Elgato Stream Deck setup 1

After getting the Stream Deck I have been having tentative explorations into its setup and uses.

A good Stream Deck article about process and setup is here

You can create your own icons from a Stream Deck library , go HERE

Stream Deck Calculator

I saw this video and thought it would be a great little tutorial to start with

I thought it was a great idea as I have a laptop keyboard and sometimes I find hunting for the numbers a bit of a pain. So I thought it was a good tutorial to follow until… I realised he has the Stream Deck XL and I have the standard one, so not as many keys, so I couldn’t have the layout or the functionality as a calculator, but on reflection I thought it would be a handy numberpad to use, so I mapped it out as below:

It appeals to me a bit, as most numberpads on keyboards are to the righrt, but I’m a lefty and also I hold the mouse in my right hand, so having numbers on the Stream Deck on my left is handy.

STREAM DECK Learning Item 1. The Text size for the numbers only goes up to 18 pt and the choice of Fonts are limited

This means that you may need to make an icon up with a number, but for the time being, it works well.

Webpages

I’ve tried a couple of these and they open fine, it brings Firefox to the front and opens the web page.

The close button is a hotkey button for Ctrl + W ,. but you have to click on the tab so its active and then it will close the tab.

One thing I haven’t been able to do is Bookmarklets, these don’t seem to run as a URL webpage function.

STREAM DECK Learning Item 2. Bookmarklets don’t work on first test, may need extra research.

Stream Deck Profiles or Folders

I started to use folders for my stuff on first tinkering, then I saw this video that seems to have a good explanation as to why Profiles could be a better way to go.

I’ve decided to go down this track as I can setup a profile once (eg number-pad) and use it in a lot of other profiles without having to re-write it over.

This number-pad profile will be good for Excel, Google Sheets, Calculator & other programs that have a number input, so I intend to be able to use that over and over.

AutoHotKey Scripts

Script for Launcher.ahk

This works fine and toggles programs on and off. I’ve only set up cursor highlighter so far and it works fine. I’ll find and add some as required as I go. I have also added Timesheet & Notes to this profile

Stock Plugin & independent Stream Deck plugins

I saw an article on stocks displaying on Stream Deck and went to Github page and downloaded the plugin.

You click on the downloaded file which has a ‘.streamDeckPlugin’ extension. You double click on that and it will load it into your Plugins.

This one needs an API key or a couple to work. I haven’t been able to get the API key to date.

Email

I set up a profile to open Thunderbird, a key for a New Message, one for Send and one for AHK hotkey for putting emoji in Subject header, a bit like a signature , so it stands out as coming from you in others inbox.

️⚜️the rabbit is pink⚜️

I’m using the Fleur-de-lis at beginning and end of subject line, you trigger it at the end of subject and it places emoji then back tabs to front of subject line and places another, then tabs to body of text and Starts with Dear … so that you can add to it, it works quite nicely.:

>!3::	
	Send, ⚜️
	send,{Ctrl down}{Left 50}️
	send,{Ctrl up}
	send,⚜️
	send, {Tab} Dear
return

Sound & Volume Control and Microphone mute

I started playing with sound and ended up with a profile for that, so I could add it to Web pages things like Movies and YouTube Music and videos , as the profile ids setup I can also use it for music too.

Reiterating, if a profile is setup its setup once, whereas if you do a folder you have to set up each one individually or copy/paste each button from one folder to another, so if you change a button you have to go and do for each folder, whereas with profiles you only change once.

The issue is you have to switch between interfaces/profiles, so instead of a Home only button to Home profile, you may need to have several buttons to other profiles, depending on where you came from.

Below is AHK script for sound down/up and a toggle for Mute or Full volume for speakers

>!5::
	SoundSet 1, Microphone, mute ; mute the microphone
	ToolTip, mute the microphone
	SetTimer, RemoveToolTip, 1000
return
>!6::
	SoundSet 100, Microphone, mute ; mute the microphone
	ToolTip, microphone 100 level
	SetTimer, RemoveToolTip, 1000
return
>!7::
	SoundSet -10 
	ToolTip, Sound Down -10
	SetTimer, RemoveToolTip, 1000
return
>!8::
	SoundSet +10
	ToolTip, Sound Up +10
	SetTimer, RemoveToolTip, 1000
return
>!9::
	SoundSet, 100
	ToolTip, Sound set to 100 RAlt0 to mute
	SetTimer, RemoveToolTip, 1000
return
>!0::	

	SoundSet, 1 ; mute the microphone
	ToolTip, Mute speakers RAlt9 to unmute
	SetTimer, RemoveToolTip, 1000
return

For the mike there is a nice Stream Deck plugin that toggles mike mute with good images to show if mike is on/off across whole system (not in a specific app/program, but all ) which is handy.

Music

I was trying to get default music player Groove Music running but could not get exe location.

I’d setup a few long tracks on YouTube that would play for an hour or so, they were running in the browser, so that was fine.

But I couldn’t get it to play a playlist of my own music of files I had on my system. I’d watched a couple of videos but could not find anything , one suggested using multiaction and working out the length of the song, that seemed like hard work.

So I used the Windows Media Player to create some Playlists and then made a App Open button to that playlist, it fires up Groove Music App and plays them, I then have Groove Music Hotkeys for Play/Pause, Next song, Back/restart & Shuffle. So all I have to do is setup playlists.

So this is setup:

Home Screen

I’m using home screen to navigate to all my other profiles, unfortunately I have a lot of those, so have 2 other folders [since changed to profiles] (Home screen 2/ Home screen 3) for all the other profiles I want to add.

I can get to most popular profiles (Web at this point) and also have some info on Time & CPU usage (from CPU plugin) and bottom right link to Stream Deck program so I can add a button quickly if I have an idea for one.

End comment

I’m glad I bought this, even from initial setup and ease of use I can see this as a handy productivity tool as its easy to setup.

I’ve basically been using about 3-4 of the programmed buttons- Open, Hotkey, Hotkey Switch to trigger most of the items I want and I’ve used Profiles and Folders to navigate around different screens to drill down into to access different items.

It works great with the browser and also You Tube for Music and Streaming in the browser.

Pricewise its expensive, $300NZ plus I needed Dock ($150) so I can use gaming mouse but its pretty handy for what things I am playing with at this time.

I’ve yet to drill down to use it for actual programs like VS Code or BIM and other specific programs but that will follow.

I don’t like that you can’t do an undo, if you are overhasty deleting buttons you can’t get them back quickly, so you have to rebuild them. I suppose you can save profiles separately and just restore the one you’ve been too enthusiastic in deleting, but I’ve only saved the whole setup so far.

This is much more natural than going from a normal mouse to a gaming mouse, I still only use a couple of buttons on that to date, so I still need to practice using it. The Stream Deck is much more natural and far easier to use than hotkeys and I like the integration with AutoHotKeys via calling a hotkey to activate, you can use really obscure hand stretch hotkeys that are easily mapped to the Stream Deck.

I’ll need to do a YOUTUBE VIDEO on this for productivity soon. In fact it took me about 6 days to do, problems with OBS and at what level & what points I wanted to make. I’m glad its out there but it was tough to do, the CPU was at 100% throughout the OBS recording so not much to demo.

I need to do some articles where I show actual setup of keys.