GENERAL KEYBOARD LAYOUT

This section explains the basic Star4Win keyboard layout; see the ALPHABETS section for a detailed layout of the Star4Win keyboard system.

All keyboard settings are defined in the keyboard.dbf (which is actually a database file and can be edited with help of the BROWSE/EDIT commands). The Star4Win keyboard layout is completely independent from the currently loaded Windows keyboard drivers.

The default keyboard setting is as follows:

  1. The standard keyboard set is standard U.S. English (QWERTYU....).
  2. If you press and release the Right Shift key, the keyboard is reassigned to Cyrillic letters. Their order is following:

    [Right Shift+]
        q:   w:   e:   r:  t:  y:  u:  i:  o:  p:  [:  ]:
        a:   s:    d:   f: g:  h:  j:  k:   l:   ;:  ':
        z:    x:    c:   v: b: n:  m: ,:   .:

    To get back to the standard set, press and release the Left Shift key.

  3. You can use the alternative "phonetic" character set if you press and release the Alt key:

        1:     2:     3:  4   :    5:    6:    7 :    8 :    9 :    0:    = :
        q:   w:   e: r:  t:   y:  u:   i:     o:   p:   [:   ]:
        a:    s:    d: f: g:  h:  j:    k:   l:     ::    ":
        z:    x:   c:  v : b:  n:  m:

  4. More special characters are available if, after pressing and releasing Alt, you press (and hold) the Shift key:

          ^ :    | :  
        E:    U:   I:-    O:   {:    }:
        A:    H:   L:  C:

  5. Still more special characters are available if you press and release the Control key:

        u:  i:   o:
        a:  s:
        x:  c:

  6. Star4Win also has additional keyboard registers, summoned by the key combinations Alt 1, Alt 2, Alt 3, Alt 4, Alt 5, Alt 6. Most of them are not used in the default configuration, but Alt 1 and Alt 2 are assigned respectively to Arabic and Greek letters. Pressing Alt 0 will summon the default zero keyboard register, described above.

While editing your files you will see the name of the current keyboard mode and register in the lower right corner of each window: LS stands for "left shift" (the default status of every register), RS - "right shift", AL for "Alt" and CT for "Control".

In text mode you can also directly enter Unicode characters in the format {U+xxxx}; when you switch to graphic mode, the character will be displayed in the currently active Unicode font.

CJK KEYBOARD LAYOUT

If you have installed the CJK component you may enter Chinese or Japanese characters into your texts or databases.

Pressing F2 activates the CJK input window on the toolbar. Enter the reading of the character you need and choose from the menu by using the Down arrow and the Enter key.

If you do not enter any reading and press the Down arrow, the list of recently typed characters will be displayed.

To switch between different character systems (Traditional (non-simplified) Chinese (default), Simplified Chinese, and Japanese, press F1, F2, and F3 respectively while the CJK input window is active.

You may also switch between different keyboard registers by using the small combo box located on the toolbar.