Welcome to Oska Suite Oska Keyboard

Welcome to Oska Suite
The Oska Suite is a software solution range to assist people who have
difficulty using traditional computer input methods. Oska has been
developed to enhance the use of touch technology and alternative PC
input methods. Oska offers an inclusive alternative to the traditional
keyboard and mouse method of operating a computer. The inclusive Oska
software, paired with the appropriate input hardware, solves accessibility
issues associated with conventional techniques and is paving the way for
increase use of inclusive touch technology.
People who have moved from mouse input to a single switch system now have
alternative control methods available to them. Integration of additional, alternative input
device techniques such as game pads, numeric keypads and touch pads gives more
flexibility in controlling and writing on the PC.
Oska Keyboard
The Oska Keyboard is an on-screen virtual keyboard. Oska is fully compatible with touch
technology allowing touch screen compatible PC’s to control the on-screen keyboard.
The Oska Keyboard works as a standard computer keyboard. Select a key and Oska will
send the input to the current active application on your PC. Oska offers total keyboard
control of all your applications including word processors, email, web pages or any other
text based application that you use. The Oska Keyboard supports all the standard
characteristics of a standard keyboard (for instance, repeated keystrokes when a key is
held down).
There are various ways you can use the keyboard:
Clicking Mode
In Clicking Mode you select the on-screen keys to type text or send date to the program
that you are using.
Hovering Mode
Use the Oska Settings Editor to set up Hovering Mode. This will enable you to move the
mouse or input device to point to a key for a predefined period of time, the key is then
automatically selected.
Scanning Mode
In the Oska Settings Editor you can select your required scanning settings. You can use
the following devices for Scanning Mode:
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Mouse Buttons
Joystick Buttons
Key Switches
You can also set the scan speed and if you want to use 1 or 2 switches
Oska Editor
The Oska Editor can create an infinite number of unique combinations, groups and
sequences of buttons, tailored for different users. The Editor has been designed with
ease of use in mind, allowing keyboards to be effortlessly adapted to specific
requirements. The Oska Editor comes with all versions of Oska and has been designed to
allow the creation of multi input keyboards or controllers for use on PC systems.
Keyboards created for Oska work with Touch Screen devices, Touchpad’s, Mice,
Keyboards, Joysticks and Switches.
Editor Layout
The Editor is spilt up into several areas (see below image). Each of those areas is aimed
to give total control over various aspects of the Oska Keyboard design. The 5 areas are:
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Main Menu
Keyboard layout
Current Grid Settings
Current Button Settings
Action Settings
Editor Main Menu
The main menu is situated at the top left of the editor window. Here you can find the
‘File’, ‘Edit’ and ‘Help’ menu option (see image below).
File Menu
Clicking on the ‘File’ menu you can create a new Oska Keyboard, open an existing Oska
Keyboard, save the Oska Keyboard currently on display, view recent files and exit the
Oska Editor (see image below).
Edit Menu
Clicking on the ‘Edit’ menu you can use the copy and paste function, put key faces into
the text fields and changing all Oska Keyboard buttons to upper or lower case (see
image below).
Help Menu
Clicking on the ‘Help’ menu you can access the help files as well as information about the
Oska Editor itself (see image below).
Keyboard Layout
The Keyboard Layout area of the Editor is where the main design and placement of
buttons takes place. Here you will see a visual representation of how the keyboard will
look, as you edit your keyboard.
You will also use this section to select which key you wish to edit. Specified the number
of columns and rows you want and the size of the buttons in the ‘Current Grid setting’
and you simply select the button you want to edit and it will be highlighted in red.
Grid Settings
The Current Grid settings allow you to control the grid button structure (see image
below).
Current Grid setting let you edit 4 main grid adjustments.
1. Create Narrow button, Tall buttons, and Wide buttons by selecting the tick box at
the side of each option. Each setting can help to tailor the Oska Keyboard for the
keyboards intended use.
