[Touch HD Themes and Apps] Z80-Man:
How to easily fix some minor issues (only settings issue, program is OK) :

Hello !

First of all, never hesitate to have a look at the files the installer puts in the Skins subfolder in \Program Files\FingerKeyb folder, as they do most of the tricks.

Then you'll have to check for file skin-01-global.txt in it, as it refers to some keyboard types that are absent from most pocket PCs.

It contains this line :

DefaultSip Full QWERTY, Touch Input, Samsung Keyboard, Keyboard

It has two drawbacks :

1) Of course, "Samsung" refers to only a few PDAs

2) "Full QWERTY" is about the HTC "full" keyboard, but has a different name according to your localization.

This leads to a minor, but maybe irritating problem : while you want to change from an input device to another, it can send random keypresses to the open application !

Fixing it with only existing names will stop this behavior.

Here are some examples (they are just examples, as you may have to look into your registry for the work "keyboard" in order to identify the correct device spellings you're actually using) :

- For HTC HD with WM6.1 based ROM, french localized, you'll have to modify the line this way :

DefaultSip Clavier complet, Touch Input, Clavier

- For HTC HD2 with WM6.2 based ROM, french localized keyboard, you'll want to modify it this way :

DefaultSip AZERTY complet, Saisie tactile, Clavier

As you can see, it varies greatly from a ROM to another, so don't hesitate to investigate and to correct the file by yourserlf, as Rozenthal could hardly provide an universal version of it. ;)

Maybe one solution could be also to delete the line, as the help file says it will automatically use the default input device.

At this point, it's important we point out WHY these keyboard names are important.

Trying to sort out the next other problems for some people, I've found that Finger Keybord must rely on your pocket PC's native keyboard layout in order the keystrokes lead to the correct key codes.

This is especially important for XT9, as we'll see later on. :)

To finish with the skin-01-global.txt file, let's say you also can modify the default layout in order to have it displaying first after a soft reset.

The line will actually contain the first encountered of the country codes you choosed from the list in the settings utility ; if for example you choosed "English" + "French", then it will contain

DefaultLayout eng

just because it's upper in the list. :)

So just modify it according to your own taste. :)

While we're here, there's another general setttings file that could be of some use :

Well, just open and edit the related scheme file.

For example, let's look at the black-green one, as it's the closest to the original HTC visual style : ;)

So open the skin-00-sheme-BlackGreen.txt file. Here is what you'll find inside it :

CScheme Name	BlackGreen

CScheme GfxDir	BlackGreen
CScheme FontNormal	ffffff Tahoma 36 700
CScheme FontHold	b3b3b3 Tahoma 20 700
CScheme FontSelected	efefef Tahoma 42 900
CScheme FontSelHold	efefef Tahoma 30 500
CScheme BgColor	000000
CScheme SelectedOffset	5
CScheme SelectedOpacity	220

Where the value just behind the fonts names is the font size.

Just modify it according to your taste, bud ! ;)

But don't forget you'll have to do for each of the different colored skins you'll want to use.

Another kind of file may now call your attention : the keys layout itself.

The fonts sizes depended from the choosen skins, but the actual keys labels don't : they're only related to the languages files.

If some of you already use a french layout, then you should have noticed there are two "î" keys on the portrait layout. As the "ï" is missing (well, the "ë" is missing too, but you'll be able to do the same for it somewhere ;)), let's just replace one of the duplicate keys as an example : :)

So open and edit the skin-02-wvga-port-07-fra.txt file ;

You'll easily find the two related lines :

Key 242 70 44 62 2,2,8,2 key0 key1 h,î,H,/, SC:h,SC:î,SC:H,SC:/
...
Key 387 70 44 62 2,2,8,2 key0 key1 l,[COLOR="Red"]î[/COLOR],L,CSCHEME.Shortcut3, SC:l,SC:[COLOR="Red"]î[/COLOR],SC:L,AC:Shortcut3

Juste edit the second one :

Key 387 70 44 62 2,2,8,2 key0 key1 l,[COLOR="Red"]ï[/COLOR],L,CSCHEME.Shortcut3, SC:l,SC:[COLOR="Red"]ï[/COLOR],SC:L,AC:Shortcut3

And that's it ! ;)

According to your own country and language, find and edit the related files the same way to your taste. :)

These changes will be active on any colored skin theme you'll chose later ; however don't forget there are separate keys layouts for portrait and landscape.

Don't forget you can also reuse the 6 "smileys" and 6 "shortcuts" programmable keys to add some missing keys you could need.

And don't forget you can put in them more than just characters : it actually allows you to put any keycodes sequences, including control sequences : great for terminal emulation or such applications !

Now, let's study another feature that could fool you : XT9 word completion under WM6.5.

When using XT9 with FingerKeyboard, you could have problems with the keyboard typing QWERTY style, while you actually used another national layout !

The problem never occured until WM6.5 ROM began to spread.

It's actually linked to localization being more widely used by Microsoft inside the registry, and the fact that FingerKeyboard relies on HTC's XT9 feature, plus it relies on a default keyboard layout provided by microsoft, as I warned upper in this post.

So the problem seems to have risen with the first WM6.5 cooked ROMs, then became of course more widespread when the Leo was put on the market.

It also only happens with localized ROMs.

After a few days searching with the help of some users (as I don't own an HD2 and still (and happily) use a WM6.1 based ROM in my HD), I was finally able to identify the problem and find a cure.

The good news is it's not only simple (when you finally find the solution, of course), but it's also universal, so it can be used on all ROMs and all versions of WM6 without caring ! :D

To find it out, I had to think about how the keyboards and XT9 worked. As I said, FingerKeyboard relies on the host PDA's keyboard localization and XT9. Remember you'll have to activate the XT9 button on the HTC keyboard then switch back to FingerKeyboard, in order you can use it, as FingerKeyboard doesn't have such a button !

But while it works in standard mode, it looked like it made the translation twice while in XT9 mode, thus inverting the keystrokes.

As I said, the actual solution was finally extremely simple and straightforward, as it just consists it putting back the standard layout, whatever your localization and Windows Mobile version is.

So just launch your favorite registry editor and look at this key :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Tegic\eT9\Ime\KDBFiles]

Check the "07FF" variable : if it contains anything but "eT9.HQD.kdb", then just edit it and change its value to this one, and you're done !

On the french HTDC HD2, it looked like :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Tegic\eT9\Ime\KDBFiles]

"07FF"="eT9.HQD_FRA.kdb"

Just change it this way :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Tegic\eT9\Ime\KDBFiles]

"07FF"="eT9.HQD.kdb"

and you're done once and for all, whatever your country is. :)

Of course, the eT9.HQD.kdb MUST be present in your \Windows directory, but it seems to be on all existing ROMs.

Below is a patch in CAB format, for people not willing to use the registry editor, or just to save time :

It does nothing but setting the registry key as explained above.

Thanks to my testers, mouftie and cerede2000 ! ;)