How do I?

Get up to speed

Visualize: Fitaly is a visual keyboard. You can become very fast if you visualize a word on the Fitaly keyboard before you tap its letters. Take a simple sentence and visualize the word patterns without typing them, words you use all the time such as “what”... “the”... “to do”... “one”... “more.”

Practice: Practicing the same sentence again and again will increase your overall typing speed on new text.

Light touch: Adapting your touch to your type of screen will improve your speed in a similar way in which one gets the right touch for one's piano.

Space: Consider the space following a word part of your word. It will improve your tapping rhythm and speed.

Save keytaps: Using shortcuts with Fitaly's expander and slide capabilities will increase your speed even more.

Move the keyboard

To move the keyboard, grab the caption bar between the fitaly logo and the Minimize button and drag it to where you want it. Make sure not to grab the fitaly logo as this logo is implemented as a special key to which you can assign many useful slides.

If you have one preferred screen location or more for the keyboard, you can define slides using the move fitaly macro. Here is how you would define a slide on the fitaly special key that moves the keyboard to the upper left corner of the screen for example:

tap to open the Fitaly Editor
tap the Special key slides tab.
tap the fitaly logo in the caption or select it from the pick list next to Set Special Key
tap on Add to open the Add window and select the direction for the new slide
tap the Insert Macro button and select positioning key -> move fitaly
you then will be asked to move the keyboard manually where you want it before tapping OK, so move the keyboard manually to the upper left corner and the tap OK.
you also have the option to designate a display form such as Move keyboard upper left, then tap OK

Move the keyboard any place, and try the new slide on the fitaly logo in the direction you have chosen for this slide. You will see <move keyboard>0,0</move keyboard> or your display form Move keyboard upper left in the preview window. Once it is highlighted lift your pen, and Fitaly will move to the defined location.

Of course, you can assign this slide definition to any key of your choice, and you can also define several slides for different positions.

Change the size of the keyboard

Tap on the information key and select the size you want from the popup menu.

Alternatively you can define a slide that changes Fitaly to the desired size. In the Fitaly Editor Add dialog look for the Insert Macro -> option key submenu and you will see the different sizes.

Produce Direction keys

On the side bar you have a toggle that changes the four accent keys to four arrow keys. In addition to these arrow keys you can produce all other direction keys by sliding on any of these arrow keys. By default any North slide of the direction keys lets you produce the up arrow, page up or jump to beginning of document:

direction keys up

By default any South slide of the direction keys lets you produce the down arrow, page down or jump to end of document:

direction keys down

Produce the Alt key

To produce the Alt key slide the Escape key in the North direction.

This is a slide by default. You can, of course, define a slide that produces Alt on a any other key of your choice.

You may also define a slide that uses Alt in combination with another letter or key: Alt+F4 for example closes the current application.

You will find the alt macro in the Insert Macro -> state key menu

Produce the Windows key

By default you can produce the windows key by sliding the fitaly icon on the fitaly caption in the North direction.

As for all these keys, you can define a slide that produces the windows key on any key you want. You may also define a slide that uses the windows key in combination with any other letter or key.

You will find the windows macro in the Insert Macro -> state key menu.

Produce a Function key

You can define slides or expansions that produce a Function key. The Function keys F1 through F24 can be found in the Insert Macro -> function key menu.

By default, slide the letter f in the North, direction, and you will see F1 ready to be used.

Produce a Numpad key

If you need to produce numpad keys, they can be produced using the Fitaly macro language. You will find them under Insert macro -> numpad key.

A slide entry like <alt><numpad 0><numpad 1><numpad 8><numpad 2><alt>
would enable you to produce a ¶ with just a slide. The display form for the preview window could be named paragraph sign.

Select text

To select text, use the Shift and Control keys together with the direction keys.

You can define slide or glossary entries for different text selections. For example, the following macro string selects the previous word:
<control><shift><left><shift><control>

Note that the final <shift> and <control> macros need to be added to release the shift and control states.

Copy and Paste

By default you can produce Ctrl+A or Ctrl+C or Ctrl+V when you slide the Ctrl key North. The preview window shows display forms such as Select All, Copy, and Paste

You can define other combinations using the state keys in slide or glossary entries, and with the display forms you can give them meaningful names.

Switch to another application

By default you can slide the Tab key in the North direction to produce Alt+Tab.

In Vista you may then select the application you want to switch to with your pen.

In XP you need to tab to the application you want and then release the Alt state by sliding North on the Escape key.

Switch to another glossary

One way is to tap on the information key

and on Load glossary, and then open the glossary.

A faster way is to create a slide or a glossary entry that takes advantage of the Fitaly macro language.

In the Insert Macro -> metakey submenu, tap on the load glossary macro to open the glossary you want to be able to switch to. The path of this glossary will be inserted into the Add window. In the Display form box you can add just the name of the glossary.

Now you can slide or tap two letters of the name of your glossary, and it will pop up in the preview window, ready to be used.

Optimize my screen space

Sometimes you may want to use the full size of your screen together with Fitaly. The duo macro enables you to maximize the size of the application you are currently typing in, leaving just enough space for Fitaly.

Duo

For example, you can define a slide for the fitaly key that will call the duo macro as folllows:

tap to open the Fitaly Editor
tap the Special key slides tab
tap on fitaly or select it from the pick list next to Set Special Key
tap on Add to enter a new slide definition, select the direction for the new slide
tap the Insert Macro button and under positioning key select duo with client.

Rotate my screen

Use the rotate macro which can be found in the Insert macro -> metakey menu.
If you want to rotate several times 90 degrees, you just add as many rotate macros as needed.

Right click with a slide

With the Fitaly macro language you can produce a right click with a slide.

Select context menu in the Insert macro -> metakey menu for your slide and use the Display form box to name it Right-Click.

Launch Word or another application

The launch macro is a very powerful macro that enables you to start any of your preferred applications with a slide or an expansion.

In the Insert Macro -> metakey menu tap on launch. You can then browse on your hard drive to select the exe file of the application you want to launch. Once you see the path of your application in the Add window, use the Display form box to fill in a meaningful and descriptive short name.

Launch a photo

To launch a photo you use again the same launch macro in the Insert Macro - > metakey submenu and select your favorite photo by entering the jpg file into the Add window of the Fitaly Editor. This way you can have your favorite photos available with just a slide on Fitaly.

User Manual
Fitaly Options
Sliding
Expanding Abbreviations
Fitaly Editor
Fitaly Macro Language

Panel Reference
Character Reference
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Fitaly License
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