What's New in Flo Tools 2.3

As always, the Flo Tools Team has been thinking of ways to make your use of Pro 
Tools easier and more efficient. Often, these are simple things that make a 
huge difference. Flo Tools 2.3 introduces a few such features. In fact, they're 
so simple that besides  foregoing the mp3 demonstration, we even considered 
releasing the new version without a "What's New" and have our users discover 
the new features by surprise but then where's the fun in that? 

OK, so if you'd rather be surprised by the new features, feel free to skip the 
rest of these scintillating paragraphs and stumble across things on your own 
but, if you want a heads up on what to expect, read on.

1. You probably remember when Pro Tools users applauded the long-overdue 
built-in shortcuts for switching between playlists on selected tracks. Shift+up 
or down arrow is a great time-saver, to be sure. In Flo Tools 2.3, VoiceOver 
will now automatically speak the name of the newly selected playlist. If 
multiple tracks are selected and playlists change, VoiceOver will speak the 
name of each new playlist sequentially. Of course, you can always interrupt 
speech at any time with the Control key.

2. Along similar lines, Flo Tools 2.3 adds feedback for when the track 
selection changes. when using the Control+p or Control+semicolon shortcuts to 
move the track selection up or down, VoiceOver now automatically speaks the 
name of the newly selected track. Cool, no? Of course it is. You know what's 
even cooler? Well...

3. All of the cool kids know that holding down the Shift key while using 
Control+p or semicolon extends the selection through adjacent tracks. Well, now 
that VoiceOver speaks the newly selected tracks as the selection moves from 
track to track, when the selection is extended, VoiceOver now speaks the number 
of tracks being selected and says the name as they're being selected. Now, is 
that cool enough for you? Wait, it actually does get cooler...

4. Apparently there are kids who are even cooler than the aforementioned cool 
kids. These cooler kids are quite familiar with the Pro Tools shortcut for 
retracting a selection from the top or bottom of a group of selected tracks. 
Control+Option+p or semicolon respectively retracts the selection from the top 
or bottom of a series of selected tracks. If you're using Control+Option as the 
VoiceOver keys, remember to press Control+Option+Tab to pass through the 
shortcuts. Once passed through, when the selection is retracted, VoiceOver 
let's you know what's going on with the track selection. Now, that's just 
practically too cool. If anybody also feels that this is too cool, we might 
consider retracting the coolness. On second thought, never mind, we'll stick 
with the cool.

5. What isn't cool is how VoiceOver sometimes reports menu items by their 
current state rather than the state they've switched to after issuing the 
keyboard shortcut associated with the menu item. For example, Auto Input 
monitoring versus Input monitoring. When you select the menu item or use the 
Option+k shortcut, VoiceOver speaks the menu item that was showing before the 
item had changed. So, if you're monitoring the input and press Option+k to 
switch to Auto Input, VoiceOver says "Input" and vice versa when switching the 
other way. The behavior can be inconsistent from menu item to menu item which 
adds to the confusion. In fact, trying to explain the behavior can itself be 
confusing. Are you confused? We sure are. Where were we? Oh, yeah, Auto Input 
versus Input monitoring. Flo Tools 2.3 now takes this into account and has 
VoiceOver speak the actual status of the monitoring and correctly reports what 
is being heard when toggling back and forth between the two modes. Yay for 
clarity and consistency!

6. There are a few keyboard focus modes in Pro Tools that can sometimes be 
useful. They are: Commands Focus (or Timeline focus(, Clips List focus and 
Groups List Focus. The Pro Tools keyboard shortcuts for these modes are 
Command+Option+1, Command+Option+2 and Command+Option+3 respectively. Flo Tools 
2.3 reports the focus as it is switched. It's no big deal--nothing worth 
writing home about but, hey, it helps, if only to remind us of which focus is 
being accessed when issuing the shortcut.

7. Starting with Flo Tools 2.3, we're beginning to offer limited support for 
Pro Tools First. We don't know how far this will go or which features we'll be 
able to support fully but we're going to try to do whatever is possible. Stay 
tuned for more information in a future release.

8. For various reasons too numerous or not quite numerous enough to mention, 
we're splitting off the Flo Tools Mouse and Flo Tools Num Pad macro groups into 
their own category. In other words, they will not be part of the standard flo 
Tools installation but rather separate macro groups that can be installed and 
used with other applications beside Pro Tools. There's no need to uninstall or 
reinstall them. They can just continue to exist within Keyboard Maestro as they 
are right now. However, if you happen to delete either macro group, the next 
time you install Flo Tools, they will not automatically be installed. If you 
need to reinstall the Mouse or Num Pad macro groups, go to FloTools.org and 
download the installers.

9. Note that as of Flo Tools version 2.3, quitting Pro Tools will result in Flo 
Tools canceling any macros running in the background. This is to prevent the 
running of certain macros that, when launched, constantly scan for input. 
Letting these macros run even after Pro Tools has quit can result in 
unnecessary CPU load and elevated fan noise. Cancelling such macros changes 
nothing about how Flo Tools works when Pro Tools is running. It should be 
noted, however, that any macros being run in the background outside of Pro 
Tools and Flo Tools will be cancelled when Pro Tools quits.

Subsequently, Keyboard Maestro will also announce that macros are being 
canceled every time Pro Tools quits. If this becomes annoying to you, feel free 
to turn off these messages by going to System Preferences, then Notifications, 
and selecting Keyboard Maestro Engine from the table. Then choose "None" under 
"Alert Style."
 OK, so that didn't warrant an mp3 demonstration, did it? Hey, maybe next time 
we'll consider doing a whole new consolidated demo of all features from version 
1 through 2.x in one mp3. Deal? It's a deal. Until then, as always, go with the 
Flo.

Wait a second, we almost forgot: this is our version of "One More Thing." We've 
added a brand new feature to Flo Tools and that is the Flo Tools Shortcuts 
Helper. While Pro Tools is running, Press Control Shift Command K to launch the 
Shortcuts Helper. Press keys to hear their functions. When you're in the Mix or 
Edit windows, you'll hear the main shortcuts that are available in most 
windows. When you're in a window or dialog that has its own shortcuts, you'll 
hear only those shortcuts that are specific to that environment. For example, 
Command+f brings up the Fades dialog in the Mix or Edit windows but it brings 
up the View filter while the MIDI Event List is in focus. Flo Tools Shortcuts 
Helper recognizes the context and offers the appropriate shortcuts.

Rather than randomly pressing keys to hear their functions, you can also press 
Control Shift Command H to bring up a palette of all of the available 
shortcuts. You can even narrow down the list by bringing up the Item Chooser 
and use first letter navigation to narrow the list to make it easier to find 
the shortcut you're trying to remember. You can either trigger the macro, which 
will speak the function as if you had pressed the key combination or you can 
press the very first button in the palette (which happens to be unlabelled and 
that will close the palette. To exit Shortcuts Helper, simply press Escape.

we've done our best to cover all of the available shortcuts but we might have 
missed something. If you notice anything that doesn't seem quite right, let us 
know and we'll make sure to dot our i's and cross our t's for the next release.

Enjoy!

The Flo Tools Team

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