Touch Portal
Aug 29, 2020 23:08:22 #
Touch Portal
is some interesting software that works with android and ios devices to control PC's and Macs, by using the tablet or phone as an input device for your computer. The free version limits you to 2 pages with a maximum of 11 by 10 (110 buttons per page) or 220 buttons. The pro version supports plug in modules and unlimited modules. The tablet acts as a Gui for actions which are received by the computer over wifi, they need to be on the same network.
Most programs have keyboard shortcuts and a button can be a keyboard shortcut, some keyboard shortcuts are os level and some application specific. A button can be a series of commands which are executed in order.
When you first install touch portal it has just 4 buttons on the main page and there are a number of pages which you can download and import into touch portal some are free some you pay for at a reasonable cost. Some programs have 100's of keyboard shortcuts and mapping them into a custom page can be a lot of work, which may make paying for a page worth it to you. There are pages for lightroom, photoshop and many others premade. All the functionality is on the host pc the tablet receives the pages from the host and sends back the press to the host.
There is way more functionality than i can put in a single post but i will give you a few basic ideas.
you can launch an application and give it an argument. So you might use a button to open excel with a specific spread sheet. It can also open url's in your web browser. So you might have a button to open a page on uglyhedgehog.com and maybe others to open specific sections.
The application launch is quite interesting for example a button to open lightroom will either launch lightroom or bring it into focus if it is already running. As buttons can contain a stack of commands you can also add a command to switch to a different page. E.g with the lightroom launch button you can switch to a page of lightroom specific buttons with a single button press. So your main page may be application launchers with subpages for individual applications. With lightroom there are different modules Library , develop, print ect so you can have a page for each module and specific buttons for that module. You can create more generic buttons such as cmd W this closes a tab in a web browser but it can also close an application e.g lightroom if it has focus. Buttons can be text only colored or have an image which is a 256x256.png file. if you export a page it creates a zip file with icon images and a text file for the defined functions. This is mostly used for sharing pages with other people but you can use it to import to another computer. You can also cut and paste buttons between pages, the editor is pretty straight forward. Commands are grouped logically into sections and plugins create a new section when they are imported.
A plugin might allow you to run say some applescript to tell an application to do something. It really is quite open ended. The possibilities are mainly limited by the program you are using if you can't use a control other than by using a mouse you can't create a button for it.
So basically it allows you to create shortcuts to make things easier and faster. You don't have to remember the keyboard shortcut to activate a particular action as you can have a button available for the context you are using touch portal.
You can create macro functions in touch portal or trigger a macro within a program.
If you don't want to create your own buttons there are pages created already and if you don't need some of the functions you can customise the pages to just what you want. It's a lot simpler to use than explain to be fair.
The only thing which was confusing when i imported the free page for lightroom was how to make it active. Each page has a name and you need to create a navigation button on main to switch to that page. The mobile app is available in the ios and android stores and the host program can be downloaded on the touch portal website. The pro version is an in app purchase. You can use the mobile apps on macs and pc's, that is you can use an ios device on a PC not just a Mac same with Android devices.
Hope you found this interesting, it's a great tool for simplifying your interactions with the computer.
You can find reviews on touch portal on youtube.
is some interesting software that works with android and ios devices to control PC's and Macs, by using the tablet or phone as an input device for your computer. The free version limits you to 2 pages with a maximum of 11 by 10 (110 buttons per page) or 220 buttons. The pro version supports plug in modules and unlimited modules. The tablet acts as a Gui for actions which are received by the computer over wifi, they need to be on the same network.
Most programs have keyboard shortcuts and a button can be a keyboard shortcut, some keyboard shortcuts are os level and some application specific. A button can be a series of commands which are executed in order.
When you first install touch portal it has just 4 buttons on the main page and there are a number of pages which you can download and import into touch portal some are free some you pay for at a reasonable cost. Some programs have 100's of keyboard shortcuts and mapping them into a custom page can be a lot of work, which may make paying for a page worth it to you. There are pages for lightroom, photoshop and many others premade. All the functionality is on the host pc the tablet receives the pages from the host and sends back the press to the host.
