Windows Vista: The Complete Reference (Complete Reference Series)

If using the mouse or other pointing device is easier for you than typing on the keyboard, Windows can display a picture of a keyboard on the screen. You can use a mouse, joystick, pointing stick, or other pointing device to choose characters from the On-Screen Keyboard:

To display the On-Screen Keyboard, choose Start All Programs Accessories Ease Of Access On-Screen Keyboard.

You can type by choosing the keys on the On-Screen Keyboard with your mouse in one of three ways (typing modes):

• Click To Select Click an onscreen key.

• Hover To Select Rest the mouse pointer on the onscreen key for the specified period of time. You can choose the amount of time the mouse pointer must "hover" before the key types by choosing Settings Type Mode.

• Joystick Or Key To Select Windows automatically moves the highlight from key to key on the On-Screen Keyboard, cycling endlessly across the keys. When the highlight gets to the key you want, press a key, click the mouse, or activate the joystick to select that key. You can choose how fast the highlight moves, what key or click chooses the selected key, and how your selection device is connected to the computer. Choose your typing mode by choosing Settings Typing Mode from the menu bar at the top of the On-Screen Keyboard window.

The characters you "type" using the On-Screen Keyboard appear in the active window-be sure to select the window into which you want to type first. When you choose the "shft" button on the screen, it remains on until you choose the next button (for example, choose "shft" and then a to type a capital A).

You can choose the following options by using the On-Screen Keyboard menus as specified:

• Whether the keyboard appears "on top" of other windows that it overlaps, by choosing Settings Always On Top

• Whether the onscreen "keys" make a sound when chosen , by choosing Settings Use Click Sound

• What font appears on the keys of the On-Screen Keyboard, by choosing Settings Font

• Whether to display the standard or enhanced keyboard (the enhanced keyboard includes the numeric keypad and more cursor movement keys), by choosing Keyboard Enhanced Keyboard or Keyboard Standard Keyboard

• Whether to arrange the keys like a real keyboard, or in a grid, by choosing Keyboard Regular Layout or Keyboard Block Layout

• How many keys to display, by choosing Keyboard 101 Keys, Keyboard 102 Keys (which adds a backslash key to the left of Z), or Keyboard 106 Keys (which adds Japanese-language characters)