Hey all you apps, quit taking over my function keys!

April 21, 2010 1:23 PM

Clipboard and/or Excel question: How can I assign a function key to do a Ctrl+V paste?

I'm having to do very repetitive Ctrl+V pastes into my spreadsheet and I need to automate this with a SINGLE keystroke, for example, F5 (not Ctrl+F5), even if it overrides something in Excel that is normally assigned to F5. Or it can be F7, or F9, or the backward apostrophe key (who uses that thing anyway?)

I had thought Excel 2007 might have flexibility there, but I'm not finding any keyboard options. I also looked at some clipboard helper programs, but Google is kind of a mess in this department and the apps I did find either look like potential malware or are overpriced ($30+). Also the app would have to be capable of giving me my own function key or hotkey but not triggering another app which is depending on that keystroke.

Any ideas? My left pinky and left index finger thank you.

posted by crapmatic to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: I also looked at some clipboard helper programs, but Google is kind of a mess in this department and the apps I did find either look like potential malware or are overpriced ($30+)

You can remap any key to another key or combination of keys with the freeware AutoHotKey app. For your particular case you would just put F5::^v in the default script and it will remap it to that as long as AutoHotKey is running.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:33 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Well, hot dog, AutoHotKey works just as advertised. Thanks much. I guess that solves my problem, but I'll still monitor the thread in case there's other interesting ideas or solutions or if there's a reason not to use the above app.
posted by crapmatic at 1:50 PM on April 21, 2010

can't you script your spreadsheet to do the copying automatically? What exactly are you trying to do?
posted by DetonatedManiac at 2:17 PM on April 21, 2010