Window Grid (WindowGrid.exe)

A multi-monitor aware replacement for Nuance’s Dragon utility "Mouse Grid" which puts the grid on the currently active window; released as public domain as a Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 C# project. The application creates a semi-transparent window the size of the active window; a grid is drawn with a maximum of 26 columns (labeled with the ASCII letters A-Z) and 10 rows (labeled with the ASCII numerals 1-10). Each cell is labeled with the column letter and row number: A1-Z10.

Just the application:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ezb48icykiq4o02/WindowGridApp0.0.zip?dl=0

The entire Microsoft Visual Studio solution:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k0dpduqdwfv1k4z/WindowGridSolution0.0.zip?dl=0

Even though extensively tested by me I consider this a beta version as no one else has tried it!

The attached readme text file as lots of details.

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-Edgar
DPI 15.3, 64-bit Windows 10 Pro, OpenOffice & Office 365, Norton Security, Shure X2U XLR to USB mic adapter with Audio Technica DB135 vocal mic, Asus X299-Deluxe Prime, Intel Core i9-7940X (14 core, 4.3 GHz overclocked to 4.9 GHz), G.SKILL TridentZ Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4 3333 (PC4 26600) F4-3333C16Q-64GTZ, NVIDIA GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 GV-N1060G1 GAMING-6GD REV 2.0 6GB graphics card with 3 1920x1080 monitors

Cool app, Edgar! Thanks for sharing.

Bug report: when I run the executable, I just get a little translucent bar in the upper left corner, like the app is minimized.  Edit:  When I maximize the app, I get a translucent overlay, but no grid.

That's not a bug that's a fatal error! Are you trying to execute the application by double-clicking on its icon? Although, that should force it into "Screen Grid" mode. The way it is supposed to work is to have some other window have focus (the active window) then say "window grid" or "window grid X by Y" (where X is the number of columns you desire and Y is the number of rows desired). Of course, you will need to create two global Dragon scripts and an application-specific script. Your forum profile shows you are not using KnowBrainer so will need to use the slower Dragon-specific application-specifics script (read the attached readme.txt file).

What is your screen set up (number of monitors and each one’s resolution)?

Are you building the Windows Visual Studio solution or did you just download and unzip the standalone application?

Thanks for trying it out!

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-Edgar
DPI 15.3, 64-bit Windows 10 Pro, OpenOffice & Office 365, Norton Security, Shure X2U XLR to USB mic adapter with Audio Technica DB135 vocal mic, Asus X299-Deluxe Prime, Intel Core i9-7940X (14 core, 4.3 GHz overclocked to 4.9 GHz), G.SKILL TridentZ Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4 3333 (PC4 26600) F4-3333C16Q-64GTZ, NVIDIA GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 GV-N1060G1 GAMING-6GD REV 2.0 6GB graphics card with 3 1920x1080 monitors

I am trying to execute the application by using an Advanced Scripting command with a single line consisting of:

ShellExecute "C:\Program Files (x86)\WindowGrid\Windowgrid.exe"

It's true that I don't use Knowbrainer. I spent so many years writing my own Advanced Scripting commands that I don't want to have to learn anybody else's commands. But I am happy to write my own commands

I'm running a single monitor, 1920 by 1080.

I just downloaded the standalone application, being lazy.

I'm happy to be a beta tester. Beta testing can be fun!

Thanks for the report Matt!

Good news and bad: I can re-create the problem, but…

I think it is a combination of two things - permissions and signature. Windows 10 is being very finicky!

Using a KnowBrainer script, if I put the application (with or without an appropriate folder) in "C:\Program Files (x86)" or "C:\Program Files", ShellExecute fails in the same manner. However, if I put it in the root of the C Drive (e.g. "C:\Window Grid\WindowGrid.exe"), on the desktop or on any other drive, everything works marvelously.

Unfortunately, this is not the case with a Dragon script. No matter where I put the application it always fails in the same manner. I used to have the credentials to "sign" an application but they may no longer be adequate - Windows 10 wants everything to come from the App Store. I do have an account on the App Store but I have never figured out how to submit an app. I did try using a Dragon script to "ShellExecute" another application downloaded from the Internet (PSPad - almost certainly signed) which is in "C:\Program Files (x86)" and that worked just fine.

