Typing With 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

Typing With the Keyboard

Click a key on the on-screen keyboard and that keystroke is sent to the window that currently has the keyboard focus. So the order is: click the window you want to type into first, then click the keys. If your typing seems to go nowhere, check that the target window is focused.

Shift and Other Modifiers

The modifier keys, such as Shift, latch when you click them: click Shift, then click a letter, and you get the capital. This lets you build a key combination one click at a time with a single pointer. The Cap and Num indicators show the current lock state; see The Indicator Strip.

Why Your Own Keyboard Still Works

The on-screen keyboard never takes the keyboard focus. Your physical keyboard keeps working the whole time, and the two can be used together: hold Shift on the real keyboard and click a letter on the board if that is easier than latching.

Because the board refuses focus, no key you press on the physical keyboard is aimed at it. In particular "q" and Escape do not close it.

How Keystrokes Are Delivered

There are two ways to deliver a keystroke, and the keyboard picks one for you. "System typing" hands the key to the X server, which is indistinguishable from a real key press and works with every application. "Direct to window" sends the event straight to the target window, which is what you need on an X server that does not offer the test extension, such as some remote displays. Choose on the Behavior page of Setting Preferences under "Key Injection:". Leave it on Automatic unless typing does not arrive.

Moving and Resizing the Board

• Drag the window frame's title bar, if the frame is shown.
• Drag the empty space between keys. This is on by default and is the way to move a board with no frame. Turn it off with "Drag empty space to move" on the Behavior page.
• Drag a window corner to resize. The board keeps its proportions while you drag, so the keys stay the right shape. If you want to squash it, turn on "Allow Ugly Distorted Resizing" on the Behavior page.

While you drag a corner the board can redraw in three ways: a quick stretch of the last image, an outline only, or a full redraw of every key. Quick stretch is the default and is the right answer on nearly all hardware. Outline only is for slow or remote displays.

See Bringing Up the Keyboard to show or hide it, The Power Keys for the desk and window strip, and Layout, Size, and Placement to change how it looks.