Special words that we use
This page explains the words, phrases and acronyms that have special
meanings in the User Guides. In this page, Lomak refers to any
of the Opdo family of keyboards.
Command,
keyboard,
pointer, button, key
| Command |
An action you tell your computer to do. You will do this by using Lomak to type
a letter, number or special character, or to move, click or drag like
a mouse. |
| Keyboard |
The part of the Lomak system that shows the commands you can choose, arranged
in circles. |
| Pointer |
The part of the Lomak system that you use with your hand or your head to choose
commands from the keyboard. |
| Button |
An area on the Lomak keyboard that you can click with a pointer. Each button
has a light-emitting diode (LED) which illuminates when it is activated. |
| Key |
Often used interchangeably with button. However, two or more keys can be placed
on the same button and selected through a shift procedure like
Shift-Confirm in international layouts, and A-Shift in
the Notesai keyboard. |
Click, touch, select, pause, dwell
| Click, touch, or select |
The act of choosing a command on the Lomak keyboard, by shining a pointer light
on a button. |
| Pause, or dwell |
To hold the pointer dot on a button for a longer time than a click. This may
generate a repeat action or some other response on a
few special buttons. |
Confirm, Confirm cluster
| Confirm |
To click any of the green areas in the centres of the button circles, and thereby
pass a character or action to the computer. |
| Confirm cluster |
The multiple sensors and LED lights in a green Confirm area. They act as a single
button. |
Alphabet circle, Control bar, Rest key
| Alphabet circle |
The centre circle of the Lomak keyboard. |
| Control bar |
The bar along the bottom of the Lomak keyboard containing control keys such as
Set-Up, Mouse, Control, Alt, etc. |
| Rest key |
The green button at the right of the Control bar. |
Keyboard, Mouse, Set-up, and Rest modes
| Keyboard mode |
This is when the Lomak is acting as a keyboard and sending button commands to
the computer. This mode is active when the Lomak first starts
up. |
| Mouse mode |
This is when the Lomak is acting as a mouse and sending mouse commands to the
computer. The Mouse button is illuminated whenever you are
in Mouse mode. |
| Set-up mode |
This is when adjustments are being made to the Lomak internally. The Set-Up button
is illuminated whenever you are in Set-up mode. |
| Rest mode |
When the Lomak is temporarily “put to sleep” so that buttons will not respond
to the pointers. The Rest button is illuminated whenever
you are in Rest mode, and is the only button that will respond
at that time, to resume keyboard or mouse operation. |
Cursor, Mouse cursor or pointer
| Cursor |
The insertion point cursor in the computer’s current application program. This
is normally a vertical bar, which blinks at a slow rate,
and indicates where the next character will appear. |
| Mouse cursor, or pointer |
The computer’s mouse cursor is distinct from its insertion point cursor, and
does not blink. It can change shape depending on where it
is on the screen, indicating what action will take place
when the mouse is clicked. The Lomak can move the mouse
cursor up, down, right, left, and along the diagonal lines
if a second direction arrow is clicked in succession. |
Standard, Notesai and Mac layouts
| Layout |
The location of characters on
the keyboard. The command or character assigned to a key
can vary according to which layout, or key configuration,
is currently active. The layout choice is selected in Set-up. |
| Standard layout |
The layout which emulates a US
or UK keyboard for direct “plug and play” into host computers
used in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and many other
English-speaking countries. |
| Notesai layout |
This layout has double spacing
between the keys in the alphabet circle. This improves the
typing efficiency for some people, particularly those who
have cerebral palsy. We call this layout Notesai because the letters in "Notesai" are the most frequently used letters in English. The Lomak keyboard can operate
as a Notesai if it has an overlay placed over the central
circle. |
| Mac layouts |
These layouts are for Apple Mac
computers. They have keys for Vol-, Vol+, Mute, CD eject,
Command, and other keys for the Mac. |
US-International and plug & play layouts
| US-International layout |
The Lomak can be set to its US-International layout to generate the special
characters used in many European and other languages, if
your Windows computer is also set for the US-International
keyboard. |
| Plug & play layouts |
The Lomak can be set to emulate many international keyboards and thereby be directly
"plug & play" with Windows computers in the respective countries,
without the need for any setting up in the Windows keyboard
control panel. |
International or extended keys, Dead keys, AltGr
| International or extended
keys |
The special keys used in the international layouts. These extended keys are placed
in a second layer around the circles, and are accessed
using Shift-Confirm as a pre-select command. |
| Dead keys |
Keys in international layouts which do not create a character
directly, but which add an accent mark to the following
character. They can be located at certain positions on the
main circles and/or on the Option keys on the Control bar. |
| AltGr |
The Right Alt key, which can be used in combination with certain keys in the
international layouts to create international characters. |
Mouse keys, Word prediction keys
| Mouse keys |
The keys in the blue region inside
the Alphabet circle which are used in Mouse mode for mouse
direction and mouse click commands. |
| Word prediction keys |
The same keys as the Mouse keys, but when they are used in Keyboard mode
for selecting word choices from a list created by a word
prediction program that is running on your computer. |
Option keys, Layout Quick Change keys
| Option keys |
The number keys in the middle of the Control bar which are used
- to set the speed of the mouse cursor
- to select option choices in Set-up mode
- as dead keys in some international layouts.
|
| Layout Quick Change keys |
The two large blue keys to the right of Option 5, which are also referred to
as the Layout A and Layout B keys. |
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