Asked Questions

Q. How do I use macros?

Q. How do I assign Cut/Copy/Paste to a key?

A. With macros.

1. If you want to modify the built-in layout, make a copy of it first using "Duplicate" on the Manage screen.
2. Select a macro (e.g. Macro 1) on the macro screen, specify "Input Keys", then input the key sequence for Cut, Copy, or Paste. Generally, Cut is Command-X, Copy is Command-C and Paste is Command-P. The Command stroke is represented in text by \/ (a backslash followed by a forward slash--not V!), So use \/X for cut, \/C for copy, and \/P for paste.
3. Use the Edit screen to assign the macro to a key. For example, use \2 to represent macro 2.
4. Use the Test screen to make sure it works.

Q. How do I put layouts from my handheld onto the internet?

A. The normal way is to export the layout to a memo.

1. Select the layout within MilliKeys and choose "Export to Memo" from the menu.  Confirm.
2. HotSync to get the memo on your desktop computer.
3. Start Palm Desktop and click the "Memo" button to reach the memo editor.
4. Find the memo that represents your layout.  It starts with "MilliKeys Layout:"...
5. Select the entire memo and copy it to the clipboard.
6. Paste it into your email, web page, board post or whereever you want to put it.

To put layouts from the internet onto your handheld, follow the instructions in the MilliKeys ReadMe file.

Q. How do I beam MilliKeys to another handheld?

A. There are three things that must be transferred.

1. The MilliKeys app.  Beam this just like any other application:
1. From App Launcher, choose (from the menu) App | Beam...
2. Select MilliKeys from the list and choose Beam.
2. The extension manager (e.g. X-Master).  You only need to beam this if the recipient has no extension manager.
3. The MilliKeys hack.  To beam this, start your extension manager and beam it from there.  In X-Master this is accomplished as follows:
1. Select MilliKeys from the list.
2. Choose (from the menu) Extensions | Beam.

Q. How many users are there in the world?

A. No idea. Somewhat less than the number of downloads, I imagine, of which there have been about 3000.

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MilliKeys Features

Replace the Graffiti writing area with a mini keyboard

The built-in layout: Almost anything with one stroke

The stamp (pictured above) shows you what letters can be input with each key. For instance, consider the H key:

• For lowercase H, tap the key.
• For uppercase H, put the pen down on the key and stroke upward.
• Similarly, stroke left for a plus sign and right for a minus/dash sign.
• Stroke down for a ± symbol.
• Finally, the accented ì requires two strokes: first, stroke up from the command key ( ), then tap the H key.

In general,

• Tap a letter to write that letter.
• The following keys are also available in one tap: period, comma, semicolon, slash, apostrophe, Shift, Applications, Menu, Command, space, and Newline (i.e. Enter/Return).
• Put the pen down on a letter and stroke upward for capitals.
• Stroke down from the top row to get digits.
• Stroke left or right on the top row to get the same punctuation you get from the row of numbers on a full-size keyboard.
• Stroke left, right, or down on the second row, and down on the third row, to get additional characters.
• Stroke left on the bottom two rows for a backspace
• Stroke right on the bottom two rows for a space. Of course, you can also tap the spacebar.

By the way,

• The letters A, M, C, and F represent Applications, Menu, Calculator, and Find. Perhaps later I'll replace them with icons.
• Blue indicates extended (non-ASCII) characters
• Red indicates that the character is in the extra layout, i.e. that you have to stroke up from first to get the character.

Combine Graffiti & Keyboard Input

The "dumb" and "smart" passthrough options allow you mix Graffiti with MilliKeys. These options cause Graffiti to interpret your stroke under certain conditions. Specifically:

• "Dumb" passthrough passes a stroke to graffiti if you move the pen a certain distance you specify from the starting point. With dumb passthrough enabled, you can enter any graffiti stroke (except a dot, of course) as long as your strokes are large enough. The amount you must move the pen is specified as a percent of the screen's size.
• "Smart" passthrough basically passes a stroke to graffiti if, after starting the stroke, you change its angle compared to the start position. An "L" shape, for instance, is at first straight down and then down and right. Therefore, it is passed to graffiti.

Further, if you're willing to do the dirty work yourself, you can insert "graffiti passthrough" (\G) characters into the layout. If \G is assigned as the key for a tap, then taps on that key are passed to graffiti. \G works a little different for strokes: if a stroke is assigned \G, MilliKeys will use the key assigned to the nearest direction. For example, if \G is assigned to up-right, and you stroke up and right (but a little more right than up), MilliKeys will run the right stroke in its place. However, if that stroke is \G also, then the stroke is passed to graffiti.

Potentially Input any character with one stroke

Using a 10x4 key layout, up to 308 characters can be input with a single tap or stroke.

• The built-in layout only uses four of the eight directions (left, right, up, and down), but if you wish, you could make a copy of it and assign keys to the other directions.
• Although there are only 255 characters in the Palm character set, you could almost make use of all 308 characters if you consider special input such as cursor movement, soft buttons (applications, calculator), and macros (maximum 9).
• You could also omit capital letters from your layout and just use a Shift key.

Customize MilliKeys on the handheld itself

This is a bit difficult for a novice, so perhaps in the future I'll write a User's Guide of sorts. But making your own layout is certainly doable.

The Extra sublayout

An "extra sublayout" may be accessed using the \Q key (in the built-in layout, use the Intl stroke, upward on ). When invoking the extra sublayout in this manner, the graffit state indicator will show a bullet (•). For the built-in layout, the extra sublayout contains accented characters. To input a capital accented character, you need to press Shift (left side, third row), then input an Intl stroke.

An "extra lock" is also available via the \E key (not present in the built-in layout). The extra lock keeps you in extra mode until you input another \E key. The graffiti state indicator signifies the extra lock using a backslash-like symbol.

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