Changing the mouse-click to a hotkey

[jsf2167]

First of all, thank you so much for an incredible and incredibly user-friendly tool, my team and I are excited to make full use of it for our study of classroom engagement. Thank you for keeping it open source (and thus affordable), it is a gift to the world!

Secondly, I am wondering about any tips you might have for making a small (I think?) change to the source code: we are working with long videos, and it would help dramatically if we were able to hold down a key (i.e., "Shift" or "Ctrl") rather than hold down a mouse click, as this creates a bit of slippage when sliding back and forth to control the bar. Is it possible this is an easy fix in the code (for an inexperienced but willing programmer)?

Thanks so much!

[jmgirard]

Thanks for the encouraging words. If you have longer videos, I have two suggestions: (1) consider breaking these videos up into shorter segments using free software such as handbrake or ffmpeg and (2) consider using a USB joystick instead of mouse and keyboard. If a joystick is not possible for you for some reason, you could consider having users move the slider up and down using the arrow keys on the keyboard (no changes to CARMA needed).

[jsf2167]

Thanks so much for such a prompt reply.

I appreciate your guidance, however, I am worried about the transition speed that the arrow keys allow (i.e., a student suddenly goes from looking directly at the teacher to getting up and leaving the room). If possible, having the hotkey option would be incredible, as I am working with remote coders (so joysticks aren't possible) and we want to maximize reliability as much as possible.

[jmgirard]

I can look into this. I might be able to do something where you hit a key on the keyboard to toggle on and off "mouse capture". When on, the slider would be tied to the mouse's y position.

[jsf2167]

That would be amazing! Thanks so much for your consideration!