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Bug Report: key sometimes hijacked

edited January 2010 in Support
[Preface Paragraph]
Hi. Just came across CamStudio. It took a while; I didn't have the right "keywords" in my head. (Imagine the world of possibilities with just "capture", "screen", "video", "movie"). Once I started thinking of applications - "video tutorials" - I was led to Captivate, and with the magic word "alternatives", here. Great tool!

To the point: some uses of the key (alone) seem not to work when CamStudio (2.0) is operating.
For example, hitting the left key normally brings up the keyboard navigation system in Microsoft Office 2007 programs like Word. You then get a host of tool-tip-like letters appearing over the ribbon, by which you can navigate the menus.
I'm a big fan of keyboard shortcuts, and would like to be able to demonstrate them using CamStudio.
I think I found the right- toggle for language selection also failed.

Interestingly, I'm pretty sure I was under CamStudio when, before entering a Microsoft Office program, I hit left to bring up the Windows main ("Start") menu. And this worked. So that's why I've got the "sometimes" in the discussion topic.

For general tutorial purposes, there's a lot to be said for using the mouse. But I would like to be able to choose when to make that decision.

I should point out that I haven't elected to change any of the default keyboard shortcut assignments in CamStudio. I note that they include the *option* to include the Alt key in shortcuts, but that none are programmed by default. Maybe as a first step, whatever technique is used to test for or other keyboard shifts could be limited to those that are necessary for the given setup.

Thanks
David

Comments

  • In CamStudio pressing the left doesn't bring up the letters overtop of the ribbon like in word. Instead, it underlines the letter in the name that is used as the shortcut. The pop-up letters is something specific to the ribbon component that CamStudio doesn't use.

    When recording with CamStudio I was able to use the left alt button to bring up the shortcuts in word. These were successfully recorded by CamStudio and I could see them in playback of the .avi. You mentioned that it only happens sometimes. I tried several times, but it always seemed to work. Is there anything else unusual that you were doing that might be triggering it?

    The keyboard shortcuts can be greedy and replace keys that would ordinarily create an effect in other programs. Try disabling all shortcuts. There is actually a really annoying bug where you can't set all of the shortcuts to NONE, so just change them to strange combination that you don't use and also don't use alt.
  • Another work around I've been using for a while in situations like these is the "Windows" key (also known as the start/flag key).
    http://www.lifehack.org/wp-content/files/2007/05/20070529-windowskey-f1.jpg

    Holding down the win key (if your keyboard has one) while hitting the shortcut should bypass CamStudio's assigned keyboard shortcuts. This work-around is usable almost every where on Windows where there is two conflicting sets of hotkeys.
  • Thanks to both BleeBlap and brandished:
    BleeBlap, you gave me confidence that my problem was envioronmental.
    Brandished, you alerted me to the fact that I'd made an error in my report, which I'd better record:

    When I was having this difficulty, I said that I could bring up the Windows Start menu. As brandished has suggested, that's the function of the "Windows" key. In earlier editions of Windows, you could do the same thing with "Alt-Esc". Absent-mindedly, I was confusing my use of the Windows key with that of the Alt key. So my "sometimes" in the context of my first report was incorrect.

    For the time that I was trying to record, any use that I tried of either Alt key failed. The two isolated uses of the Alt currently in my repertoire are to get the Windows Ribbon keyboard navigation going, and (with right-Alt), to switch the IME keyboard input method (a language services related function). Outside a CamStudio recording, they worked OK.

    Having said all that, this time, when I tried CamStudio and Word together, it all worked - the little flags came up! So my environmental conflict must have been elsewhere - perhaps associated with my use of the Language Bar.

    If I learn anything more concrete, I'll report it. In the meantime, I'm satisfied that I can record the Ribbon with keytips or whatever they're called. (And, as I said earlier, still aware that for most purposes, a mouse-driven show is likely to be the better way to demonstrate.)
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