I'm giving training to a large group of people remotely and will be covering a number of application shortcut keys.
I've seen MousePose's on-screen display of keystrokes; is there a similar product for Windows?
The other features of MousePose (fancy mouse pointers, etc.) aren't really useful to me, just the OSD of key presses.
29 Answers
KeyPosé is a free alternative to MousePosé for Windows. You can see it in action in the screencast.
Here is a sample screenshot:
I highly recommend Carnac The Magnificent. It's nicely executed, nicely designed and open sourced on GitHub project that really solves this problem well.
A keyboard logging and presentation utility for presentations, screencasts, and to help you become a better keyboard user.
There is a fork with visualization of mouse input here:
8I would like to share my tool -- keycastow.
I've written an AutoHotkey_L script for this purpose.
To run it, use AutoHotkey_L (direct dl), it's FOSS. Also, with AutoHotkey you can compile script to EXE (simply Ahk2Exe.exe /in DisplayPressedKeyOnScreen.ahk/outDisplayPressedKeyOnScreen.exe ).
It can display pressed keys OSD-like or standard Tool-tip near mouse cursor. Also, it displays mouse button clicks and wheel scrolling.
(note that frame & blurring is done for illustration purposes, the script itself only displays text w/o any disturbances)
Heres's the script (copy and paste to notepad, save as DisplayPressedKeysOnScreen.ahk):
#NoEnv
#SingleInstance force
#InstallKeybdHook
#MaxHotkeysPerInterval 500
;This work by LogicDaemon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Global IdleDelay, LargeDisplay
IdleDelay:=3000
LargeDisplay:=1
; 0 = Tooltip near mouse pointer
; 1 = Big pane at screen bottom
;TrayTip %A_ScriptName%, Чтобы выйти`, нажмите правую клавишу Windows
TrayTip %A_ScriptName%, To Exit`, press the Right Windows logo key.
InputHook := InputHook("BCL1qMV*", "", "")
InputHook.KeyOpt("{All}", "INV")
InputHook.OnKeyDown := Func("OnKeyDown")
InputHook.OnKeyUp := Func("OnKeyUp")
InputHook.OnEnd := Func("RegisterKey")
Loop { InputHook.Start() InputHook.Wait()
}
return
RWin:: ExitApp
~*LButton::
~*RButton::
~*MButton::
~*XButton1::
~*XButton2:: MouseTooltip(SubStr(A_ThisHotkey, 3), 1) return
~*LButton Up::
~*RButton Up::
~*MButton Up::
~*XButton1 Up::
~*XButton2 Up:: MouseTooltip(SubStr(A_ThisHotkey, 3, -3), 0) return
~*WheelDown::
~*WheelUp::
~*WheelLeft::
~*WheelRight:: MouseTooltip(SubStr(A_ThisHotkey, 3), 1) MouseTooltip(SubStr(A_ThisHotkey, 3), 0) return
MouseTooltip(mbuttons, state){ RegisterKey(mbuttons, state)
}
TooltipOff: If LargeDisplay Gui Hide Else Tooltip lastStatesText := {} return
OnKeyDown(inputHook, VK, SC) { RegisterKey(inputHook, 1, VK, SC)
}
OnKeyUp(inputHook, VK, SC) { RegisterKey(inputHook, 0, VK, SC)
}
RegisterKey(inputHook, kstate := 1, VK := 0, SC := 0) { local global IdleDelay, lastStatesText, inputString static keyStates := {}, prevKey, lastPressed, prevState, repeated := 0 , KeyMappingToName := { (Chr(27)): "Escape" , (Chr(32)): "Space" , (Chr(10)): "Enter" } , SkipRepeat := { "LShift": "" , "RShift": "" , "LControl": "" , "RControl": "" , "LAlt": "" , "RAlt": "" , "LWin": "" , "RWin": "" } , StringEndKeys := { "{Enter}": "" , "{Escape}": "" , "{Tab}": "" , "{Up}": "" , "{Down}": "" , "{PgUp}": "" , "{PgDn}": "" } If (VK || SC) { singleKey := GetKeyName(Format("vk{:02x}sc{:02x}", VK, SC)) } Else If (!IsObject(inputHook)) { singleKey := inputHook } textKey := StrLen(singleKey) == 1 ? singleKey : "{" singleKey "}" keyStatesText := "" For key, state in keyStates If (state && key != singleKey) keyStatesText .= key "+" keyStates[singleKey] := kstate If (kstate && lastPressed == textKey && keyStatesText == lastStatesText) { If (!SkipRepeat.HasKey(singleKey)) repeated++ } Else { If (kstate) { If (repeated) { inputString .= (repeated > 4 || StrLen(lastPressed) > 1) ? "×" . repeated+1 : StrRepeat(lastPressed, repeated) , repeated := 0 } If (keyStatesText != lastStatesText || StringEndKeys.HasKey(lastPressed)) inputString := textKey, lastStatesText := keyStatesText Else If (StrLen(inputString) < 15) inputString .= textKey Else inputString := "…" SubStr(inputString, -15) textKey lastPressed := textKey } } ShowKeys((lstate ? keyStatesText : lastStatesText) . inputString . (repeated ? ("×" . repeated+1) : (kstate ? "↓" : "↑"))) prevKey := singleKey, prevState := kstate SetTimer TooltipOff, % -IdleDelay
