Bringing Up the 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

Bringing Up the Keyboard

There are several ways to make the on-screen keyboard appear. All of them act on the one keyboard that owns the screen; none of them starts a second.

The Show Key

Hold Ctrl and Alt and press the "k" key. This toggles the keyboard: press it once to show the keyboard, and again to hide it. The window manager owns this key combination, so it works from anywhere in the desktop.

Ctrl+Alt+K is the stock binding, not a fixed one. It is the action named "On-screen keyboard", technical id session.osk, in the Menu & Shortcuts editor. To move it to a key you prefer, open Menu & Shortcuts, go to the Shortcuts page, select "On-screen keyboard" under Session, and press Set Shortcut... . The Menu & Shortcuts book covers that; reach it from Help Books in the Contents pane and pick MenuShortcuts.

The FindIt Gesture

You can also bring the keyboard home with the mouse wheel: roll it up, down, up, down, one notch each way. FindIt shows the keyboard and moves it to a set spot on the screen, which is what you want when it has been hidden or pushed out of sight. Normal wheel scrolling still reaches your applications; only that particular up-down-up-down pattern runs FindIt.

Choose the spot, or turn FindIt off entirely, on the Session page of Setting Preferences.

The Taskbar Button and the Systray Icon

By default the keyboard takes a window-list button like any other application, so you can raise it from the task area. You can move it to a status icon in the system tray instead, or ask for neither, on the Appearance page of Setting Preferences under "Show on:".

Starting It With Your Session

The keyboard is not started at login unless you ask for it. Turn on "Open the keyboard when you log in" on the Session page of Setting Preferences.

Putting It Away

• Press the show key again.
• Choose Quit from The Face Menu to exit the program outright.
• Close the window from the window manager's own close control.

Pressing "q" or Escape on your physical keyboard does not quit the OSK. Those keys belong to whatever window you are typing into.

See Typing With the Keyboard once it is on the screen.