Digital Workshop

Hi all. Love the forum - it has been really useful for a number of solutions. I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets stuck.

I was hoping to see if anyone can help me with this problem. I'm using Opus Pro and currently writing an stretch and ergonomics application. One of the things that I'd like to do is monitor the number of keystrokes being performed and collate this information as part of the program stats. I'm not interested in the actual keystrokes, just the number of keystrokes performed during the session. I've go absolutely no idea on how to do this.

Thanks again.

Off the top of my head... Add an Any Key keypress trigger with an action to increment a variable by one to an object on a Master Page (an empty frame will work if you haven't got anything else to show on the Master). Use that master page on all pages in the publication and the variable you have used will then contain a keypress count.

Hi Duncan,

I was thinking along those lines earlier today, however, if the focus is not on the publication, then I don't think that the keystrokes will be recorded. I think I need to be able to read some sort of windows variable, but this is where I get lost.

In any case, I appreciate the reply.

If you don't have focus there's no simple way to count keystrokes. The only solution would be to write and install a keylogger service that ran on the the customer's PC and reported information back to you somehow. However this is morally dubious unless you explicitly get their permission first and would certainly set off any anti-virus package worth it's salt, since that is exactly the kind of thing trojans do to steal your passwords etc.

Thanks Duncan - I may need to hunt down the Trojan people.
Cheers.

I think this can be done via windows API functions. Windows has a build in keystroke detector e.g. for invoking the monitor or switching off a screensaver.

It should be possible to use the windows API with a little VB or C program.

T.

I'm onto it - where's my C manual.............

Thanks heaps.