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I set e on the desktop icon of Thunderbird as a shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+e) to open it.

Now, when I edit a document (for example in LibreOffice) and I want to add the character "€" (which is the third character on the key e), instead of entering it, Windows 7 opens (respectively switches to) Thunderbird.

I tried entering "€" with Ctrl+Alt+e and with Alt Gr+e, bot no luck.

As soon as I remove or change the shortcut, I can type € again.

Any chance to use e for shortcuts without losing the possibility to enter "€" in text fields?

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OK, and Whats the Question ? – Lamb Sep 29 '12 at 15:55
@Lamb: Sorry, I thought it was obvious: Any chance to use "e" for shortcuts without losing the possibility to enter "€" in text fields? I'm no Windows user, but never stumbled upon this when I set shortcuts for friends on Windows XP. – unor Sep 29 '12 at 16:04
Are you using it through AutoHotKey? – avirk Sep 29 '12 at 16:27
If I understood the question correctly, you want to have same set of keys do Different task depending on the context ? – Lamb Sep 29 '12 at 16:37
@avirk: No, I use the Windows core default way: right-click on desktop shortcut, selecting "Properties" (don't know the actual translation), typing a character into the "Shortcut" field. – unor Sep 30 '12 at 0:24
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1 Answer

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I use AutoHotkey, it is simple free software you can use to setup hotkeys without the worries of what you are experiencing.

It supports replacing windows keyboard shortcuts...

Example:

I have mapped my Windows Key + I to open up Internet Explorer I have also done things like ::e~::€ ;which would replace the keystroke of e~ to €

Get AutoHotkey AutoHotkey

After install, run AutoHotkey and say "yes" to the option of using example hotkey options, that way you can see the format for how you can use keyboard shortcuts and keystroke replacements.

Of course AutHotkey has plethora of different things you can do like a lot of programming languages, such as inputboxes and moving your mouse pointer and clicking things etc.

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Good info, but How does it solves the problem of having a Conditional Hotkey, which performs different action based on the focus. – Lamb Sep 30 '12 at 8:21
@Kairan you have not give any solution to this problem, you just indicated the path to follow but what if OP is not a programmer to write script for that? I think you should have to give the script to the OP for run. – avirk Sep 30 '12 at 17:07

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