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About virtual keyboards

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There are no hidden pitfalls here. The use of the keyboards is free for all. Non-commercial sites may link to specific keyboards or to the site.

Using the virtual keyboard is intended to be intuitive. This means that you usually have no need to refer to this page. However, it is here in order to solve any problem that may arise or to contact me.

The virtual keyboards are intended to add characters that are not part of standard keyboards. The most obvious case is of foreign languages. People that are away from home can fill in forms and send email messages in their own languages. Sometime people may find they need a special character in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew when they use their own computers. The virtual keyboard is the easiest way to obtain such characters.

At the moment, the virtual keyboards work only in Internet Explorer. There are technical difficulties that seem to arise from bugs in Mozilla/Netscape and a different bug in Opera browsers.

The virtual keyboards do not alter anything in the computer. Using them is as safe as web browsing. No installation is needed. The only language used is JavaScript, in which all applications are considered safe.

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Usage:

Both the physical keyboard and the virtual keyboard are enabled. It means that you can use all regular keyboard keys and characters. That is why there are no numeral keys on the virtual keyboards.

On keys that have uppercase/lowercase (or upper and lower symbols), such as , the uppercase character (in this case Σ) is produced by holding down the physical Shift key while pressing the character button.

To use special diacritic marks, such as those found in the European, Hebrew, or Advanced European keyboards, write the letter, and then the diacritic button. For example: in the Greek keyboard, pressing the α button and then the ́ button produces ά.

After you have typed the desired text, you can copy and paste it to any application. Just a reminder:
You can use Ctrl-A to highlight the entire text, Ctrl-C to copy it, and Ctrl-V to paste it in another application.

If you use the virtual keyboard to write an e-mail message, you may have to "Send as Unicode" to achieve proper results at the computer receiving the mail.

If your physical keyboard is broken, although you can use the virtual keyboard as a replacement, I have to admit that there is one built in Windows XP. It provides a replacement for regular keys, not special characters. To activate it click Start/All Programs/Accessories/Accessibility/On-Screen Keyboard.

Actually, you can get any character you like from Windows XP, although not as easily as with the virtual keyboard. Try clicking Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Character Map to get to the character producing utility.

Some popup blockers may prevent the virtual keyboard from being launched. It is recommended to disable the popup blocker when the keyboard is called (on many popup blockers this is done by holding down the Ctrl key while pressing the link). I guarantee that no popup commercial will be launched from the keyboard site or from any of the keyboards in it.

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Virtual keyboard for sites:

There are two easy ways to launch a virtual keyboard from your site: At the moment, available keyboard names are: arabic , cyrillic , european , advanced (for advanced European), french , german , greek , hebrew , legal , lithuanian , math , other (for graphic signs), portugese, russian , serbian , spanish , yiddish .
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Terms of use:

You may put the above code free of charge in any non-commercial site. You may change the appearance of the link to the virtual keyboard. You may not keep a copy of the keyboard itself or an altered version of it at your site without a written consent from me.

You may not hide the "©" symbol or my name on the keyboard.

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Special services:

It is possible to obtain keyboards for specific purposes, such as keyboards to fill specific forms on sites, special key arrangements, keyboards for dedicated commercial sites, etc. For your specific needs please contact keyboard@lab.co.il.
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Contact:

I will be grateful for any suggestions, error finding or just any question anyone may have about the virtual keyboards. Please do not hesitate to mail me about anything at yuval@lab.co.il or visit my discussion forum.
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