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No-Keys for Windows 3.1
Version 1.1
No-Keys is a program designed to allow a person to
input text into any Windows application without using the
keyboard. It allows a mouse, trackball, or similar device
to input text to Windows applications such as Write or
Terminal. It is designed for people with disabilities who
cannot use a keyboard because they have limited motion of
their arms, but can still make small motions with their
hands or fingers. In the scan mode, it can even be used by
people who can only move their chin or foot, or otherwise press
a mouse button.
Shareware Notice
No-Keys is distributed as shareware. This means that you
can try it for one month to see if it fits your needs. If it does,
you are required to pay for it by sending the registration fee
of $25.00 to
David Leithauser
Leithauser Research
4649 Van Kleeck Drive
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169-4205
It is helpful if you fill out the registration form in the
ASCII text file NOKYWREG.TXT. This form provides information that
will help in serving you.
You will receive a letter that tells you how to turn off the
title page and other shareware notices.
Installing No-Keys in Windows
To install No-Keys on your disk, install all the files
from the Windows NOKW11 archive in your Windows directory.
You must also install VBRUN200.DLL in either your Windows
or your Windows SYSTEM directory. VBRUN200.DLL is a
freeware Windows file created by MicroSoft. You can obtain
it from many sources, including the Leithauser Research
home Web page at http://users.aol.com/Leithauser/.
Once you have installed the files, run Windows. Open the
application group you want to install it in by double clicking
on the icon for that application group. I recommend
using the StartUp Program group. This will cause No-Keys
to run automatically when you run Windows.
Once the program group is open, click on Files in the
Program Manager and click on New in the Files submenu. It
will ask you if you want to install a program or program
group. The default should be "Program" at this point, so
just click the OK button. Then click the Browse button. A
Browse box will appear. Scroll down the files menu until
NO-KEYSW.EXE is visible. Double click on
NO-KEYSW.EXE or click on it and then click on OK. The
Browse box will then disappear, and the Program Item
Properties box will reappear. Click on the OK button
in this box. No-Keys will then be installed in your Windows.
Once No-Keys is installed, you can run it by double
clicking the No-Keys icon if you did not put it in the
StartUp program group. You could also have No-Keys come up
automatically by running Windows with the WIN NO-KEYSW
command at the DOS prompt.
Typing with No-Keys
You type using No-Keys by clicking on the key on the
No-Keys virtual (on-screen) keyboard that you want to type.
That is, move the mouse cursor so that its tip is on the key and
press the left mouse button briefly. No-Keys will send that key to
the program that has the focus. You can easily see which
program this is because it is the one on which the headline bar
is blue. If No-Keys itself is the program that has the focus, then
it sends the key you types to the program that had the focus
just before No-Keys got the focus. You can easily select which
program No-Keys sends the keystroke to by clicking on that
program to give it the focus and then returning to No-Keys.
Keyboard layout
The top row of keys on the No-Keys keyboard contains
all the capital letters. The second row contains all the
lower case letters. The third row contains numbers and
related symbols. It has the number keys from 0 to 9,
followed by the point (period) key. It then has the math
operators " + - * / \ ^ = > <". This is followed by the
left and right parenthesis symbols "(" and ")". Then it has
the percent and dollar sign and the pound (#) and at (@)
symbols.
The fourth row has a collection of miscellaneous
symbols and control keys. The first key on the four row is
the space bar (not really much of a bar, since it is the
same size as the other keys). This is followed by the
quotation mark and the left hand single quote mark (the
symbol that appears at the bottom of the key to the left of
the number on the top row of most real keyboards). The next
key is the apostrophe, followed by the exclamation point,
question mark, colon, and semicolon. Then comes the left
and right square brackets followed by the left and right
curved brackets. The next key is the pipe symbol, which
looks like a vertical bar. The next symbol is the
underscore (underline) symbol. This is hard to see on the
No-Keys keyboard, and unless you look carefully it looks
like that key is blank. The next key is the & symbol. The
last normal sized key is the comma.
