keyTouch user manual

First edition, for keyTouch version 1.0.0
Last updated August 20, 2004
by Marvin Raaijmakers

Table of Contents

1.About keyTouch

2.The user interface

Key settings

Keyboard

Preferences

3.Using keyTouch

Selecting your keyboard

Changing the settings of the keys

Setting your preferences

Importing special action plugins

Saving your settings


  1. About keyTouch

KeyTouch is a program which allows you to easily configure your extra function keys of your keyboard. This means that you can define, for every individual function key, what to do if it is pressed.

This manual will show you how to use keyTouch.

  1. The user interface

KeyTouch has a main window divided into four parts:

You can access each part by clicking on its tab (see illustration 1).


Illustration 1: You can access each part by clicking on its tab.

The main window also has three buttons at the bottom:

Key settings

The “key settings” part consists of a list of all function keys, of the current keyboard, and a frame (name “Key settings”) where a key can be configured. When a key is selected from the list the settings of it will be shown in the “Key settings” frame.

In the frame you can select what to do if the key is pressed:

  • Predefined setting

  • Program

  • Special action

These three options will be explained later in this manual.




Keyboard

This part shows the currently used keyboard. You can change the current keyboard by clicking on the “Change...” button.

Preferences

The preferences part is divided in to three parts:



  1. Using keyTouch

This chapter describes how to use keyTouch.

Selecting your keyboard

The first thing you want to do is selecting the keyboard you use. To do this go to the “Keyboard” tab and click the “Change...” button.

Now a window appears. This window contains a list with all available keyboards. Select your keyboard from the list and click the “OK” button.

If your keyboard is not in the list, go to the keyTouch website (http://keytouch.sf.net) and click “Downloads” in the menu. After that you click on keyboards. Here you can search your keyboard. If you found it you have to download it. Now we go back to the “Change keyboard” window and click the import button. A file select window will appear. Go to the location were you downloaded the keyboard file to and select the file. After this your keyboard will be visible in the list of available keyboards.

When you selected your keyboard, the list of the keys will be reloaded with the keys of your keyboard.

Changing the settings of the keys

To define what happens if you press a key, you should go to the “Key settings” tab and select the key you want to configure from the list.

There are three options for what happens when the key is pressed:

You can select the option you want and fill in the name of the program or select the special action (see illustration 2).


Illustration 2: You can select what happens when the key is pressed.

Setting your preferences

Because you want to work as comfortable as possible keyTouch allows to to set your preferences. I you want to do this go to the “Preferences” tab. Here you can set your “Documents” directory, the URL of your home- and search page, internet browser, e-mail program and messenger. These values will be used by special actions. For example: You have key and when it is pressed the special action called “WWW – Home” will be executed. This special action starts the browser with the homepage you filled in.

The “Preferences” tab also contains a list of special action plugins. This will be thread in the next paragraph.

Importing special action plugins

A special action is a plugin which can be executed if a key is pressed. You can import new special action plugins, by going to the “Preferences” tab. Now you can see all currently available plugins installed on your system. To import a new plugin click on the “Import...” button. After doing this the new plugin will appear in the list of plugins and you can select it for configuring a key.

You can download plugins from the keyTouch website: http://keytouch.sf.net . It is recommended that you only use plugins downloaded from the keyTouch website, while it might be possible that a bad person developed it to damage your system.

Saving your settings

If your want to save the changes you made you can click the “OK” or the “Apply” button on the bottom at the right side of the main window (see illustration 2). If you click the “Apply” button only the changes will be saved. If you click the “OK” button the changes will be saved and keyTouch will be closed. You can also discard the changes and close keyTouch by clicking the “Cancel” button.


Illustration 3: With these three buttons you can decide what to do with the changes you made.