2. Using the up & down arrows, set the number of columns and rows the Oska
Keyboard will have.
3. Using the up & down arrows, you can add a gap between certain columns and
rows. This can be useful if you want to separate certain controls on the keyboard
from others e.g. placing a gap between the numerical pad and main part of the
keyboard.
4. Selecting the last button will set ALL buttons on the Oska Keyboard to match the
currently highlighted button.
Current Button Settings
The Current Button settings allow you to style and change the appearance of individual
buttons.
Select the button you want to change from the Keyboard Layout, you can then make the
following changes:
Caption
By selecting 'Caption' you can enter text that you want to be displayed on your button
(see image below).
Font
This option allows you to control the font options of any text that is displayed on the
buttons. Press the browse button to display the font options.
Double Width
This option will allow the width of an individual button to be doubled (see image below).
Select the checkbox to double the width of the button. To return back to original size
uncheck the checkbox (see image below).
Double Height
This option is similar to double width except it allows the height of an individual button
to be doubled (see image below).
Select the checkbox to double the height of the button. To return back to original size
uncheck the checkbox (see image below).
User Editable
This option will decide whether the user of the keyboard can have the option to right
click a button on the Oska Keyboard and edit certain parameters. Setting this feature to
‘True’ will enable the user to edit the buttons. Settings this feature to ‘False’ will turn this
feature off.
Right to left
This option determines whether the component show draw right-to-left for RTL
languages.
Back Colour
This option allows you to change the colour of the buttons background (see image
below).
To change the colour select Back Colour, then select from the dropdown selection (see
image below).
Front Colour
This allows you to change the colour of the text on the buttons. Select Front Colour and
select from the dropdown list the colour you require (see image below).
Glow Colour
This option allows you to set the colour which the button will glow when the mouse
cursor hovers over it. Select Glow Colour and select from the dropdown list the colour
you want your button to glow (see image below).
Inner Border Colour
This option allows for the colour of the inner border of the button to be changed. Use the
dropdown selection to choose the colour of your choice.
Shine Colour
This option sets the colour of the shine or reflection of the selected button. Use the
dropdown selection to choose the shine colour of your choice.
Text Align
Choose from on of the following options to determine how the text is laid out on the
button. The options are ‘Top left’, ‘Top Right’, ‘Middle Left’, ‘Middle right’, ‘Bottom left’,
‘Bottom’ and ‘Bottom right’. Depending on how you want the text to appear it is best to
try these options in order to get the best possible result.
Text vs Image
This option will determine when an image and text are used on one button. The options
are ‘Overlay’, ‘Image Above Text’, ‘Text Above Image’, ‘Image Before Text’ and ‘Text
Before Image’. It can be used to arrange the placement of the image and text. For
example, in the image below the Text vs Image has been set to ‘Image Before Text’.
Image
This option allows you to add an image to the button. This option is different from the
Back Image as it sits in front of other colour settings like glow colour (see image below).
Notice how the glow effect does not affect the image.
To add an image to the button, select Image and then browse to the image of your
choice (see image below). You can also use the Image Align dropdown selection to
choose the position of the image on the button.
Back Image
This allows you to add an image file to the button background (see image below).
To add an image to the background of the button, select Back Image and then browse to
the image of your choice (see image below).
Back Image Layout
This option will set how the back image is laid out on the button. Select one of the
following options from the dropdown list: None, Tile, Center, Stretch, and Zoom (see
image below).You might want to try the different options to get the best result.
Action Settings
The Action settings are used to control the action performed when a button is pressed
(image below).
The Action Settings is split in to 4 areas:
Text
The Text Box is used for adding the text you wish to be outputted when the Oska
Keyboard button is pressed.
For example, if the following was added to the text button,
The word ‘Hello’ would be outputted when that key was pressed on the Oska Keyboard.
You can also set the button to be a function key. Right click when the cursor is in the
text box and select from the list (image below).
