Doc Category: Program options

In the Hotkeys tab of the Program options window, it is possible to assign global hotkeys to the display options that are available under Alt Controller’s View menu (and Window menu, for profiles with custom windows). Setting hotkeys allows features to be toggled on and off via a key combination from any program window without needing to revert back to the main Alt Controller window. By default, no hotkeys are set. (The hotkey shown in the screenshot above is just for illustration purposes.)

When a hotkey has been set for a feature, the key combination will be shown next to its entry in Alt Controller’s View or Window menu. If the hotkey is not shown there, it probably means that it has already been registered by another game or application and therefore could not be set. See also Screen region options.

The Display tab of the program options provides options for styling the pointer indicator and mode/page overlays.

The pointer position can be indicated either by a circle around the pointer position (the default) or a line from the centre of the screen to near the pointer position. The colour and circle radius can also be configured.

For the mode/page overlay, it is possible to specify the colour of the background and text, the translucency, font size and position. The position of the overlay is specified using percentages of the primary screen width and height, measured from the top-left corner of the screen.

Automatically stop Press actions on Release Enabling this option causes Alt Controller to stop executing the list of actions assigned to the Pressed event reason for a key, mouse button or custom window button when the corresponding Released event occurs. This is useful for defining sequences of actions (perhaps including Wait actions) that should be performed only as long as a key or button is held down. When the key or button is released, any ongoing actions for it are stopped.

Automatically stop Inside actions on Outside Enabling this option causes Alt Controller to stop executing the list of actions assigned to the Inside event reason for a screen region or custom window button when the corresponding Outside event occurs. This is useful for defining sequences of actions (perhaps including Wait actions) that should be performed only while the mouse pointer stays inside a screen region or hovering over a button. When the pointer moves away from the region or button, any ongoing actions for it are stopped.

Note: Toggle key and Toggle mouse button actions and Hold key / Mouse hold actions with no release time specified are not considered to be ongoing actions and therefore keys and mouse buttons held down by these actions are not automatically released by the above mechanisms.

Generate key strokes using This determines the Windows mechanism by which key strokes are generated and was more relevant in older versions of the software. The Scan codes method will almost always be required now.

Input polling interval The time delay in seconds between consecutive checks of the state of Alt Controller’s inputs (mouse buttons, keys, etc.). Users should rarely need to change this. If running on an older computer, increasing the interval a little might improve performance slightly. If the time interval is set too high, Alt Controller may start to miss input events such as fast mouse button clicks.

Display update interval The amount of time in seconds that the user interface waits between consecutive checks for new input events and corresponding display updates. From the user’s perspective, this only affects the refresh rate of the pointer indicator overlay. Reducing the time interval could make the pointer movement appear smoother, but may also affect performance adversely in some cases.

Pointer dwell time The amount of time in seconds that the mouse pointer must linger in a screen region or over a custom window button before any actions assigned to the Dwelled event reason are triggered.

Program options – Start up contains options to specify the state in which Alt Controller should start up.

Language selector Allows you to choose the language of the Alt Controller user interface. After changing this option and clicking OK, a program restart is required.

Automatically load last-used profile If checked, Alt Controller will open the profile you had loaded when you last closed Alt Controller. If unchecked, a new (empty) profile is loaded.

Automatically open custom windows If checked, Alt Controller will open any custom windows in a profile when it is loaded. If unchecked, users manually open custom windows using the Window menu or the appropriate keyboard shortcut when they wish.

Turn on ‘Draw screen regions’ Determines whether the option to show screen regions on the screen is turned on when Alt Controller starts up. Note: even when this option is checked, some screen regions may not be shown all the time if the Draw in mode or Draw in app options have been set for them in the Edit screen regions window.

Turn on ‘Show region names’ Determines whether the option to show region names inside screen regions is turned on when Alt Controller starts up.

Turn on ‘Draw pointer indicator’ Determines whether the pointer indicator option is turned on when Alt Controller starts up.

Turn on ‘Show mode/page overlay’ Determines whether the mode/page overlay is turned on when Alt Controller starts up.

Turn on ‘Only draw squares‘ Determines whether the Only draw squares option is turned on when the Edit screen regions window is opened.

It’s convenient to store your Alt Controller profiles in a single folder, though you don’t have to.

By default, Alt Controller stores profiles in C:\Users\<YourWindowsUserName>\AppData\Local\Alt Controller. You can change this folder to a more user-friendly location in Tools – Options – Folders.

Note: In older versions of Alt Controller, the default profiles folder was Documents\Alt Controller\Profiles. Unfortunately, new security restrictions on the Documents folder mean that the software sometimes cannot save to this folder, which is why the default location was changed. However, you can certainly try choosing a folder under Documents.