Stop the beeping!!!

~alt up::send {alt down}{alt up}

This makes it so when you release Alt, AutoHotkey sends another press and release of Alt.

This solves the beep problem by saving you from having to press Alt twice.

~space::lbutton

It seems using this one allows you to use the normal  Alt + mousehweel without it beeping when you try to pan.

If you would like to use the Mouse-Wheel to zoom in and out--

!! without having to press alt,

you can use the script I'm using for AutoHotkey.

wheelup::
Send {Ctrl Down}{=}
Sleep 50
Send {Ctrl Up}
Return
wheeldown::
Send {Ctrl Down}-
Sleep 50
Send {Ctrl Up}
Return

That sets the wheel to use the (Ctrl  -) and (Ctrl =)  zoom hotkeys.

This happens to be a bit more complicated than the normal scripting required to change hotkeys,

because that "Sleep 50" was needed (the script was sending the command too fast for illustrator, or something).

You might also be interested in using:

~Space::Lbutton

which makes it as though you are holding down your left mouse button

while you hold space.

So you just hold space and move the mouse to pan.

usually space::Lbutton would just make space become Lbutton,

but the ~ maintains the space bars native function.

This program removes any hotkey limitations illustrator has (such as commands needing ctrl).

▬▬▬▬ ♦ ▬▬▬▬ ☼ ▬▬▬▬ ♦ ▬▬▬▬

Explanation for using this information:

• Download and install AutoHotkey (it's free and even has a 64bit version)

• Right Click in any folder, or on the desktop,

and goto New→ AutoHotkey Script

name it whatever you want.

• Right-Click the file and select Edit Script, where you enter the code in NotePad.

• Mine always shows:

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.

which I ignore and write the script underneath

So if you wanted to use everything, it would look like this:

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
wheelup::
Send {Ctrl Down}{=}
Sleep 50
Send {Ctrl Up}
Return
wheeldown::
Send {Ctrl Down}-
Sleep 50
Send {Ctrl Up}
Return
~Space::lbutton

• Now save, and click on it to run.

You should see a green square with an H in the bottom right.

Right-click and select exit to stop it.

▬▬▬▬ ♦ ▬▬▬▬ ☼ ▬▬▬▬ ♦ ▬▬▬▬

Some other examples:

-Making A delete things...

a::delete

or

a::Send {Delete}

Use the "Send" command when the other doesn't work.

This link is to a topic about changing S to another hotkey,

and also being able to use (Shift+S) for something else.

Generalized key (not an illustrator example)

(First is what you press)

(E) → (Period) 
(Shift + W) → (Ctrl + X) 
(Ctrl + D) → (Ctrl + Shift + L) 
(Ctrl + Alt + A) → (Alt + Comma)     

These three links have just about all the information you need.

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Hotkeys.htm

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/KeyList.htm

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/Send.htm

Good luck, ask for help if needed!

They have very helpful people on their forums.

I understand why people would not want to disable the windows beep sound.

But incase you would like to change it to something else:

In Windows 7,

• Start Menu→ Control Panel

• Hardware and Sound→ Change System Sounds

• Under the Sound tab, look for "Default Beep" and change it.

Here are a few I've tried: →Download←

Three options for everyone until they fix this:

This first suggestion is what I have always used, as I find it the fastest and most accurate method,

for my needs.

1)

→ [Ctrl] + (Space) + Drag the exact size square you want to zoom into.

→ To zoom out: set up a hotkey for: "Fit Artboard in Window" (I use [Ctrl] + (S).)

So instead of zooming out in increments, and using the hand tool;

you come back to the "Fit Artboard in Window" view and then simply refine your

"zoom vision square" using [Ctrl] + Space + {Dragging}

2)

→ Set up more efficient zoom out and in hotkeys.

Default is [Ctrl] (-) and [Ctrl] (+)

Maybe you would like to use say: [Ctrl] + (S) and [Ctrl] + (D)

Or maybe use Ctrl + Space + {Drag} to zoom in and [Ctrl] + (D) to zoom out.

3)

→ Get in the habit of noticing if the menu has been activated by Alt, and then press Alt again.

OK, so at least in Photoshop CS5, I have managed to solve this aggravating problem.

The solution was to enable "Zoom with Scroll Wheel" in the general preferences, which makes is unnecessary to hold a button while zooming with the mouse wheel in the first place.  Then the spacebar can be pressed and depressed for the hand tool with no error beep.

Using Illustrator in Fullscreen mode disables the beeping. Although, it also disables any menu access through the alt key. I wonder if actual Illustrator users develop the software, this is no brainer stuff.

I just wanted to chime in here and say I'm having exactly the same problem. I use alt scroll-wheel all the time to zoom in/out and now, what happens is when I'm done, it activates the file menu. When I go to use other keyboard shortcuts, it activates file menus rather than the tools which I want, which either beeps, or does the wrong thing, which indeed is quite annoying.

the best solution I've seen here is to hit alt twice when using the scrole wheel, so that the "state" of the keyboard menu activation is always off. The essential problem is that the alt key toggles the state of the menu activation, but then when you use the scroll wheel without using the menus, the state is still toggled, so hitting alt again (or hitting esc) is necessary to toggle back to the non file menu state.

It'd be great (and I think still windows compatible) if there was an option to say something like "never activate keyboard menu mode and only allow keystrokes to correspond to tools".

In the mean time, I think the double alt solution is the best I've heard for now.

Two things to consider:

1.- Adobe can't use windows standards for one thing, and forget about them for others. I mean, standard zoom keys for windows apps is Ctrl + Mouse wheel, not Alt + Mouse wheel. I had to remap my brain to use the later in each and every adobe app (although whole windows maps uses Ctrl + Wheel). And now I found I need to remap again to go around what is not but a bug from Adobe.

2.- Zoom worked nice and clean on CS4. No need to change a coma. What I'm doing now is clicking an empty space on the work area after the Alt+Wheel zoom. But I'm pretty sure that to program a patch to bring back previous Alt+key, or either, use windows standard Ctrl + key is not a great challenge for those fantastics genius under Adobe headquarters.

I may not fully understand the steps users are doing here, so I appologize if this doesn't work. I find that if I simply press the space bar first, then press alt, I can operate the hand tool without any issues. Likewise for most every other function. Also, checking to see if the menu bar has a menu activated allows me to hit alt to deactivate it then press other key combinations and avoid the beeping. I'd have to say this is hard to call a bug when it's matching the behavior of every Microsoft application I've tested. I think some change to be more in compliance with using standard MS APIs may explain the change from CS4 to CS5.