Actions
The actions section will let you select the action that will occur when pressing the button.
This can be a computer command or a change in PC settings. The five sections available
are:
Sounds
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Play a sound – Pressing the chosen key will activate a pre-determined sound file
to be played.
Stop a sound – Stop the sound file that is currently being played.
Speak – Adding text into this box will use the PC’s default voice synthesiser to
speak it.
Go-to Grid
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Choose grid – Lets you load a new keyboard when the button is pressed.
Previous Screen.
Control
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Faster.
Slower.
Increase and Decrease volume – Allows the control of the PC audio level.
Run program – Allows pre-determined programs to be started at the press of the
chosen button.
Mouse Control
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Toggle Keyboard/Screen – This option will determine whether the Oska Keyboard
User is able to roam the entire desktop with the mouse cursor or just the Oska
Keyboard.
Map to screen.
Map to Keyboard.
Left click – Pressing this button will perform a left click wherever the mouse
cursor is placed.
Right click – Pressing this button will perform a right click wherever the mouse
cursor is placed.
Double Click - Pressing this button will perform a Double Click wherever the
mouse cursor is placed.
Move up - Pressing this button will perform a small up movement of the cursor.
Move down - Pressing this button will perform a small down movement of the
cursor.
Move left - Pressing this button will perform a small movement to the left of the
cursor.
Move right - Pressing this button will perform a small movement to the right of
the cursor.
Keyboard Position
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Move
Move
Move
Move
to
to
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to
left edge.
right edge.
top edge.
bottom edge.
To choose one of the above Actions, right click when your cursor is in the Action box and
select from the list (image below).
Modifier
This allows you to add certain states to buttons. On most regular keyboards pressing the
‘Caps Lock’ button will cause all buttons pressed after that to relate to the Caps Lock
modified state. For example, when you press ‘Caps Lock’ following by ‘A’, you will get a
capitalised ‘A’. This will continue until the ‘Caps Lock’ button is pressed again, turning off
the Caps Lock feature. The modifier setting allows you to create modified states for
buttons. It also allows you to do key combinations such as ‘Ctrl’ + ‘C’ to copy and ‘Ctrl’ +
‘V’ to paste. The five options that are available are:
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No Modifier.
Shift.
Control.
Alt.
CAPS.
Extra
Adding a word or phrase will cause the word to be spoken when the Oska Keyboard
button is pressed.
User Definable Keys
Certain Oska Keyboards can be designed so that the keys can be edited by the user. To
do this right click over the button that has been set as a definable key. The following
menu will then be displayed:
Select ‘Edit Key’ and then the editable options box will appear:
The Text & Picture area lets you edit what is displayed on the button. Text to Insert
lets you add a character, word or phrase to be outputted when the button is pressed as
though the word or phrase had been typed normally. Run lets you edit or add/remove
programs or webpage’s to launch when the button is pressed.
How to Make Buttons Definable
If you want to make a button user-definable on your chosen keyboard you will need to
edit that button in the Oska Editor.
To do this open the Oska Editor by clicking on the:
C:\Programs\Claro Software\Oska Editor
Once the Oska Editor has started, load the keyboard that you want to edit. Once loaded,
select the key that you wish to make User Definable. With the chosen button selected,
change the ‘User Editable’ attribute in the Current Button settings to ‘True’ (image
below).
After making this change, save the keyboard. The next time that the selected keyboard
is loaded the button will be user-definable.
Oska Settings Editor
The Oska Settings Editor allows you to set the input method in which the user controls
the Oska Keyboard and it lets you set how the Oska Keyboard behaves also.
The Oska Settings Editor is designed to allow you to set the input methods of the Oska
Keyboard you have made in the Oska Editor. This allows you to tailor it to the people
who will be using it or the specific user.
It also lets you set some basic operations of the keyboard using the Oska Keyboard
settings section (see below).
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