Archive for the 'Utilities' Category

KeyPosé – Flavour your Screencasts with Shortcuts

How often have you found yourself recording a screencast annoyed by the fact that only the mouse is visible? I haven’t seen any screen recording software that provided an easy way to display shortcuts on screen as you type.

Most of the fancy UI stuff happens in OS X land (see Mouseposé ) but I needed the functionality under Windows. Microsoft introduced the layered window api in Windows 2000 which makes it possible to create alpha-blended windows with any shape.

So on a chilly afternoon I sat down and wrote a litte utility that implements a global key logger which diplays all shortcuts and keystrokes as you type – on screen and with a semi-transparent overlay. This makes it very easy to show any shortcuts you use if you for example record a software demo.

To get a feeling what it looks like: Screencast

Tip: when doing the recording with TechSmith’s Camtasia make sure to enable the “record layered windows” checkbox.

The software is provided AS IS free for private and academic use without any warranty or implied applicability – read the included license in the about box. For commercial use, drop me a line.

System Requirements: Windows 2000 (with GDI+) / Windows XP / Windows Vista
Download:  KeyPose Download