Adobe Animate Hotkey File Keycodes

[murkalurk2099]

I'm trying to set Hide Panels to the Tab key, but this can't be done in the Keyboard Shortcuts Menu.

I located my custom Shortcut File in C:\Users\[Username]\Appdata\Roaming\Adobe\Animate\2018\Shortcuts > [Filename].xml

Unfortunately, for any key that is not a letter, Adobe uses some proprietary keycode values instead of the standard Windows ones. For example, F4 is 10 where it would normally be 115. Is there a lost somewhere of Abode's keycode calues for Windows?

[n. tilcheff]

Hi mate,

I have, fortunately, put together a little PDF file with the keycodes before they deleted all the Macromedia help documentation from the web.

I'm not sure if you'd be able to use Tab though, but you can try.

Here is a link to the PDF.

If you reorganise the shortcut xml file by key, it will be easier to maintain in a text editor.

That is what I do with our heavily modified set.

Here is also an article about CS shortcuts I wrote a long time ago. It is very different compared to CC, but some of the limitations still apply. Understanding Flash 8-CS6 shortcut file | electric dog :: flanimate power tools

Good luck!

NT

[murkalurk2099]

Some of the codes on your PDF are correct, some were missing, I ended up creating a keyboard macro that automatically went through the number one at a time and I went all the way up to 108 before stopping. The list I made is in a separate reply.

[n. tilcheff]

Thanks very much for the post.

I will update the PDF at some point.

CC shortcuts have never been a big concern for us as they are much more flexible to modify via the interface.

Shift, Alt and Control are of course modifier keys.

[murkalurk2099]

Yes, CC is pretty good for shortcuts, but there are a lot of oddities amongst the various programs.

For example, InDesign and Photoshop allow users to apply character keys to menu commands without the use of modifiers, which is a far superior way of having the shortcut keys coded, since you don't even need to tie the CTRL key into a command, creating a geometric increase in potential hotkey assignments. Illustrator and Animate, on the other hand, do not allow this.

So I was using the Tilde key (`) alone to summon a set of panels in InDesign but could not do this in Illustrator without tying in CTRL, and now it turns out I can do this in Animate without CTRL, though I can't use the Tab key to Hide All Panels, even though the rest of the Adobe programs I mentioned use this key for that function!

I am coming up with my own hotkey layouts and keyboard/mouse macros, but it's mind-bending. I imagine that there are some graphic firms out there using multiple adobe programs that have paid teams of engineers to come up with meta-layouts across the entire Adobe suite that I would almost sell my soul to get a hold of, since the default layouts do not have any kind of suite-wide mentality.

In my paradigm, the F keys are used to toggle "super-panels" which are a number of panels organized by kind and snapped together. The Layers Panel is assigned to F1, and the History and Properties Panels are snapped onto it. Now, pressing F1 summons all of these similar panels. The Color Panel is assigned to F2, while the Swatches, CC Library panels are snapped onto that panel. Align Panel is assigned to F3, with Transform, Pathfinder, Arrange snapped onto it.

This way I can summon and hide any panel and never have to use the Window drop-down menu since moving the mouse around and clicking is far less efficient than pressing one button. But in every Adobe Program, the F keys are used for vastly different commands, necessitating this agonizing process of re-engineering the hotkey files in near totality.

[n. tilcheff]

Yes, I fully agree.

The simple explanation that I have is that the different programs have very different origins and are often used by very different types of people and maintained by very different teams, often on different continents.

I am a character animator and have been developing and polishing our EDAPT set of shortcuts for Flanimate for over 12 years to suit well this specific usage. And it is only good for right-handed people working on EN-US keyboards.

[murkalurk2099 · Accepted solution]

In case anyone else is wondering, I used the old fashioned heuristic technique and found some things out.

Shortcuts that use character keys look like this:

<keycmd>
<cmd>Tool.FreeTransform</cmd>
<uchar>Q</uchar>
<mod>
<shift/>
</mod>
</keycmd>

<keycmd> and </keycmd> are respectively used to open and close all functions in the shortcut file. <uchar>LETTER</uchar> are used to indicate a character key, with the letter of the button placed in between. In the above example, the function will ensure that pressing Q will switch the tool selection to the Free Transform Tool. The <mod><shift/></mod> strings ensure that if multiple tools are mapped to Q, pressing Q again would cause the tool selection to switch the next tool sharing that shortcut (Shift is a "modifier" key).

