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FingerKeyboard2 - public release
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INTRODUCTION:
Hello everyone! As promised - we are back with much anticipated FingerKeyboard v2! The goal was to create a very stylish keyboard with great key layout and some very cool features that will make your everyday typing a great experience.
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FEATURES:
Keeping it short, let's go through the main features:
- one of the most (if not the most) touch screen finger-friendly keyboards out there
- great looking 
- supports both portrait and landscape modes
- supports WVGA & WQVGA (limited VGA support, read post #2)
- supports different language layouts
- has a numeric layout for fast typing of numbers
- supports selectable color schemes
- supports Windows Mobile Contact name suggestions
- supports Windows Mobile Word suggestions (DOES NOT SUPPORT T9!)
- has excellent layout of buttons in both portrait and landscape
- many cool functions: text selection, cut+copy+paste, home, end, single word deletion, single line deletion, whole text deletion etc.
- preset emoticons for fast typing of smile-faces
- preset web browsing shortcuts for fast typing of web and e-mail addresses
- highly customizable (requires editing txt files, tough)
- supports click sounds when typing
- has a configuration utility that allows selecting lanuages and color schemes
- now comes in a .cab file for easier installation
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LANGUAGES INCLUDED FOR WVGA:
- English
- Russian
- Romanian
- Croatian
- Bulgarian
- French
- German
- Polish
- Greek (multiversion!)
- Danish
- Italian
- Norwegian
- Arabic
- Hebrew
- Hungarian
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INSTALLATION:
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IF YOU HAVE OLDER VERSIONS OF FINGERKEYBOARD, PLEASE UNREGISTER THEM BEFORE INSTALLING V2! If you need to unregister and don't know how to do it, check
THIS post.
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after unregistering you have to soft-reset the device. Then you can proceed with installing FingerKeyb2.
- Run the attached .cab file (recommend you install to device memory)
- The keyboard will install into /Program files/FingerKeyb. There is also a link to Configuration tool in the Start > Programs.
- After installation, a Config window will open. Select language layouts you wish to use, and select a color scheme (both can be changed later)
- Select SMS name and WinMo word suggestion options in the second tab
- Click on OK and softreset the device
- Open up your standard keyboard (in SMS for example), click on the small arrow next to the middle keyboard icon and go to "Other input options"
- FingerKeyb should be listed there, select it and you're good to go
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XT9 & TEXT SUGGESTION:
This keyboard does not support T9. However, there is an option to enable standard Windows Mobile word suggestion, as well as SMS contact name suggestion. There are two ways to do this.
First way is to use the FingerKeyboard Config tool and select what you want to use (Word / SMS suggestion, or both). SMS suggestions will work normally, but for WinMo word suggestion to function, you will need to switch to HTC default keyboard and manually turn on XT9 on the little T9 switch. After that, you can reload FingerKeyboard and everything will work normally. This can be a good way for people who like to use T9 on other keyboards, but also want to use FingerKeyboard without T9. This approach also makes it possible to use new HTC style suggestion windows (the ones with small arrows on each side, where you can flip between names / words).
To avoid messing around with XT9 switch on HTC keyboard you can simply globally disable XT9 across the whole system. That means that T9 will not work even on system keyboards that have T9 support, but SMS / Word suggestions will both work. Also, this approach will disable the HTC style suggestion windows, and use the default WinMo style (the one that opens a simple white window with list of suggested words or names). The patch file which disables XT9 globally can be found along with installation files. This patch can be uninstalled, so don't worry - you can always revert to old settings if you don't like it. Also, please note that when you install this patch, you will not be able to select SMS / Word options in FingerKeyb config tool - they will always be turned "on".
We know that neither of these two approaches are perfect, but just couldn't find any other solution. It might be best to install the FingerKeyb cab and test it first. You can always globally disable XT9 later on if you decide so.
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ADDITIONAL FILES AND LINKS:
XT9 DISABLE CAB:
A cab that will disable XT9 globally, across the whole system. Installing this means that XT9 will NOT work on any keyboards you have on your WinMo system.
SIP CHANGE:
Installing
this will allow you to keep FingerKeyboard as default keyboard after you soft-reset the device. Normally, it would switch back to default WinMo keyboard after every soft-reset, and it would have to be reselected under input options.
Keep in mind that for this to work with Touch HD, you must increase the timeout delay to at least 50 seconds!
SMALL ROW SPACE:
You will notice there are additional zip files with portrait layouts below (WVGA-compact-portrait.zip and WQVGA-compact-portrait.zip). These are the exact same portrait layouts as the ones included in the .cab installation file, with just one different feature: they have smaller row space in portrait mode. For users who are used to touch screens, this will be a nice feature, because it will free up some screen space (the keyboard screen size is smaller, and thus it will allow approximately 1 more row of text to show up in SMS for example). But for people who are not really used to touching tiny things on a plastic screen, or have bigger fingers, it might be easier and more precise to type with default larger row space. To install this, just overwrite the old portrait skin txt files, found in
Program Files/FingerKeyb folder, with the attached txt files.
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ABOUT & CREDITS:
This keyboard was originally created and programmed by
Exidler. The BlackEdition was skinned and updated by
Rozenthal. First landscape layout and some additional layouts were made by
Berkut_G. After the huge initial hype caused by BlackEdition (it was downloaded in total over 7,000 times), it was decided to make version 2, which you can see now!
Big thanks to people who made additional language layouts, tested the FingerKeyboard 2.0 beta, worked on new graphics, helped with ideas and advices etc. (in no special order):
Berkut_G, Cerato, Schreda, Panosha, JBouRas, SBS, BadCluster, Taiseer999, Borchert, Hanackin, Iligcons, Allbercik, Ombre.px, Nvidia32, derfler, ilovepunani, elite-fusion, RoozbehDream, Giannis86, parasite81, bugsykoosh, Reefhunter49, Chompy18 (if I forgot someone, please PM me!)
Another big "thank you" goes to all of you who showed us big support here on XDA forums.
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EDITING INSTRUCTIONS:
If your language layout isn't included, or you would like to change the layout to your own taste, you can use the existing layouts to make it!
The easiest way is to open one of the layout skin txt files (for example: skin-02-wvga-land-01-eng.txt) and simply 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.
You can also change the behavior of the keyboard (such as shorten the long key-press delay, or change how backspace work etc.). This will require a little bit of more effort, but it's nothing too complicated.
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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PROGRESS:
v2.0 - official release of updated FingerKeyboard
v1.4 to v2.0 beta - closed beta testing (link to 1.4 thread)
v1.4 - includes numeric and alternate language layout for landscape mode. Also features new vertical numeric keypad. Thanks Berkut_g!
v1.3 - updated landscape graphics and layout, fixed bugs in landscape mode, vertical mode now 100% finnished.
v1.2 - updated vertical layout, now supports limited landscape mode, new .dll and register files.
v1.1 - vertical support for 2 languages + numeric keypad, turned off sounds, new graphics, new layout
v1.0 - exidler's original version with iPhone style graphics
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02-06-2009, 09:17 PM
button if it did.
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