There is way more functionality than i can put in a single post but i will give you a few basic ideas.
you can launch an application and give it an argument. So you might use a button to open excel with a specific spread sheet. It can also open url's in your web browser. So you might have a button to open a page on uglyhedgehog.com and maybe others to open specific sections.
The application launch is quite interesting for example a button to open lightroom will either launch lightroom or bring it into focus if it is already running. As buttons can contain a stack of commands you can also add a command to switch to a different page. E.g with the lightroom launch button you can switch to a page of lightroom specific buttons with a single button press. So your main page may be application launchers with subpages for individual applications. With lightroom there are different modules Library , develop, print ect so you can have a page for each module and specific buttons for that module. You can create more generic buttons such as cmd W this closes a tab in a web browser but it can also close an application e.g lightroom if it has focus. Buttons can be text only colored or have an image which is a 256x256.png file. if you export a page it creates a zip file with icon images and a text file for the defined functions. This is mostly used for sharing pages with other people but you can use it to import to another computer. You can also cut and paste buttons between pages, the editor is pretty straight forward. Commands are grouped logically into sections and plugins create a new section when they are imported.
A plugin might allow you to run say some applescript to tell an application to do something. It really is quite open ended. The possibilities are mainly limited by the program you are using if you can't use a control other than by using a mouse you can't create a button for it.
So basically it allows you to create shortcuts to make things easier and faster. You don't have to remember the keyboard shortcut to activate a particular action as you can have a button available for the context you are using touch portal.
You can create macro functions in touch portal or trigger a macro within a program.
If you don't want to create your own buttons there are pages created already and if you don't need some of the functions you can customise the pages to just what you want. It's a lot simpler to use than explain to be fair.
The only thing which was confusing when i imported the free page for lightroom was how to make it active. Each page has a name and you need to create a navigation button on main to switch to that page. The mobile app is available in the ios and android stores and the host program can be downloaded on the touch portal website. The pro version is an in app purchase. You can use the mobile apps on macs and pc's, that is you can use an ios device on a PC not just a Mac same with Android devices.
Hope you found this interesting, it's a great tool for simplifying your interactions with the computer.
You can find reviews on touch portal on youtube.
Aug 30, 2020 07:37:51 #
I found it to be a very useful program myself, and never thought about it's use in Lightroom or PS!
I found myself recording our daily and weekend Mass's at the beginning of the pandemic. That was morphed into running an interactive service now that people (limited with social distancing and masks) are allowed to come. No hymn books - so have lyrics and antiphons on overhead projector with camera views of Altar and Ambo. None of it real fancy - am using 3 cheap PTZ cameras that I had in my house, and am using a freeware program called OBS Studio. It has interface to Touch Portal, and I can use it to switch scenes or slides when I need to leave my PC. (Sometimes I read - so hard to switch stuff while at the Ambo, but Touch Portal handles it, and like the Op said - is very versatile!!
I found myself recording our daily and weekend Mass's at the beginning of the pandemic. That was morphed into running an interactive service now that people (limited with social distancing and masks) are allowed to come. No hymn books - so have lyrics and antiphons on overhead projector with camera views of Altar and Ambo. None of it real fancy - am using 3 cheap PTZ cameras that I had in my house, and am using a freeware program called OBS Studio. It has interface to Touch Portal, and I can use it to switch scenes or slides when I need to leave my PC. (Sometimes I read - so hard to switch stuff while at the Ambo, but Touch Portal handles it, and like the Op said - is very versatile!!
Aug 30, 2020 09:05:46 #
Aug 30, 2020 21:33:35 #
It really can do a lot, say you need a calculator you can set a button to start the application lets say you want to convert say pounds to kilos you can create a button with the conversion factor on it. press that and then do the sum. limits really mostly your imagination.
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