After these normal keys, the bottom row has a few
control keys. These are Enter, BkSp (Backspace), Tab, Del,
and Esc. To help you study the keyboard in case you have
trouble seeing it on the screen, here is a map of the keys.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 . + - * / \ ^ = > < ( ) % $ # @
" ` ' ! ? : ; [ ] { } | _ & , Enter BkSp Tab Del Esc
There are some other keys that you can access by
clicking on the KeyType selection on the No-Keys menu bar.
When you click on this, the top two rows of keys (the
letter keys) disappear and are replaced by some seldom used
keys. The first row becomes the F-keys. The first four keys
of the second row become the cursor keys (Up, Down, Right,
and Left). The next four are the Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn
keys. The last two keys on the new second row are the Ins
and Break keys. All of these keys are seldom needed when
you are using No-Keys in Windows, so they are kept hidden
until you click on the KeyType selection on the menu bar.
When you click on KeyType again, the top two rows go back
to being the letter keys.
The No-Keys menu bar also has the words Shift, Ctrl,
and Alt. If you click on one of these, an asterisk will
appear next to that word. The next key you click on will be
combined with the indicated key. For example, to send the
Ctrl-B combination to a program, click on Ctrl on the menu
bar and then click on the B key (either capital or lower
case). To send Alt-F4 to a program, you would click on
KeyType to show the F-keys, click on Alt on the menu bar,
then click on the F4 key.
Loading and Unloading programs with No-Keys
You can use No-Keys to load an application into Windows.
To do this, click on Files on the No-Keys menu bar. Then click
on Load. You will see a standard file directory window. The file
list box contains a list of all EXE files in the current path. This
will normally be your WINDOWS directory. In the unlikely event
that you need to change directories, you can do so with the
directory box. Just double click on the directory you want
to move to or click on it once and then click on the OK
button.
Once you are in the proper directory, scroll the file
list up and down until you see the EXE file for the
application you want to run. For example, if you want to
run Write, scroll the file list until you see WRITE.EXE.
Even if you do not know the EXE file name for the
application you want to run, it is usually easy to figure
it out. The EXE file almost always has a file name that
matches the program name, like TERMINAL.EXE for Terminal
and NOTEPAD.EXE for Notepad. Once you see the file you
want, either double click on the file name or click on it
once and then click on OK.
Once you have selected the file you want to run,
No-Keys will load it in the normal mode. No-Keys will
regain the focus for itself once the application is
displayed, but this will be the program that No-Keys will
send the keystrokes to.
There are two other options in the Files menu. Unload
will close the other application that No-Keys is connected
to. That is, it will unload it from Windows memory. Once
you have done this, you would need to go through the
process of loading the application again. Unloading the
program clears it from the screen, which is a good idea if
you are finished with that application.
The final choice in the Files menu is Exit. This closes
No-Keys down entirely (unloads it from Windows memory). You
would use this only if you are finished with No-Keys.
Pop-Up Option
No-Keys has a feature that causes it to retain the
focus and always appear in front of any other applications
that you have running. This is especially important when
you are first loading programs, to make sure that No-Keys
is always available (doesn't get hidden by the programs you
load). It does have some drawbacks, however. You generally
cannot see the cursor on a program like Write, because the
cursor disappears when the program loses the focus. Even
more importantly, you cannot use the menu options of the
other programs while No-Keys is doing this. For example,
suppose you click on the Files menu option of Write. The
Files menu will drop down briefly, but will disappear
before you can do anything when No-Keys grabs the focus
again.
The solution to this is to turn off the Pop-Up feature
of No-Keys once you have the Windows setup ready to go.
To do this, first load the program you want to use. Make
sure that the program is not running in the maximized
mode, where it takes up the whole screen. Then reduce its
size by grabbing its bottom and pushing up so that it the
program and No-keys do not overlap. I recommend reducing
the Program Manager to an icon so it does not get in the
way. When you are finished doing all this, you should have
No-Keys and your other program on the screen with no overlap.
