to something, but I'm not sure what the best way is to get your slave to target your master's targeted quest-giver/dead body.

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There's only one way to get the slave to target. That's with an assist keybind.

For quests, you will need Jamba. Link to the tutorial is in my sig. For looting, you will need to use assist and interact with target, just like questgivers.

ISBoxer is the way to go (IMHO)....... Especially if you plan or want to box more toons.
....there is a learning curve, but it accomplishes near endless features in which to set things up