InqScribe and Foot Pedals

We are often asked whether InqScribe will work with a specific brand of foot pedal. This page explains how InqScribe's Keyboard Shortcuts work and how you can determine whether your foot pedal will work with InqScribe.

Note: this page refers to foot pedal use in InqScribe 1.0.2. InqScribe 1.5 offers much better integrated support for foot pedals, including VEC, VPedal, X-Keys, and others. If your foot pedal appears as an input device on your system, InqScribe should be able to use it. Details on using foot pedals in InqScribe 1.5 can be found here.

Overview

InqScribe currently provides a means for users to create keyboard shortcuts that map specific keystrokes (e.g. control-D, F7, shift-8) to InqScribe playback commands.

In contrast, InqScribe does not understand raw foot pedal events.

The kinds of foot pedals that InqScribe supports are those that can emulate keystrokes. Support for keystroke emulation is fairly common and comes in two forms.

  • Your foot pedal may come with utility software that lets you map foot pedal buttons to specific keystrokes.
  • You may be able to use third-party software to map foot pedal buttons to specific keystrokes.

Let's walk through an example to make this concrete. (The image to the right shows the process.) Say you have a foot pedal that comes with utility software (e.g. the PI Engineering XKeys).

To enable this foot pedal to work with InqScribe, you would take the following steps:

  • Use the utility software to map the center pedal button to a keystroke like Keypad-5. (You can choose which keystroke to use; the general idea is to pick a keystroke that you're not likely to type when transcribing.)
  • Then open InqScribe and edit your Keyboard Shortcuts so that Keypad-5 triggers the Play command.

You've now set up your foot pedal so that pressing the center pedal button "types" Keypad-5, which InqScribe recognizes as the Play command. Repeat this process for the left and right pedal buttons to set up shortcuts for rewind and fast forward.

That's all there is to it! In the next two sections, we'll list foot pedals that work with InqScribe on Windows and Mac OS, and explain where to find third party software that will let you map foot pedal buttons to keystrokes.

Note that we are considering adding direct support for foot pedals (and other alternative input devices) in a future version of InqScribe.

Windows Foot Pedals

We suggest the following foot pedals for use on Windows. These pedals come with utility software that supports keystroke mapping.

  • PI Engineering XKeys.
  • VPedal.

(We have tested the XKeys. We have not tested the VPedal, but based on its specifications, it should work with InqScribe).

If you have a foot pedal that is not listed above, you may still be able to use it with InqScribe if one of the following two conditions applies:

  • Your pedal comes with utility software that supports keyboard mapping. Check with your pedal manufacturer to see if this is the case.
  • Your pedal appears in the list of available Game Controllers in the Windows Control Panel. If it does, you can use AutoHotKey (see below) to map foot pedal buttons to keystrokes.

AutoHotKey for Windows

AutoHotKey is a powerful free utility that supports, among other things, keyboard mapping. (Did we mention that it is free?)

If your pedal appears on the list of available Game Controllers, AutoHotKey can map buttons from your pedal to keystrokes that InqScribe can handle.

Once you've downloaded and installed AutoHotKey, you will need to create a script that describes the keyboard mapping you want to do. Here's an example script.

Joy1::Send {Numpad4}
Joy2::Send {Numpad5}
Joy3::Send {Numpad6}

This script maps three buttons from your foot pedal (called "Joy"; foot pedals normally appear to the computer as joysticks, which explains why they show up in the Game Controllers list) to three Send actions. The Send action basically types some number of keystrokes; in this case, we are telling AutoHotKey to type various keypad keys when the foot pedal buttons are pressed.

It may take a little trial and error to figure out which foot pedal button is Joy1, which is Joy2, etc. If you set up the script above, you can just open a text editing window, press the foot pedal buttons, and see which numbers are typed in your window. Once you know the order, you can assign the appropriate keyboard shorcuts in InqScribe.

Note that if you have more than one item in your list of Game Controllers, you may need to tell AutoHotKey which "joystick" to track. You can do this by referring to "1Joy1" to mean the first button on the first joystick in the Game Controllers list, "2Joy1" to mean the first button on the second joystick, etc. AutoHotKey has pretty good documentation on this and other issues.

Mac Foot Pedals

We suggest the following foot pedals for use on Mac OS X. These pedals come with utility software that supports keystroke mapping.

  • PI Engineering XKeys.
  • VPedal.

(We have tested the XKeys. We have not tested the VPedal, but based on its specifications, it should work with InqScribe).

Note that currently, the XKeys is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). We are working with the manufacturer to resolve this issue. In the meantime, you may be able to use USB Overdrive to control your foot pedal and make it compatible with InqScribe.

USB Overdrive for Mac OS X

USB Overdrive is similar to AutoHotKey in that it lets you convert button presses from your foot pedal into keystrokes that InqScribe will recognize. Unlike AutoHotKey, USB Overdrive is shareware: you can download and try USB Overdrive for free, but if you like it, you are expected to buy it.

When you install USB Overdrive, it creates a new entry in your System Preferences. Once you open it, you can create a new set of Overdrive settings specifically for InqScribe.

To set up your foot pedal, you need to take the following steps.

  • Select Joystick from the lefthand popup, and then click New to create new settings for a specific application. You will be prompted to select an application: choose InqScribe.
  • In the middle panel, select a button that corresponds to a button on your foot pedal. (Note that you can press the buttons and they will highlight, making it easier to find them.)
  • In the righthand panel, define the keystroke you want to associate with the button.
  • In InqScribe, make sure the keystroke you've assigned is mapped to an appropriate shortcut action.
  • Repeat this process for the other pedal buttons.

Note that USB Overdrive's documentation is a bit hard to find. Once you've opened the main USB Overdrive window, you'll need to click the About button and then use the righthand popup menu to access the documentation. Use the Save Docs button to export a copy of the documentation to a TextEdit file.

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