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-Edgar
DPI 15.3, 64-bit Windows 10 Pro, OpenOffice & Office 365, Norton Security, Shure X2U XLR to USB mic adapter with Audio Technica DB135 vocal mic, Asus X299-Deluxe Prime, Intel Core i9-7940X (14 core, 4.3 GHz overclocked to 4.9 GHz), G.SKILL TridentZ Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4 3333 (PC4 26600) F4-3333C16Q-64GTZ, NVIDIA GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 GV-N1060G1 GAMING-6GD REV 2.0 6GB graphics card with 3 1920x1080 monitors

Interesting. I tried your earlier version of the application (screengrid.exe) and opened it with the same Advanced Scripting command, without problem. I don't know why there would be a difference.

That helps a lot! The only difference between the two is that Screen Grid is NOT a commandline application. By doing some ugly manipulation of the Clipboard I can turn Window Grid (and by extension, the as yet unreleased, Monitor <1-10> Grid) into non-commandline applications.

I have developed a workaround but it is ugly - very ugly! Create a new folder in the root of your C Drive - C:\WindowGrid (make sure there are no spaces in the name of the folder). Move the executable into this folder (again, make sure there are no spaces in the name of the executable). Use this Dragon advance script:

Sub Main

ShellExecute "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe C:\WindowGrid\WindowGrid.exe"

End Sub

note that there is only one space in this quoted string - between ".exe" and "C:\".

The ugly part is that the Power Shell window opens very briefly. I'm hoping that when DPI gets its update to the new scripting engine all of this will just work like it does with KnowBrainer!

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-Edgar
DPI 15.3, 64-bit Windows 10 Pro, OpenOffice & Office 365, Norton Security, Shure X2U XLR to USB mic adapter with Audio Technica DB135 vocal mic, Asus X299-Deluxe Prime, Intel Core i9-7940X (14 core, 4.3 GHz overclocked to 4.9 GHz), G.SKILL TridentZ Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4 3333 (PC4 26600) F4-3333C16Q-64GTZ, NVIDIA GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 GV-N1060G1 GAMING-6GD REV 2.0 6GB graphics card with 3 1920x1080 monitors

That works!

Wish DPI 15.6 would get here already! Crazy that Nuance is so close, and can't get the update over the finish line.

Congratulations, as an official beta tester you are entitled to a free copy of the software! Oops - everybody gets it for free; oh well, so much for rewarding beta testers. Any thoughts on the preferences (press <CTRL>+p)? Even though I suspect that English is your primary language, have a look at the language localization dialog (from the Preferences dialog press <ALT>+l - that's the letter "L"; I hate fonts where you can't easily tell a capitol <I> from a minuscule <l> or the numeral 1).

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-Edgar
DPI 15.3, 64-bit Windows 10 Pro, OpenOffice & Office 365, Norton Security, Shure X2U XLR to USB mic adapter with Audio Technica DB135 vocal mic, Asus X299-Deluxe Prime, Intel Core i9-7940X (14 core, 4.3 GHz overclocked to 4.9 GHz), G.SKILL TridentZ Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4 3333 (PC4 26600) F4-3333C16Q-64GTZ, NVIDIA GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 GV-N1060G1 GAMING-6GD REV 2.0 6GB graphics card with 3 1920x1080 monitors

The preferences look good and easy to understand. I would change the default number of columns and rows to increase the number, but perhaps that's because I have a pretty big monitor.

English is my primary language, thank you!

Given that the "Mouse" menu needs a sub-item for each column, and each of them need a unique (mnemonic) accelerator key, the letters [a-z] are the only reasonable choices - limiting me to 26 columns. Since there are slightly more than 90 "printable" ASCII key codes (<,>, <:> etc., but we need to throw out the capitol letters [A-Z] to avoid confusion) a torturous menu could be created using all of them as accelerator keys. I suspect it would be unwieldy to memorize a 68 character alphabet in order! But, since the characters are printed in large bold type it could be done.

Something similar holds with the rows; since I am using a letter/number combination I limit myself to 26 by 10. For the numerals we only have the possibility of 0-9 for unique accelerator keys thus only 10 rows.

Reducing this to absurdity, we could use a character/character combination and get something on the order of 94 by 94 resolution if we allowed the distinction between <a> and <A>!

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-Edgar
DPI 15.3, 64-bit Windows 10 Pro, OpenOffice & Office 365, Norton Security, Shure X2U XLR to USB mic adapter with Audio Technica DB135 vocal mic, Asus X299-Deluxe Prime, Intel Core i9-7940X (14 core, 4.3 GHz overclocked to 4.9 GHz), G.SKILL TridentZ Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4 3333 (PC4 26600) F4-3333C16Q-64GTZ, NVIDIA GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 GV-N1060G1 GAMING-6GD REV 2.0 6GB graphics card with 3 1920x1080 monitors