Once you have done this, you can safely turn off the
No-Keys Pop-Up feature. Click on Options on the menu bar.
You will see Pop-Up as one of the menu choices, and it will
be checked. Click on Pop-Up to turn off the pop-up feature.
You can turn Pop-up back on whenever you want to by
clicking on Options and Pop-Up again.
Once Pop-Up is turned off, No-Keys will generally leave
the focus on the other application you are running. It will
take the focus only briefly as you are clicking on the key
you want to send to the other application. It will, of
course, hold the focus while you are doing some No-Keys
operation, like using the No-Keys Files menu.
Scanning Option
If the user is unable to move the mouse at all, No-Keys
provides a scanning option. When the scan option is turned
on, a red frame around one of the No-Keys keyboard keys
moves around the No-Keys keyboard. This frame will scan up
and down the first column of characters in the window until
you press either the left mouse button or the Enter key
(the real one on your keyboard). It will then scan
horizontally across the row it was on when you pressed the
mouse button (or Enter key) until you press the left mouse
button again. No-Keys then sends the character the frame
was around when you pressed the button the second time to
the other application. The frame will then resume scanning
vertically on the first column of the window, and you can
repeat the process.
The scanning option can even be used by a person who
has no use of their hands at all. The mouse can be placed
where the person can press the mouse button with their chin
or foot.
To use the scan option, click on Options on the No-Keys
menu bar. Then click on Scan. A box will appear asking you
for the desired delay time. This is the amount of time that
the frame spends on each key. The allowed range is .25
seconds to 5 seconds. I recommend about .75 to 1 second. A
delay shorter than this makes it hard for you to press the
mouse button or enter key while the frame is around the
proper key. Below .5 seconds, the frame is moving so fast
that No-Keys sometimes does not register the mouse button
press at all.
There are several ways you can input the desired delay
type. You can type the amount into the text box, using
either the No-Keys keyboard or your actual keyboard. A
better way is to move the vertical scroll bar on the form.
You can click on the arrows at the top and bottom of the
scroll bar, click on the scroll bar above or below the
scroll bar button, or drag the scroll bar button with the
mouse cursor. The value in the text box will change as you
change the position of the button in the scroll bar.
Once you have the desired delay value in the text box,
you activate the scan by pressing the OK button. You can
turn off the scan by clicking on Options and Scan again.
To use the mouse button to select a key when the scan
is active, the mouse cursor must be somewhere on the
No-Keys keyboard, below the menu bar. It does not matter
which key it is on, or even if it is between keys. Clicking
the left mouse button will always select the key that the
frame is around if the scan is turned on, regardless of
which keyboard key the mouse cursor is on. If the person
using the mouse button tends to accidentally move the mouse
cursor off the No-Keys keyboard, you may want to disable
the mouse by removing the ball from the mouse.
No-Keys saves the Pop-Up, Scan, and Scan Time options
between runs. That is, it will come up with what ever setting
you had for these options when you exited No-Keys. I
recommend setting Pop-Up on before exiting the program to
make it easier to find when you first run it.
Bug reports and suggestions
Reports of problems or suggestions for improvement are
welcome. Send such reports or suggestions to:
David Leithauser
Leithauser Research
4649 Van Kleeck Drive
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169
You also can leave EMAIL on America Online, addressed to
Leithauser, or on Compuserve to 74046,1556. You can also send
internet EMAIL to Leithauser@aol.com. In cases of
emergency, you can call Leithauser Research at
(904)-423-0705 between the hours of 10 AM and 6 PM EST.
If I feel that the improvement would be of interest to
most users, I will make it for free and send you the
improved version. If the improvement is unusual and suited
only to your specific needs, I can give you a price quote
for a customized version of No-Keys (see below).
Custom programming
The primary function of Leithauser Research is custom
programming. If you would like a custom program of any type
written, please contact me at the above address for
Leithauser Research. Describe the program you would like
written in as much detail as possible and I will give you a
price estimate. Programs can be DOS, Windows , or TSR.