Author Topic: DONE - IDEA: Display mouse clicks and key presses (Read 57,686 times)

bmm · « **on:** August 30, 2005, 06:01 PM »

I don't know how easy/hard this will be to program but the idea seems simple to me.

The idea is to display the pressed keys/key combinations and mouse clicks on-screen live. This can be useful when recording screencasts and you want to show every action that you actually do.

I don't know of any existing programs for Windows to do this but there is actually a cool one for Linux (http://programmer-art.org/key-status) which can be seen used in this screencast: http://e-learning.vslib.cz/%7Ehnidek/captured-videos/scale_stiffness.avi

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** August 30, 2005, 06:38 PM »

that's quite a brilliant idea for screencasting - and i think would be pretty easy to write.

skrommel · « **Reply #2 on:** August 31, 2005, 06:45 PM »

ShowOff shows what keys and buttons are pushed down.

Edit the ini file to decide what keys to display.

You'll find the downloads and more info at Skrommel Software.

Skrommel

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** August 31, 2005, 07:09 PM »

mouser · « **Reply #4 on:** August 31, 2005, 07:16 PM »

i just love it when skrommel codes up something like this as if it were nothing.

i hope people who are reading this forum realize that skrommel just makes it look easy - you could spend a week trying to find someone to code this and have no luck.

any way we could get the key pressed to display in a really big text font, like half an inch high, etc. or is that not so easy with ahk?

bmm · « **Reply #5 on:** September 01, 2005, 01:48 AM »

Darn that was quick.

And a nice solution as well since it isn't very intrusive displayed as a Tooltip where it won't overlap other things in a screencast.

Another request for the ini file might be an option to display the tooltip in the top left corner of the active window instead of the screen when you are just doing a screencast of a window. Although I know this could easily be adjusted in the text version of the script changing "CoordMode,ToolTip,Screen" to "CoordMode,ToolTip,Relative" it might be easier to some as an option in the ini file.

mouser · « **Reply #6 on:** September 01, 2005, 02:08 AM »

option for in active window would be nice, but i'd really like it to display like in bottom center of my screen in big text, for when i really want to draw attention to it..

bmm · « **Reply #7 on:** September 01, 2005, 07:45 AM »

Unfortunately some screencast programs have problems capturing tooltips in Windows XP (except the tooltips for the minimize, maximize and close button for some reason). This includes ViewletBuilder, Demo Builder and the one I use and support Wink, although other programs don't have this problem like Captivate and TurboDemo.

It is still a very nice script though.

skrommel · « **Reply #8 on:** September 02, 2005, 12:49 AM »

Now try v1.1!

Added user defined and movable status window.

Skrommel.

mouser · « **Reply #9 on:** September 02, 2005, 12:54 AM »

now that is perfect.

don't forget if you find skrommel's programs useful, consider making a donation to him!

nudone · « **Reply #10 on:** September 02, 2005, 07:38 AM »

excellent.

i wouldn't be surprised to see the feature being built in to some of the screencaster progs when they finally wake up to the idea.

mouser · « **Reply #11 on:** September 02, 2005, 08:06 AM »

i agree with you nudone, i suspect this will become common eventually.

bmm · « **Reply #12 on:** September 03, 2005, 12:01 AM »

Nice work with the new version.

The programs mentioned above (ViewletBuilder, Demo Builder and Wink) that doesn't capture tooltips also doesn't capture transparent windows/objects. But fortunately it is easy to get the script to work with the these screencast programs. It is just a matter of deleting or setting a ";" in front of the following line. (It is not enough to set transparency=255).

Code

WinSet,Transparent,%transparency%,ShowOff

This could probably be included as a "compatibility setting" in the ini file instead of editing the script.

mouser · « **Reply #13 on:** September 03, 2005, 02:22 AM »

nice catch bmm; skrommel you might want to add a comment about that in your ahk.

oyster · « **Reply #14 on:** September 03, 2005, 02:55 PM »

Thank you, bmm and Skrommel

I have tried this script, it is nice and works almost like what I have expected. But here are some problems:
1. It does not support key-combination well, for example, I press Ctrl+D, sometimes there is only Ctrl is shown. I am using win98 and I have added Ctrl in the ini file
The showed mouse button disappear more quick than keypress. If I Ctrl+LMB, "LButton" flashes quickly, and then there is only "ctrl" left on the screen

2. How can I change the order of displayed characters. If I use Shift+F1, "F1 Shift" is shown. But I think Shift, Ctrl, Alt then other chars and mouse is a good order.

3. How can I get the real keypress? If I press Enter, it says "Enter NumpadEnter",",<" for "," etc. How can I get "a", "A", "shift a", ",", "<" and so on?

thanx again

skrommel · « **Reply #15 on:** September 03, 2005, 10:52 PM »

Updated ShowOff to v1.2. Please delete your existing ini-file before upgrading, or run it in another directory.

Added info on how to turn off transparency, added user defined display time, changed how to show shift keys.

To oyster:
1. This is the actual state of things, Ctrl is in fact down after you release D. But I've taken your advice in v1.2 and I think it's a better solution. Maybe I'll show all keys pressed, just adding up until all are released again?

2. To change the order of displayed characters, place the shift keys farther up in the ini file. Also changed in v.1.2.

3. To accomodate for "all" keyboard layouts, I decided to include as many keys as possible. Just remove the ones you don't want and add the ones I didn't know about.

This is also why ShowOff doesn't display the "real keypress" - it can't tell the keyboard layout. If there's demand, I could make a proper user defined lookup table, something like

Code

LShift a=You pressed A.
LShift b=You pressed B.
...

Skommel

oyster · « **Reply #16 on:** September 15, 2005, 03:58 AM »

Quote from: skrommel on September 03, 2005, 10:52 PM

Code

LShift a=You pressed A.
LShift b=You pressed B.
...

Skommel

Yes, please. I think blenderheads would like to read LMB other than LButton

mouser · « **Reply #17 on:** August 18, 2009, 05:26 PM »

just used ShowOff to help me in a screencast i made.. GREAT TOOL

dimis308 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 05, 2009, 05:07 PM »

This is a great tool. I'd like to ask something though. I've stepped many times into a series being named like this:
xyy where x is the season and yy is the episode. I've tried to modify the ini file but my programming skills are limited and I' dont know how the format should be. Do you have any ideas on how to add this to the ini file?

Example: "212 - This is a title.avi"

Cheers

truffle · « **Reply #19 on:** July 23, 2013, 11:31 PM »

Cool utility would be nice if it supported the following:

Display key when pressed until it is released.

I tried setting timetoshow and timetohide to 0, this causes it to flash briefly when pressed.

Rationale:

I want to use this when playing computer games in a window to show keyboard input for screencasting. With video games, the duration a key is pressed is important, not just what key is pressed. Thanks

hutchinsfairy · « **Reply #20 on:** September 02, 2013, 01:44 PM »

Thank you for ShowOff, exactly what I was looking for! I have a couple of comments:
1) If ShowOff is set not to capture mouse clicks then it (perhaps unsurprisingly) cannot be moved using the mouse.
2) It would be nice to be able to rename keys/clicks. I'm presuming the previous suggestion in this thread would take care of this.

Thanks again.