Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting - ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog

Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

Update: There is a new version of this tool, which has been renamed to "Key Jedi". More information here.

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This is a quick a dirty solution to something we thought about during DevTeach.

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a tool that would show in real time any shortcut keys that were pressed in your favorite application? that way, in your presentations and screencasts, people could follow up on your important keystrokes and learn how to use keyboard-power-tools such as Resharper.

It uses a global keyhook and a lot of code is borrowed from this CodeProject article. Also, this tool will only show shortcuts when Visual Studio is active, with a little code borrowed from here.

My main work was to create a simple state class that knows when a shortcut has been pressed with a regular key, not just regular keystrokes.

  • You can control the opacity
  • it's hard coded for visual studio only , unless you download the "all" version above
  • should I make a version that listens to all applications?

Published Monday, May 28, 2007 2:56 AM by RoyOsherove

Comments

Monday, May 28, 2007 4:51 AM by Daniel Moth

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

I certainly recogise the problem. Many (bad) presenters will talk while things automagically happen on the projector and the audience has no clue how. However, I really hope your solution isn't widely adopted. The problem above is a presenter problem and nothing more. When demonstrating, one should "speak" the shortcut keystrokes rather than expect the audience to either know already or worst expect them to keep their eyes on both the real subject matter and another window that shows keystrokes, IMO.
Monday, May 28, 2007 5:05 AM by Chua Wen Ching

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

Hi there, Looks handy for presentations. Great stuff. Regards, Chua Wen Ching
Monday, May 28, 2007 5:27 AM by Ayende @ Rahien

# Brilliant Idea: ShortWatcher

Brilliant Idea: ShortWatcher
Monday, May 28, 2007 6:36 AM by Rik Hemsley

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

Could be amusing if you're using ViEmu for VS.NET!
Monday, May 28, 2007 6:42 AM by Darius Damalakas

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

I use SharpDevelop mainly for development. Visual Studio is no longer installed :) in case of you think what app your watcher might watch... ;)
Monday, May 28, 2007 9:23 AM by Console.Write(this.Opinion)

# Resumo da semana - 28/05/07

Resumo da semana - 28/05/07
Monday, May 28, 2007 9:28 AM by Luke Melia

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

Cool. This is a great idea for pair programming, too!
Monday, May 28, 2007 10:29 AM by Richard Hein

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

Sweet idea, very good, I think it will come in handy right away!
Monday, May 28, 2007 6:19 PM by Eber Irigoyen

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

great idea, so now normal people can follow better what keyboard freaks like our selves do =o)

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 4:05 AM by ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog

# Key Jedi 1.03 (Renamed from ShortWatcher)

It occurred to me that the previous name for this tool had kind of a nasty meaning for some people, and

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 4:31 AM by Rik Hemsley

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

Go on then, what's nasty about the old name?

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 9:38 AM by RoyOsherove

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

Short-watcher: watching someone's shorts..

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 7:00 PM by lb

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

Roy, this is a clever idea. Very nice. And like other people said -- not just useful in presentations -- but for any kind of pair-programmer or 'over the shoulder' demonstration, or any kind of shared monitor situation. Keep that big brain ticking, Roy! lb (and stop watching everyone's shorts ;-))
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 6:35 AM by Yves Hanoulle

# re: Introducing ShortWatcher: Show your keyboard magic while presenting

Thanks Roy. Great idea. I think it is also intersting for PairProgramming and maybe also with a little adoption, for distributed pairprogramming.