Making the Keyboard Easier to Use

Documentation / Contents - On-Screen Keyboard

• Overview of the On-Screen Keyboard
  • The Four Boards
  • One Keyboard Per Screen
• Bringing Up the Keyboard
  • The Show Key
  • The FindIt Gesture
  • The Taskbar Button and the Systray Icon
  • Putting It Away
• Typing With the Keyboard
  • Shift and Other Modifiers
  • Why Your Own Keyboard Still Works
  • Moving and Resizing the Board
• The Face Menu
• The Indicator Strip
• The Power Keys
• Word and Phrase Suggestions
• Layout, Size, and Placement
  • Keyboard Layout
  • Size
  • Where It Appears
• Setting Preferences
  • The Layout Page
  • The Appearance Page
  • The Behavior Page
  • The Session Page
  • The Typing Page
  • Defaults and Close
• Making the Keyboard Easier to Use
  • High-Contrast Colors
  • Hover to Press
  • A Bigger Board
• Keys and Shortcuts
• Where the Settings Live
• Copyright Information

Making the Keyboard Easier to Use

Three settings exist for people who need the keyboard to be easier to see or easier to hit. All three are on the pages described in Setting Preferences.

High-Contrast Colors

By default the keyboard follows the desktop colour scheme. That is the right look, and it is the wrong choice if you cannot read it. Four fixed pairs are available on the Appearance page, and they ignore the scheme entirely so a later scheme change cannot undo your choice.

White on black    Light keys on a dark plate
Black on white    Dark keys on a light plate
Yellow on blue    High separation, low glare
Green on black    The old terminal pairing

A high-contrast board draws plain square keys, so the key look controls grey out while one is selected. That is deliberate: bevels and shading work against contrast.

Hover to Press

Turn on "Hover to press (no click needed)" on the Typing page and a key presses itself when the pointer rests on it. Nothing needs to be clicked at all. The dial sets the rest time, from 200 to 5000 milliseconds, and the label beside it reads back the value you have dialled in.

Pick the time by trial. Too short and the board fires keys while you cross it on your way somewhere else; too long and typing is a slog. Something near a second is a fair starting point, which is where the dial opens.

A Bigger Board

The Layout page scales the keyboard from 25 to 400 percent. Four hundred percent is a genuinely large board, and it is the right answer on a touch screen or for anyone who needs a big target.

Two settings pair with a large board:

• Turn on FindIt with a corner, so the board always lands somewhere predictable. See Layout, Size, and Placement.
• Turn on "Always on top" on the Behavior page, so it does not slip behind the window you are typing into.

Word Suggestions Cut the Keystrokes

Fewer clicks is an accessibility feature, not only a convenience. Turning on Word and Phrase Suggestions means a long word costs a few letters and one more click.