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Help and faq

HELP / FAQ / TROUBLESHOOTING

Read this whole text before using the FingerKeyboard or asking for help! If your question is already answered in FAQ it will be ignored. Don't be lazy!

What version should I install on my XYZ device? / What is WVGA, WQVGA, VGA and QVGA?

To successfully install Fingerkeyboard on your device, you need to pick the correct version for your phone. For example, let's say you want to find out what resolution Samsung Omnia has. Type "Samsung Omnia review" into Google, and among the first few results usually you'll get the most popular review sites listed. Reviews always contain resolution information, so we easily find out that Samsung Omnia has a 400x240 pixels resolution. That means you should install FingerKeyboard WQVGA cab.

Here's the list of supported resolutions for FingerKeyboard, with their standard abbreviations:

WVGA - 800x480

WQVGA - 400x240

VGA - 640x480

QVGA - 320x240

Why does FingerKeyboard look differently on my device then on the screenshots?

There can be some small differences between the screenshots and what you see on your screen. The reason for this is that different layouts can have different features, graphic elements or button layouts. We consider English layout to be the "standard" layout, with best combination of button size and positions.

How can I type those special characters that appear above normal characters?

Press and hold a key.

How to switch to full CAPS?

Press and hold the shift button.

Spacebar

If you press and hold spacebar button it will write a dot followed by a space.

How to use text selection?

Switch to full CAPS mode and then use arrow buttons to select text.

How to use cut / copy / paste / undo?

Switch to full CAPS mode, select the text you want to cut or copy, and press and hold ^c or ^x characters. Then press and hold ^v to paste. On some layouts these are named "cut", "copy" and "pst". Same thing with "undo" option - you can use "undo" at any moment, and it will take you back for unlimited number of steps.

Where is that Config tool you mention?

After you install FingerKeyboard, go to Start > Programs > Finger Keyboard.

How can I switch to numeric keyboard?

Press 123 button. If your layout does not have dedicated 123 button, press Shift and 123 will appear on your Language toggle button. Behavior of Language toggle button can be customized in Configuration tool.

How can I change a color scheme of the keyboard?

Config tool > Main > Color scheme: select which ever you like and press OK or Apply.

How can I select language layouts?

Config tool > Main: you will see a list of all language layouts you have in your FingerKeyboard folder. Put a tick next to the layouts you want to use and press OK or Apply. We also advise you to physically delete layouts you don't want to use from oyur device (Program files / FingerKeyb / Skins). This will make Config tool start up a little bit faster and use less memory.

What are all those Backspace options in Config tool?

Behavior of Backspace key can be customized to suit your needs. You can separately control what will Backspace do on short click and long press, as well as how it will behave in small caps or caps lock mode.

How to minimize or turn off the keyboard?

Short press the keyboard toggle button (the one with small keyboard or switch sign on it). Long press on this button will turn off FingerKeyboard and switch to default HTC keyboard.

How to disable click sound?

Run FingerKeyboard Config tool. Under "Options" tab you will find a "Press sound" box. Here you can select from several different click sounds, all of which have "quiet" and "loud" versions. This is useful if you want a subtle click sound, but don't want to lower the volume for the whole System. There is also a "no sound option".

How can I get vibration feedback?

Config tool > Options tab > Press vibrate. Here you can select how long you want the vibration feedback to last. Minimum of 20ms will get you a barely noticeable vibration effect, while 80ms will be very strong.

Vibration feedback don't work on my device. Why is this?

If you're having problems with vibration feedback, it's most likely that our autodetect LED vibration feature don't work well on your device. However, you can play around with "VibrateLed 1" string in skin-01-global.txt (Program Files\FingerKeyb\Skins) and see if perhaps changing to another LED number will work for you.

How can I control the key-press delay? / What is "Hold time" / Can I make the keys repeat on press+hold?

"Hold time" option in Config tool is a cool option you can use to control how long it will be needed for a key to be continuously pressed before it writes a letter or performs an action. This part of the "Hold time" function is controlled with numbers in the first box. The second box controls how long will it take for a key to be continuously pressed before it starts repeating itself. So, if you put 500ms in the first box, and 200ms in the second box, that means you will have to press a key for 500ms before it performs it's "long press" action, and 200ms more before it starts repeating that function. If you hold the key even longer, it will then gradually accelerate.

Can I hide / show Windows menu bars?

Yes, go to Config tool and under "Options" tab select how you want the keyboard to display in Portrait and Landscape mode. We suggest selecting "Show bar" for portrait, and "Hide bar" for landscape.

I want the pop-up images to stay longer on screen. How can I do this?

In Config tool, Options tab, there is a "Popup time" box. Here you can select how long will the pop-up image stay on screen after a key has been pressed. If you set pop-up time to 1500ms, this means the pop-up image will stay on screen for 1.5 seconds, or until next key is pressed. Pop-up image delay affects ONLY the normal character keys (A,B,C,D etc). Special action keys, such as Shift, Space, Backspace etc. have default short time and will not stay on your screen. This is done to avoid action keys images covering large areas of the screen with their larger pop-up images.

What are Smiles / Shortcuts?

This is a feature that no other keyboard has. It allows you to control what any of the several predefined actions keys will do when you press and hold them. Almost all layouts have these special actions included (between 7 and 11 actions on most of the layouts). You can control what will show up on a key when you open the keyboard, as well as what that key will write when you press+hold it. For example, you can type into "Key text" box "info" and into "Action text" you could type "John Smith, gsm:00123456789, e-mail: john@smith.com". Or maybe your favorite web address. Or your signature. Or your wife's name. Or your lover's name for all we care :) The possibilities are endless! You can do the same thing for smiles - if you don't like the default ones, use your own, or something else!

A special key I need is missing / Can I customize smiles / Can I change shortcuts?

If there's a key missing in your language layout, you can easily add it yourself by using either Smiles or Shortcuts tab in Config tool. Simply type the missing key into two of the horizontal boxes and the key will appear when you long press a button that has that Smiles / Shortcut action.

Why does XYZ language layout have only a few smiles / shortcuts buttons?

Some language layouts have very high demands regarding the number of characters they need to occupy. Because of this there are a few language layouts that may have a smaller number of smiles / shortcuts spaces reserved. We have tried to include as many as possible, believe us!

How can I make FingerKeyboard a default keyboard? / How can I keep FingerKeyboard as default keyboard even after reset?

You can use a small program called SIP Change. Look it up on XDA-developers.com forum, and remember to set delay to 40-50 seconds.

"Where is XYZ language layout? Why is it not included!?"

If you want a certain language layout, first check FingerKeyboard2.1 thread on XDA-developers.com forum if someone maybe already made an additional layout and posted it there. If not, the best thing you can do is to make your own layout and share it with other people. If your layout is good, we'll probably include it in next version. Please do not spam us with "I WANT THIS LANGUAGE!!!" messages. All language layouts depend exclusively on the community to produce them. If no one can't be bothered to make your language layout, we can't really help you.

Editing instructions:

You can use the existing layouts to make it custom layouts! The easiest way is to open one of the layout skin txt files and replace the existing characters with your own. Experiment a bit, and you will soon get the hang of it. Same applies if you want to make your own skin - edit the included bitmaps, and change the appropriate lines in txt files. Everything you want to know about FingerKeyboard actions, layouts, colors and resolutions is explained in "doc-about-skin.txt" that is located in the root of the FingerKeyb folder. Read it first before asking for help!

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