}
ShowKeys(text) { global GUIx, GUIy, GUIw, GUIh , blkOsdCtrlName, blkOsdCtrlName2 , MonitorLeft, MonitorRight, MonitorBottom, MonitorTop If (LargeDisplay) { CoordMode Mouse, Screen MouseGetPos MouseX, MouseY InitLargeDisplay(MouseX, MouseY) If ((!GUIy) || (MouseX >= MonitorLeft && MouseX <= MonitorRight && MouseY >= GUIy && MouseY <= (GUIy+GUIh)) ) { If (MouseY < (MonitorTop + (MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) / 2) ) GUIy := MonitorBottom - (MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) * 0.2 Else GUIy := MonitorTop + (MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) * 0.2 } GuiControl Text, blkOsdCtrlName, %text% GuiControl Text, blkOsdCtrlName2, %text% Gui, Show, x%GUIx% y%GUIy% NoActivate } Else { Tooltip % text }
}
InitLargeDisplay(MouseX, MouseY) { global GUIx, GUIy, GUIw, GUIh , blkOsdCtrlName, blkOsdCtrlName2 , Monitor, MonitorLeft, MonitorRight, MonitorBottom, MonitorTop static guiInitialized := False ;Initializing GUI / reinitializing after changing monitor ;modded func originated from If ( ( MouseX < MonitorLeft || MouseX > MonitorRight || MouseY < MonitorTop || MouseY > MonitorBottom) || !guiInitialized) { ; mouse is outside of last screen GUI was positioned at ;80 SM_CMONITORS: Number of display monitors on the desktop (not including "non-display pseudo-monitors"). SysGet monCount, 80 Loop % monCount { SysGet Monitor, Monitor, %A_Index% If (MouseX >= MonitorLeft && MouseX <= MonitorRight && MouseY >= MonitorTop && MouseY <= MonitorBottom) { found := true break } } If (!found) ; mouse cursor not found on any screen, fallback to default monitor SysGet Monitor, Monitor GUIx := MonitorLeft , GUIw := MonitorRight - MonitorLeft , GUIh := (MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) * GUIw * 0.00003 If (GUIh > ((MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) * 0.3)) GUIh := (MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) * 0.3 opacity:="230" , fname:="Tahoma" , fsize:=GUIh * 0.65 ; really, pixel = 0.75 point, but with 0.75 lowercase letter with lower part (like "g") will get cut , fcolor:="cccccc" , bcolor:="222222" , fformat:="600" If (guiInitialized) Gui Destroy Gui +LastFound +AlwaysOnTop +ToolWindow -Caption Gui Margin, 0, 0 ;pixels of space to leave at the left/right and top/bottom sides of the window when auto-positioning. Gui Color, ffffff ;changes background color Gui Font, s%fsize% w%fformat%, %fname% ; 0x80 = SS_NOPREFIX -> Ampersand (&) is shown instead of underline one letter for Alt+letter navigation Gui Add, Text, c%bcolor% Center +0x80 w%GUIw% h%GUIh% BackgroundTrans VblkOsdCtrlName, tesT test test Gui Add, Text, c%fcolor% Center +0x80 w%GUIw% h%GUIh% BackgroundTrans VblkOsdCtrlName2 xp-3 yp-3 , tesT test test WinSet ExStyle, +0x20 ; WS_EX_TRANSPARENT -> mouse klickthrough WinSet TransColor, ffffff %opacity% guiInitialized := True }
}
StrRepeat(str, cnt) { If (cnt<1) return "" o := str Loop % cnt-1 o .= str return o
}You can use the on screen keyboard to show key presses that comes with windows. When you type on your physical keyboard the on screen one highlights said key.
3Presentation Pointer is a best alternative to MousePosé for Windows. It provides Pointer Effect, Mouse Clicks Effect, Keystrokes and even allows you to draw freely on the screen but not lock the screen. That's really an advantage of the program.
1PointerFocus can display your keystrokes.
2I have written a small Windows app called QiPress. It has controls to change the look-n-feel, display or ignore certain key-groups, even add static text (your own name or company name for example). Positioning is possible by disabling click-through and click-dragging the pop-up. There are other features which you probably may not require, but it covers mostly what you want.
4You can use PassMark KeyboardTest (Free 30 day evaluation, then US$24.00 to purchase.)
FYI:
- A similar question was asked on SO: How to display pressed keyboard shortcuts on screen during presentations or screencasts
- A similar question was asked for OS X:
- A related question was asked on software recommendations (the OP asks the program to display the keys the user is currently pressing while using other programs. It should show all the keys pressed, and as soon as the user releases a key - it should disappear.): Utility to display on screen the currently pressed keys