Shortcuts that use system keys look like this:

<keycmd>
<cmd>Goto.First</cmd>
<key>36</key>
</keycmd>

For system keys, instead of the <uchar> strings, <key>NUMBER</key> is used and the "keycode" of the button must be placed in between. And this is where things get tricky because the keycodes are specific to Adobe Animate. In the above example keycode 36 refers to the HOME key, pressing it will, as the code suggests, execute Go To: First (Go to the first scene of the movie).

<keycmd>
<cmd>Goto.ReturnFocusToStage</cmd>
<key>36</key>
<mod>
<cmdkey/>
<alt/>
</mod>
</keycmd>

In the above example, pressing CTRL/CMD + ALT + HOME will, as the code suggests, execute Go To: Return Focus to Stage. So it will be important to remember that system keys assigned to keycodes 1-9 can be very easily confused with the character keys 1-9 (the number keys near the top of the keyboard), it is only the <uchar> or <key> strings that differentiate between them.

Some functions have a special string added:

<keycmd>
<cmd>ScreenMode.ScreenModeNormal</cmd>
<key>6</key>
<protected/>
</keycmd>

Keycode 6 refers to the ESC key. The <protected/> string will prevent users from changing the assignment of the ESC key within Animate's Keyboard Shortcut Menu (which also prevents you from assigning any other key to that command as well). If you wish to override this, you merely have to remove the <protected/> string from the function and save the XML file.

Here is the list of system key keycodes that I have discovered:

Adobe Keycode	Keyboard Button	Adobe Keycode	Keyboard Button	Adobe Keycode	Keyboard Button
1	SPACE	21	-	41	-
2	BACKSPACE	22	-	42	LEFT ARROW
3	TAB	23	-	43	RIGHT ARROW
4	RETURN	24	-	44	UP ARROW
5	ENTER	25	-	45	DOWN ARROW
6	ESCAPE	26	-	46	-
7	F1	27	-	47	-
8	F2	28	-	48	-
9	F3	29	-	49	-
10	F4	30	-	50	SHIFT
11	F5	31	-	51	-
12	F6	32	-	52	-
13	F7	33	PAUSE	53	-
14	F8	34	INSERT	54	-
15	F9	35	DELETE	55	-
16	F10	36	HOME	56	-
17	F11	37	END	57	-
18	F12	38	PAGE UP	58	-
19	-	39	PAGE DOWN	59	-
20	-	40	-	60	-

I stopped when I reached 108, there are no usable keycodes after 50, and I am not sure what purpose there is in using the SHIFT key as a shortcut.

[murkalurk2099]

Also, if you are modifying the XML file while Animate is open and the Keyboard Shortcuts Menu is open, when you close the Shortcuts Menu, it will overwrite the XML file with a version that is cached your computer RAM, and any changes you were working on in the XML file will be lost.

-You must close the Shortcuts Menu before editing the XML file to ensure you do not lose any changes when the Shortcuts Menu closes.

-After you have saved the changes in the XML file, you must open the Shortcuts Menu in Animate, then click OK to overwrite the cached version in the RAM.

-If you open the Shortcuts menu after modifying the XML and then click CANCEL, Animate will overwrite the XML in AppData/Roaming with whatever version is running in the RAM, undoing any of your saved changes.

[n. tilcheff]

I keep ours formatted like this as its easier on the eyes to skim through the file:

<keycmd><cmd>Commands.04 SyncSymbolsToTimeline</cmd><uchar>/</uchar></keycmd>
<keycmd><cmd>Magnification.Percent100</cmd><uchar>1</uchar><mod><cmdkey /></mod></keycmd>
<keycmd><cmd>Commands.05 SmartTransform(SMR)</cmd><uchar>1</uchar><mod><alt /></mod></keycmd>
<keycmd><cmd>Commands.05 SmartTransform(SMR)</cmd><uchar>1</uchar><mod><shift /></mod></keycmd>
<keycmd><cmd>Commands.05 SmartTransform(SMR)</cmd><uchar>1</uchar></keycmd>
<keycmd><cmd>Commands.05 SmartTransformPointCCW(SMR)</cmd><uchar>2</uchar><mod><alt /></mod></keycmd>
<keycmd><cmd>Commands.05 SmartTransformPointCCW(SMR)</cmd><uchar>2</uchar></keycmd>

[RvdT]

Thanks.

I successfully changed F4 to Tab.

C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Animate\2023\Shortcuts\(Custom).xml

<keycmd>
<cmd>Window.HidePanels</cmd>
<key>3</key>
</keycmd>