keyboard toggler

[jona]

Firstly, it's good to see some still familiar "faces". John Corliss
and Boomer immediately strike me as still being active here - great
stuff, they've always been helpful. Anyway, my ISP dropped the
newsgroups a while back and I *eventually* managed to find this
(news.cis.dfn.de) worthy and free news server.

On to my plight - a friend, by choice, works with a german keyboard
on which the decimal point (period or full stop) on the number pad is
a comma. She frequently screws up when doing banking transactions
and wishes to swop or toggle these - either permanently or only when
using certain software. Most freeware keyboard applications I've seen
mainly address hotkey formations. Any suggestions ?

Cheers
jona

 

[Lee Babcock]

Firstly, it's good to see some still familiar "faces". John Corliss
and Boomer immediately strike me as still being active here - great
stuff, they've always been helpful. Anyway, my ISP dropped the
newsgroups a while back and I *eventually* managed to find this
(news.cis.dfn.de) worthy and free news server.

On to my plight - a friend, by choice, works with a german keyboard
on which the decimal point (period or full stop) on the number pad is
a comma. She frequently screws up when doing banking transactions
and wishes to swop or toggle these - either permanently or only when
using certain software. Most freeware keyboard applications I've seen
mainly address hotkey formations. Any suggestions ?

Cheers
jona

There is a keyboard mapping utility in Windows!
Regards
Lee

 

[jona]

There is a keyboard mapping utility in Windows!
Regards
Lee

Thanks, but she doesn't want to change the entire keyboard layout.
The german k/bd has a comma on the del key on the number pad
(with numlock on). This she wants to change to a decimal point, as it
is on a standard english k/bd.

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Firstly, it's good to see some still familiar "faces". John Corliss
and Boomer immediately strike me as still being active here - great
stuff, they've always been helpful. Anyway, my ISP dropped the
newsgroups a while back and I *eventually* managed to find this
(news.cis.dfn.de) worthy and free news server.

That's probably better for you anyway -- it seems like most ISPs rank
Usenet low in terms of importance, and performance usually sucks. Your
new feed is a good one.

On to my plight - a friend, by choice, works with a german keyboard on
which the decimal point (period or full stop) on the number pad is a
comma. She frequently screws up when doing banking transactions and
wishes to swop or toggle these - either permanently or only when using
certain software. Most freeware keyboard applications I've seen mainly
address hotkey formations. Any suggestions ?

Maybe. But first: her Top Secret operating system would be what?

 

[jona]

She doesn't have to change the entire layout. She can re-map just one
key if she wants. This will do exactly what she wants without the need
for any additional software.
Regards
Lee

I installed all the accessibility options Win98 has, been through
the access. 'setup wizard', been to the keyboard panel in
control panel, character map, etc, etc. No go. Pray-tell how
you would go about it.
Cheers

 

[Sietse Fliege]

Mmmm, downloaded and installed that but it only lets one
remap (interchange) the left and/or right Winkey, Menukey,
Alt & Ctrl keys. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Sorry about that! :-(
(I never used it myself and simply had a wrong recollection of what it
actually can do.)

Unfortunately PCMag's TradeKeys can no longer be freely downloaded and
may not be distributed.

There is this other work around, which I *think* can do what you want:
The Wonderful Icon http://thewonderfulicon.com/

+ In its Hotkeys menu, select: "Type Characters into Window"
+ Check "Enable Hotkey"
+ In the "Hotkey Keystroke" field, hit the decimal point key
(but make sure to have Numlock On)
+ In the "Type this text" field, hit the comma key

Although you mentioned that you don't want a hotkeys program, I guess
this might work for you.

HTH

 

[Lee Babcock]

I installed all the accessibility options Win98 has, been through
the access. 'setup wizard', been to the keyboard panel in
control panel, character map, etc, etc. No go. Pray-tell how
you would go about it.
Cheers

Control Panel, Add/Remove software, Windows setup, System tools,
Character Map.

When that is setup up, run it and re-map the key.
Regards
Lee

 

[Lee Babcock]

Yep - that's Africa for you. Namibia (in my case) to be exact. Heck,
I'm happy to be able to establish a dialup connection at 33600 when
they haven't stolen the copper telephone lines. ;->

Thanks for the attempted help.

Jona........ my apologies for misleading you! I'm using Windows 98
2000+ on this computer and it comes with a keyboard remapping tool.
I've done some checking and normal Window 95/98/98SE don't have this.
However, the Win 95 toolkit that Sietse mentioned has a keyboard mapper
and it will work in Win98.
Here is the link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/wutoys/w95kerneltoy/default.asp

Regards
Lee in Toronto

 

[jona]

Control Panel, Add/Remove software, Windows setup, System tools,
Character Map.

When that is setup up, run it and re-map the key.

Character Map only copies a character(s) to the clipboard.
I've used it on occasion when I bother to use the german
"umlaut" characters (not having a german keyboard myself).

For the records, I found a proggie called "remapkey" which
is freeware but it won't work with Win95 or 98. For those
interested:
http://www.dynawell.com/reskit/microsoft/win2000/remapkey.zip

In any case, the "wonderful icon" proggie Sietse suggested
works great and doesn't use up too much system resources.

Thanks to everyone for their input
Cheers
Jona.

 

[jona]

Agreed. Terry recommended it, some weeks ago (for temporarily disabling
the Capslock key).
As a bonus it may come in handy for a few other things.
Hope that that makes up for having to run in the background.



Glad to have been of help.


I wonder if you understand/speak Afrikaan and/or German well,
you being from Namibia?

Fluent in all 3 languages. Ek kan ook Nederlands lees en verstaan,
soos jy seeker hierdie kan verstaan. Hulle verskil so effens, maar
mens kan uitmaak wat omtrent gepraat word. Trilingual is pretty
much the norm for most pre-independance, apartheid era, white
South West African scholars. It's just a crying shame we were never
taught to speak at least one of the local languages, like Ovambo.

Cheers
Jona.

 

[Sietse Fliege]

Fluent in all 3 languages. Ek kan ook Nederlands lees en verstaan,
soos jy seeker hierdie kan verstaan. Hulle verskil so effens, maar
mens kan uitmaak wat omtrent gepraat word.

Dit is voor mij heel gemakkelijk, woord voor woord zelfs, te begrijpen,
hoewel de verschillen met het Nederlands heel groot zijn! Deze
discrepantie maakt het voor mij heel interessant om Afrikaans te lezen.
En ook heel plezierig, want Afrikaans klinkt heel sympathiek.

Trilingual is pretty much the norm for most pre-independance,
apartheid era, white South West African scholars.

That is what I kind of "knew", but I was not too sure, which is why I
asked.
When being fluent in 3 languages is the "norm", that's quite remarkable
indeed!

It's just a crying shame we were never taught to speak at least one of
the local languages, like Ovambo.

I looked it up in the encyclopaedia and saw some figures about Bantoe
and Khoi languages.
And that English, Afrikaan and more recently German are the 3 "official"
languages.
I'm sure I too would want to have learnt Ovambo at an early age, if I
were Namibian.

 

[Sietse Fliege]

Regards from Canada to the Netherlands

Happy Canada Day to you! (A bit late, though.)