The IME hot key is used to changed the IME input mode or to switch the IME. The IME hot key for switching directly to an IME is called the direct switching hot key. The identifier of a direct switching hot key is in the range IME_HOTKEY_DSWITCH_FIRST to IME_HOTKEY_DSWITCH_LAST. It is registered by an IME or control panel if the IME or a user wants such a hot key. The IME hot key is effective in all IMEs, no matter which IME is active. In Windows 95-FE, several predefined hot keys are defined by IMM. The IMM itself provides the functionality (different handling routines) of those hot key functions. Every hot key in Windows 95-FE has a different hot key identifier in IMM, and each identifier has it own functionality according to the requirements of each country. An application has no way to add another predefined hot key identifier to the system.
Following are the predefined hot key identifiers.
| Hot Key ID | Description |
|---|---|
| IME_CHOTKEY_IME_NONIME_TOGGLE | The hot key of Windows for Simplified Chinese Edition. This hot key toggles between IME and non-IME. |
| IME_CHOTKEY_SHAPE_TOGGLE | The hot key of Windows for Simplified Chinese Edition. This hot key toggles the shape conversion mode of IME. |
| IME_CHOTKEY_SYMBOL_TOGGLE | The hot key of Windows for Simplified Chinese Edition. This hot key toggles the symbol conversion mode of IME. The symbol mode indicates that the user can input Chinese punctuation and symbols (full shape characters) by mapping it to the punctuation and symbol keystrokes of keyboard. |
| IME_JHOTKEY_CLOSE_OPEN | The hot key of Windows for Japanese Edition. This hot key toggles between closed and opened. |
| IME_THOTKEY_IME_NONIME_TOGGLE | The hot key of Windows for (Traditional) Chinese Edition. This hot key toggles between IME and non-IME. |
| IME_THOTKEY_SHAPE_TOGGLE | The hot key of Windows for (Traditional) Chinese Edition. This hot key toggles the shape conversion mode of IME. |
| IME_THOTKEY_SYMBOL_TOGGLE | The hot key of Windows for (Traditional) Chinese Edition. This hot key toggles the symbol conversion mode of IME. |
The other kind of hot key is the IME private hot key. There is no functionality for this kind of hot key. It is just a placeholder for a hot key value. An IME can get this value by using ImmGetHotKey. If an IME supports this functionality for one hot key identifier, the IME will perform the functionality every time it finds this key input.
Following are the current private IME hot key identifiers in Windows 95-FE.
| Hot Key ID | Description |
|---|---|
| IME_ITHOTKEY_RESEND_RESULSTR | The hot key of Windows for (Traditional) Chinese Edition. This hot key should trigger the IME to resend the previous result string to an application. If the IME detects this hot key, it needs to resend the previous result string to this application. |
| IME_ITHOTKEY_PREVIOUS_COMPOSITION | The hot key of Windows for (Traditional) Chinese Edition. This hot key should trigger the IME to bring up the previous composition string to the application. |
| IME_ITHOTKEY_UISTYLE_TOGGLE | The hot key of Windows for (Traditional) Chinese Edition. This hot key should trigger the IME UI to toggle the UI style between caret unrelated UI and the caret related UI. |