How com only certain original .ico (icon) files can be set as hotkeys?

John S. shared this question 3 months ago
Discussion Open

Hello

In MindManager for windows (v2023 and also v2020) some of the icon files (.ico) allow the user to apply them using a hotkey (Control +1 to Control +9) but other icon files do not.

i.e. For some files when you right click on them in MindManager you get a context menu that popups up called "Short Key". However other .icon files in the library don't give this menu option. Why? What is the difference?

Is it something to do with .ico file resolutions? or colour depth?

Thanks

J

Best Answer
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There are two types of icon in MindManager:

  • "Stock" icons that are embedded in the core software. There are around 70 stock icons, mostly in the top level folder ("MindManager") in the library pane. Stock icons can have a shortcut key assigned.
  • "Custom" icons that are independent files. The library ships with a lot of custom icons, and more can be added by the user. Custom icons cannot have keyboard shortcuts assigned.

Replies (7)

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There are two types of icon in MindManager:

  • "Stock" icons that are embedded in the core software. There are around 70 stock icons, mostly in the top level folder ("MindManager") in the library pane. Stock icons can have a shortcut key assigned.
  • "Custom" icons that are independent files. The library ships with a lot of custom icons, and more can be added by the user. Custom icons cannot have keyboard shortcuts assigned.

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Yes, so what exactly is the difference between a "Stock" icon file and a "Custom" icon file?
It seems to be something about the individual files themselves...


And how can we generate "Stock" icon files so that we can assign shortcut keys to them?

J

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Stock icons are not external .ico files but are embedded inside MindManager. Only custom icons can be added to the library.

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> Stock icons are not external .ico files but are embedded inside MindManager.
> Only custom icons can be added to the library.

Hmm... I find it pretty irritating that you can't change what the icons that can be hot-keyed (i.e. the "stock" icons) look like.

Oh well.

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Hi Nick and John,

John, apologies for not responding earlier to your questions about this on the other thread. I was trying to get to the bottom of the issue but without a lot of success. Fortunately Nick has identified the issue.

Nick, this issue has come up because John asked about a hotkey/smart/key combination to mark all selected tasks as complete in another thread: https://community.mindmanager.com/topic/2674-is-there-a-hotkey-to-mark-tasks-as-being-100-completed-i-e-task-done. He had identified the option of using the Priority smartkeys and was wondering if there was a better way, I suggested using another smartkey-enabled icon, or alternatively clicking in the Progress icon of any one of the selected tasks and selecting the 100% complete icon.

However John would like to do this via smartkeys but in such a way that any icon used in this way does not have to appear in the map, but this does not seem to be possible. Therefore I was wondering if it would be possible create a macro linked to some sort of hotkey combination that could be used to mark selected topics as 100% complete without having to involve an icon.

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Yes that's exactly right, thanks Alex.

To clarify, since my Check icons have to to remain visible if my progress icons are to be seen, I want to edit the icons that I use with hotkeys so as to make them extremely faded and barely visible. This way, one's eye focuses on the outstanding tasks rather than the completed ones.

J

PS As a general comment, it might just be me, but I prefer using a more muted, subtle color palette compared to the bold/shouty options that MindManager typically provides.

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Hi John, re your last comment, see the discussion on an idea I posted in the forum last year: https://community.mindmanager.com/topic/1825-provide-quieter-alternatives-to-the-bright-green-100-finished-progress-icon

As I noted in this thread, it is possible to use a combination of topic properties, formulas, SmartRules and your own icons to set up and track progress independently of the built-in system, but this is tricky and time-consuming to do. I’ve described how to do this with checklists which have just two options in this post on my blog:

https://sociamind.com/2021/09/30/setting-up-alternative-checklists-in-mindmanager/

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Thank you Alex

I did have a quick look at your suggestion...
Quick question: Does what you have set up allow the user to move between checklist items using a hotkey?
If not I think I'll bow out gracefully at this point because TBH, this is getting a bit too advanced for me.

Back to the overly bright green tick on a transparent background, I am still wondering where the master copy of the icon is stored. I mean is it literally compiled into the application DLLs somewhere? (If not I wonder if there might be a way to do open-heart surgery on that file "check.ico" to make it appear as grey not bright green ??)

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All the stock icons, priority icons and progress icons are embedded in a resources DLL so are not editable.

You can always right-click on the Task Done icon in the Map Markers pane, click Quick Filter and then click Fade topics with this marker. This mutes completed tasks without hiding them altogether.

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Yes, fading the entire topic is better than nothing I suppose.
But it's still quite a lot of (rather fiddly) clicks with a mouse. Is there any way to turn it on/off with a Macro?
In fact where can I learn how to write macros for MM? e.g. Are there any good video tutorials?
(Fwiw, I have been trying to get ChatGPT to write one but it keeps getting errors!)

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Hi John,

MindManager has had green checkmarks for a long time. I think before that the checkmarks were dark blue. That said I agree with you that in most cases I want completed tasks to fade away so I can focus on those that are not completed. What are your thoughts on the following proposal?

db57d2b4536ed5478eb81c573942b8c7

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Thanks Alec, we'll do some more research on customer preferences and see if it's something other customers agree should be changed in the future.

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Thank you, Sia :)

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As I suggested previously, I think the best option would be the ability to apply fading as an affect via a SmartRule that would also fade icons, coloured tags and topic info as well as the topic itself - see https://community.mindmanager.com/topic/1824-add-the-ability-to-fade-topics-in-map-and-gantt-and-other-views-using-a-smartrule

This could use the 100% complete task progress as a trigger - or any other available trigger the user wanted.

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Ah so to get clear, Alex this is a NEW effect that you are suggesting, yes?

i.e. Right now there is no way to make icons fade...

If so, I don't mind which way it is achieved. Either solution would be fine by me personally, although other people may still want to easily read the text of things which have been ticked.

Fwiw, my workaround solution has been to make everything else - particularly the default text size - much larger than usual so that the progress icon becomes RELATIVELY small. That way the rather "shouty" tick icon remains very small and relatively inoffensive, and the text for stuff that is ticked goes pale grey and gets crossed out for good measure.

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Yes, it was a suggested improvement which I proposed in this forum, as per the link.

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