User Guides

You will find a set of orange, blue, and grey sticker sheets packed with your keyboard. These stickers are key blockers. They are designed to stick over buttons that are nuisance keys, that is, keys that you keep activating by mistake. To keep your keyboard looking good, use orange stickers to block orange keys, blue stickers to block any troublesome mouse keys, and the grey stickers to block any nuisance keys on three circles.

Some common examples of nuisance keys are:

• The Shift buttons on the Alphabet circle (in Keyboard mode)
• The Right Click and Drag buttons (in Mouse mode).

You can easily remove the key blockers when you become more experienced.

Lomak keyboards can be set to operate in many different countries and generate the international characters used in the respective languages. For this reason, Lomak keyboards for international markets can be ordered with the regional characters printed on them. However, if you need to create international characters using the US/UK layout (or any other layout), you can order a set of international character stickers from your Lomak supplier or from Opdo Limited.

You can stick on as many labels as you require. Before affixing the stickers, check that your layout operates correctly with your PC's operating system, as there are at least two methods of generating international characters (Shift-Confirm, AltGr) and these methods place the international keys in different button positions.

When first starting on the Lomak, it is beneficial to use a training overlay which masks selected keys. This enables you to gain confidence quickly without unwanted keys being activated.

• The overlay getting started #1 leaves the alphabet exposed with four other keys: Enter, Backspace and the left and right Space buttons. This configuration allows you to get an early feel of the keyboard without the worry of capitals and punctuation.
• The overlay getting started #2 introduces the Shift keys with a full stop and comma, so that you can start adding punctuation to your sentences.
• The overlay getting started #3 exposes numbers with more functions. When you have mastered this overlay you are ready to work with the full keyboard.

The training overlays are temporarily affixed to the keyboard with sticky patches in each corner. Peel off the waxed sticker covers and put them in a place where you can retrieve them later. When you have finished with an overlay, pull it off using the two orange tags, and replace the sticker covers at each corner. The overlays have provision for a tutor to record student details. Use a pencil, and erase the notes before using for others.

Do not bend or fold the overlays, or use abrasive cleaners or solvents. Clean only with a damp cloth.

The following documents are provided in the tutorials folder. They can be opened with MS-Word or Wordpad.

• Lomak_Typing_Tutorial_L1.0.doc (for Lomak users)
• Notesai_Typing_Tutorial_N1.0.doc (for Notesai)

To open a tutorial, click on one of the above links. We recommend that you save a copy to your computer and work with the copy, saving your progress as you go. You can easily reload a tutorial if you want to start again.

The tutorials are a set of self-guided lessons and contain instructions for developing skills with both keyboard and mouse. Because they originate from CDROM or website and can easily be reloaded, do not be afraid of making errors.

New users tend to develop their typing skill and hence their word speed in step jumps. The first plateau is reached very quickly and no speed progress is apparent for some time until the next jump occurs. This is an important time for the user to persist with the lessons because the jump to the next level is most rewarding and comes when you have relaxed enough for your auto-system to become active.

As with touch typing on a standard keyboard, regular exercise with interesting and simple text will bring the most benefit.