See Jane Type

January 4, 2009 10:40 PM

Is there a Windows or cross-platform software that will display my keystrokes on screen as I type them?

As one of my projects for the new semester, I want to start recording screencasts that walk the viewer through the nitty-gritty of various aspects of data cleaning and analysis so that I can hopefully shorten the learning curve for future cohorts of research assistants. For some of this (e.g., parts where I'm manipulating code or data in a text editor) it would be really helpful to incorporate an application that displays what keys I'm typing on screen. I've seen this done before, but my searches so far only turn up software for Mac. Does such a creature that will run on Windows exist? I have access to Captivate, so it doesn't have to be built in to the actual screen recorder at all - I just need a nice (preferably customizable) heads up display of what my flying fingers are up to.

posted by shelbaroo to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Windows has an onscreen keyboard you can turn on with the Accessibility control panel item, and if I remember correctly, this will also highlight keys that are typed on the physical keyboard as well as those clicked on the on-screen one. Quick to try, anyway.
posted by flabdablet at 11:12 PM on January 4, 2009

flabdablet -- Just checked the accessibility options under the control panel and I don't see anything like what you describe. Maybe it's in Vista -- I'm using XP.

Other ideas?
posted by shelbaroo at 5:14 AM on January 5, 2009

Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Accessibility -> On-Screen Keyboard.
posted by sinfony at 5:53 AM on January 5, 2009

Okay, found what you're talking about. It doesn't do what I'm trying to do though. I want something akin to what you see in the upper-right hand corner of screencasts like this one (jump to 1:59 to see what I mean).
posted by shelbaroo at 9:06 AM on January 5, 2009

It might be a little extra work, but have you tried Wink? It won't create the heads up automatically, but it will enable you to go back and add them later.
posted by samsara at 9:57 AM on January 5, 2009

Easier way to get to the On Screen Keyboard in WinXP:

Windows Key+R (which is the same as clicking Start>Run)
Then type: osk
Press Enter.

Ta-da!!
posted by SlyBevel at 10:42 AM on January 6, 2009

There is an app called ShowOff, written by Skrommel, at the DonationCoder.com website, which does what you require... shows the keypresses as they happen.
posted by Ampa at 5:00 PM on January 6, 2009

Follow up: of the suggestions offered, ShowOff is the closest to doing what I'm looking for in a non-painful way. The accessibility-mode based options were not going to do the trick either in terms of ease of use or in terms of effectively helping others follow along with me. There's some changes I'd ideally make to how ShowOff displays things, but since it's written as an AutoHotkey script, I may just motivate myself to finally learn the wonders of AutoHotkey for myself.

Some further rooting around also turned up BSR Screen Recorder, which does what I want but isn't free. I have yet to put this through it's paces enough to see if it's worth it, but I figure it's worth a mention for those coming across this thread in the future.

Thanks to all for the input.
posted by shelbaroo at 7:42 AM on January 18, 2009