Shortcut Keys

[φ6 THR]

In short:
Problem is that keystrokes impact differently the many programs I use while capturing the screen.

In detail:
I'm a new user, recording the screen to create short physics lessons for my highschool students.
I use a laptop with touchscreen to write the lesson on OneNote (or even on Paint). Sometimes I explain things over google sheets, or make a low-user-level tech explanation for collegues. I use OBS while it is minimized, or even on another virtual desktop, so I depend on shortcut keys to operate it.
I use merely 3 scenes, but I need switching between them. Also, in each scene I occationally show/hide a logo or the camera.
result: I need a memorisible keystroke system, that does not collide with any of the strokes serving as input to any of the programs I frequently display.

Any suggestios? Tips? Tutorial for clever use of shortcut keys?

 

[AaronD]

Not really. Normally, I'd say to know (or experiment to find out) what your other apps respond to, and choose a set of hotkeys that doesn't collide with any of that. But you've already thought of that.

Another possibility is to use a different machine - laptop, phone, tablet, etc. - to control OBS via WebSockets. Because it's a different machine, you have a completely independent set of possible inputs to work with, that don't collide with the original machine at all.

Lots of ways to do that, but a relatively easy one to get started with might be Node-RED.
https://nodered.org/
It's a graphical programming language that is based on sending JSON messages between nodes. Each node does something with that message and may or may not send another one. There are lots of predefined nodes, and you can define your own in Javascript, and you connect them as needed for what you're doing.
If you install the dashboard palette, you can even have a graphical user interface that runs in a web browser. Just point any browser to the server's URL, which the dashboard also gives you, and that's all that's needed on the control machine.

When you install Node-RED, you're actually installing the server, so you can put that on whichever machine you want (it runs locally, not in the cloud), and that's where both the editor and the user interface browsers connect to. (yes, the editor is also in a web browser)

Anyway, there's a predefined node to send WebSocket messages, so you can connect that to OBS. And then it's a matter of triggering that node somehow.

 

[AaronD]

Or, you could use your two machines to split the presentation itself from the recording of it. Run the physical video signal from the presentation machine, into a capture card on the OBS machine.

 

[φ6 THR]

Another possibility is to use a different machine - laptop, phone, tablet, etc. - to control OBS via WebSockets. Because it's a different machine, you have a completely independent set of possible inputs to work with, that don't collide with the original machine at all.

Lots of ways to do that, but a relatively easy one to get started with might be Node-RED.
https://nodered.org/
It's a graphical programming language that is based on sending JSON messages between nodes. Each node does something with that message and may or may not send another one. There are lots of predefined nodes, and you can define your own in Javascript, and you connect them as needed for what you're doing.

Thank you!
I guess I'll manage temporarily with choosing hotkeys and changing them according to the app I'm presenting. I will end up some day learning and implementing external control via sockets, but it's a whole new expertice.
There's much to learn - and my focus is actually on the content I want to teach, as a background activity.