Release notes

Here are the details of the changes made in recent versions of Alt Controller plus other notes that are relevant to users of the software.

Version 1.61

  • Fixed indexing error in mouse button control.
  • Added screen region selector to mouse action viewer and allowed ‘region N/A’.
  • Fixed crash on continuing an ongoing action list which contains a change situation action.

Versions 1.62 & 1.63

  • Fixed bug affecting mouse coordinates and screen regions when certain display scaling options were enabled in Windows Control Panel.

Version 1.70

  • Added action to toggle a mouse button (press if unpressed, unpress if pressed).
  • Added background image and translucency options for custom window buttons.

Version 1.82

A significant update to the software, including the following changes.

  • Added an overlay to show the current mode / page. See the View menu.
  • Added program options for assigning global hotkeys to the View menu options (to show / hide screen regions, pointer indicator etc.) See Tools – Options – Hotkeys tab.
  • Added a program option to show a circle for the pointer indicator instead of a radial line. This is now the default. If you prefer the previous behaviour, select the Radial line option. See Tools – Options – Display tab.
  • Added a program option to change the display update interval which determines the rate at which the pointer indicator circle / line is updated. See Tools – Options – Timing tab.
  • Added a program option to automatically stop ongoing Pressed actions when a key or mouse button or custom button is released. This is useful for automatically interrupting a list of actions separated by Wait actions, so certain actions are only performed when the key or button is held for long enough. It can also be used to cycle through a number of modes or pages. See Tools – Options – Actions tab.
  • Added a program option to automatically stop ongoing Inside actions when the pointer moves outside a screen region or custom button. This is useful for automatically interrupting a list of actions separated by Wait actions, so certain actions are only performed when the screen region or custom button is hovered over for long enough. It can also be used to cycle through a number of modes or pages. See Tools – Options – Actions tab.
  • Added F13 – F24 keys to the keyboard input.
  • Fixed incorrect scan code for the backslash key.
  • Added ‘Release after’ (duration) option to the Hold key action type.
  • Added Windows key option to the Type key action type.
  • Added move up / down buttons to the action list.
  • Improved colour picker drop down menus.
  • Screen region editor now uses the aspect ratio of the desktop / working area / active window screenshot. This is to make it easier to draw square and circular regions.
  • Added option to display screen regions only on the primary screen.
  • Added option to the ‘Move the pointer’ action to specify coordinates relative to the primary screen size.
  • Added reset to defaults button to the Tools – Options window.
  • Changed certain default values and “Alt + key” keyboard shortcuts.
  • Removed a number of old sample profiles. These can be downloaded from the Profiles page if needed.
  • Sample profiles are now only copied to the user’s profiles folder on first installing the software.

Version 1.90

  • Fixed a bug which was causing a profile to get stuck in a mode.
  • Made the program translatable into other languages.

Version 1.91

  • Removed the installed documentation, which can now be found on the website.
  • Added a link to the online documentation to the Help menu.
  • Added source code to GitHub.

Version 1.93

1. Several improvements to custom windows:

  • Custom windows can be positioned by clicking and dragging the background as well as the title bar.
  • Added minimise button to custom window title bar.
  • Option to show or hide the title bars of custom windows (hotkeyable).
  • Better default custom window positions. (Added to avoid overlapping head mouse toolbars.)
  • Positions of custom windows and the main Alt Controller window are now remembered. (This is not profile-specific.)
  • New custom buttons are added next to the currently selected button.
  • Additional properties for custom window buttons: text colour, font and font size, coloured border.
  • Improved vertical centring of custom button text.
  • Positioning and editing of multiple custom buttons using Ctrl-click selection.
  • Fixed resizing of custom window using slider and arrow keys.

2. Added language selector to the program options with German language now available.
3. The two options to automatically stop ongoing Pressed or Inside actions (added in v1.82) are no longer enabled by default. See Tools – Options – Actions tab.

Version 1.94

  • Added option to ‘snooze’ Alt Controller (stop actions being performed) when certain applications are active (e.g. Alt Controller itself). See Edit situations window – Apps tab.

Version 1.96

  • Added additional options to Repeat key (directional) action for backwards compatibility with previous versions.
  • Fixed bug which was preventing Repeat key (directional) actions from automatically stopping.

Version 1.97

  • Introduced transparent screen region borders: the transparency setting is now applied to the region border as well as the background image.

Future plans

The Change pointer action type will likely be removed in a coming version of the software. This was an experimental action type which now seems to serve no purpose. If you are using this action type, please let me know.

Future plans for Alt Controller include gradually improving the website and sharing user-created profiles and information there. If you have created a useful Alt Controller profile that you are willing to share, feel free to get in touch via the Contact page.