Overview of the On-Screen Keyboard

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

The On-Screen Keyboard

The on-screen keyboard, or OSK, is a keyboard you operate with the pointer instead of physical keys. It draws a keyboard on the screen; you click a key and that keystroke goes to whichever window has the keyboard focus. Blueprint's on-screen keyboard program is called cyosk.

It is useful on a touch screen, on a machine whose keyboard is awkward to reach, and for typing a character your physical keyboard does not carry. It is part of the core Blueprint desktop, not an add-on.

In This Book

• Bringing Up the Keyboard
• Typing With the Keyboard
• The Face Menu
• The Indicator Strip
• The Power Keys
• Word and Phrase Suggestions
• Layout, Size, and Placement
• Setting Preferences
• Making the Keyboard Easier to Use
• Keys and Shortcuts
• Where the Settings Live

The Four Boards

The keyboard comes in four shapes. Pick one on the Layout page of Setting Preferences.

• Model M Classic Keyboard. The full board: function row, navigation cluster and numeric pad, in the proportions of the keyboard it is named for. Use it when you have the screen for it.
• CyOSK Compact. The typing block only. No function row, no navigation cluster, no numeric pad; Escape is kept. This is the state the Sml indicator reports.
• On Board. A smaller arrangement for a narrow strip of screen.
• Soft Micro. The smallest board, with a media row and a pointing pad.

Switching boards re-measures the whole face, so the window changes size when you switch. The Power Keys strip, when it is on, is detached during the re-measure and re-attached afterwards, which is why it appears to jump.

One Keyboard Per Screen

Only one cyosk owns a given screen. Starting a second one does not give you a second keyboard; it toggles the one already running between shown and hidden, at the place and size you left it. That is what makes the show key behave like a switch rather than a spawner. See Bringing Up the Keyboard.

The keyboard refuses the keyboard focus on purpose. Clicking its keys never takes focus away from the window you are typing into, so the keystrokes land where you meant them to.