RPMouse 3 and low vision : Find location of your mouse pointer quicklu with oblique and straight bars

Remark : thid page was translated from French with Google Translatoor.

Français ;

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Download and installation
• Usage notes
  • First launch
  • View tab
  • List of colors
  • AutoShow tab
• Translations
• Source code
• Changelog
  • Version 3.2 - May 29, 2020
  • Version 3.1 - May 20, 2020
  • Version 3.0 - October 2019

Introduction

This software is designed to help the visually impaired to quickly locate the mouse pointer on the screen through tracking bars that start from the edges of the screen and arrive near the mouse pointer.

Its features are as follows:

• Compatible with Windows 7, 8.1 and 10.x and comes in a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version.
• Under GPL license (open source) in order to ensure its durability in case I could not ensure its evolution.
• Written in a language named AutoHotkey, free too, whose programming is accessible to screen readers like NVDA (free and I use constantly since my view s is reduced to not much).
• Up to 8 mouse pointer tracking bars: 4 oblique segments that can draw a large X around the pointer, 2 vertical bars and 2 horizontal bars that can form a large cross around the pointer.
• A hatched rectangle displayed in a quadrant formed by a vertical bar and a horizontal bar.
• Each of the bars can be displayed or not, it is the same for the hatched rectangle;
• AutoShow and AutoHide : Automatic appearance and disappearance of bars and rectangle ;
• Separate setting of the color of the oblique bars and straight lines as well as the hatching. About 200 natural colors are offered in the form of a list of color names classified by color range;
• Separate adjustment of the opacity of the oblique and straight bars as well as the hatching;
• Separate adjustment of the thickness of the oblique and straight bars
• Separate adjustment of the spacing between oblique and straight bars and the mouse pointer (v3.2 and 3.1) ;
• 52 different styles of hatching of the rectangle;
• Dynamic configuration dialog: any changes are immediately reflected on bars and hatches;
• Configuration of mouse and keyboard shortcuts, highlight of AutoHotkey;
• Contextual menu in the notification bar of Windows;
• Easily translatable into other languages : Is original language is French but it is availaible here in English. Other translations are welcome!

Download and installation

• Download RPMouse-3.2 Multilang setup.exe, installable version ;
• Then start the installation program;
• When choosing the installation folder, do not choose a protected folder like C: \ Program files, otherwise the RPMouse settings can not be saved. In return, the software can be copied to a USB key later;
• The 64 or 32 bit version will be installed depending on the architecture of your system;
• Also read the "First Launch" section below.

Usage notes

First launch

• At the first launch of the program, the configuration dialog will open on the "Language" tab. As English is the default language, you can choose FR in the list and press the "Apply Language" button to immediately put the program in French;
• The AutoShow features which shows the tracking bars on a movement of the mouse is disabled by default;
• Press the middle button to display them; -Use Control + Right Button to Open the configuration dialog;
• use the popup menu of the notification bar to install the startup shortcuts: one on the desktop and the other to automatically launch RPMouse on Windows startup;
• Take the time to browse the tabs and read the rest of this document;

View tab

This tab allows you to choose which bars to display as well as the hatched rectangle.

In addition to this setting saved in the INI file, you can use the following shortcuts to temporarily add or remove bars or move the hatched rectangle. The numbers mentioned below are those of the numeric keypad, which is active.

Hold down the Windows key while pressing the following numbers:

• 1, 3, 7 or 9: adds or removes the oblique bar of the corresponding corner ;
• 4 or 6: adds or removes a horizontal bar;
• 2 or 8: adds or removes a vertical bar;
• 5: displays the hatched rectangle in the next quadrant;
• 0: Enable or disable the hatched rectangle;

Tip: If you have activated the autoHide bars feature you can display the configuration dialog on a tab other than AutoShow to keep the bars displayed.

List of colors

In the "Oblique Bars", "Straight Bars" and "Rectangle" tabs there is a "Choose a Color ..." button. Clicking on it opens a new dialog with different fields:

• List of colors sorted by hue, saturation and Brightness. This classification is intended to facilitate the search for colors. Press a number to change from category of hues to category. Press a letter to go from color to color whose name begins with that letter;
• RGB value: it resumes the color code of the one selected in the list. You can also paste RGB code from another source;
• Edit color list: via Notepad, you can add your own colors to the list. Closing the notebook, the color list of the dialogue is not updated directly, it must be closed and reopened;

This list of colors comes from the list of color names of Wikipedia, with illustrations;

AutoShow tab

This tab allows you to adjust the time of appearance and disappearance of the location bars. These delays are expressed in milliseconds and a delay of 750ms disables the corresponding function.

• AutoShow delay: delay after which the bars appear following a movement of the mouse pointer;
• Move the mouse by pressing the key: None, Ctrl or Shift. The locator bars will only appear if you press the control or shift key at the beginning of a mouse move. You do not need to hold this key down while moving;
• AutoHide delay : delay after which the bars disappear following a stop of the mouse pointer;
  Note :
  If you turn on the automatic bar appearance feature, RPMouse will check the pointer movement every x seconds continuously. It is recommended to activate only the automatic AutoHide function and to use the shortcut, the middle button by default, to make the bars appear.

Translations

Translations into other languages ​​are welcome. If you are a candidate, please contact me by e-mail by going to the context menu of the notification bar and clicking on "Support".

Source code

On demand by mail.

Changelog

Version 3.2 - May 29, 2020

• In the "oblique bars" tab : added a new parameter "Oblique bars - pointer spacing" which defines the space betweenn each bar end and the mouse pinter. It is the ray of a virtual circle around it ;

Version 3.1 - May 20, 2020

• A different hatch style can be applied to each bar in order to distinguish them better. The default hatches suggest the direction of the bars ;
• Added Arrow caps on oblique bars, triangle caps on straight bars ;
• Added a "Style" tab in the settings dialog ;
• In the "straight bars" tab : added a new parameter "bars - pointer spacing" which defines the space betweenn each bar end and the mouse pinter ;

Version 3.0 - October 2019

First version of RPMouse 3 ;