Question

The end result is very simple, I have to have something happen when a user types in the letter “n” “o” “t” “e” in that order. ‘Note’ is the word.

I’m making a little application for a friend that will help him take notes, and I want my application to become visible when he types in “note” from anywhere on the machine.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

if (e.KeyCode == neededLetter as Keys)
            {
                neededLetter = "o";
            }

I initialize the neededLetter variable with “N” but I’m stuck there. Any help?

Answer 1

First, to do it from anywhere on the machine you’ll need to either hook all keyboard input or find some other way of catching the letters as they come in. I’m not sure how that’s done in C#, but it should be possible.

For the actual typing, you’ll want something like (this isn’t perfect, necessarily):

if (e.KeyCode == neededLetter as Keys)
{
    if ( neededLetter == "n" )
    {
        neededLetter = "o";
    } else if ( neededLetter == "o" ) {
        neededLetter = "t";
    } else if ( neededLetter == "t" ) {
        neededLetter = "e";
    } else if ( neededLetter == "e" ) {
        // you now have the full sequence typed, show your app
    }
} else { // not sure if this is valid, but it's the idea
    neededLetter = "n"; // reset the sequence if another letter is typed
}