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    ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    • Started by manu
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    26-Sep-2014 04:19:08#1 ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    Hi Guys,

    Just like to share an application I developed that maybe useful for people learning touch typing especially for beginners having difficulty with looking at the keyboard when typing, and to help speed up the learning process. I personally used it when I decided to learn Colemak and I found it very helpful when I was starting to find key positions and which fingers to use for each key, so I hope it is as helpful for others as well.

    Its a keyboard overlay that stays on screen and above all other windows so you can continue to learn as you spend time working on you computer. It has some useful features like translucency, click-through, auto-hide, finger guides, Colemak/Dvorak/Qwerty support and color/position/size customisation.

    I though I would share it here because this is the website that helped me start to learn Colemak touch typing. Enjoy!


    FluxBB bbcode test

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    Youtube Demo

    Last edited by manu (18-Oct-2014 04:30:00)
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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    26-Sep-2014 06:36:48#2 Re: ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    Good work – I like the click-through and transparency.

    I use PKL which has help images too – they jump between top and bottom of the screen upon mouseover, but yours are more advanced from the looks of it. One very useful thing PKL does have though is state awareness: It shows separate images for shift, altgr and all dead keys. Could your app do that?

    Last edited by DreymaR (26-Sep-2014 06:40:07)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    27-Sep-2014 01:29:10#3 Re: ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    Thanks im glad you like it.

    Dynamic modifier characters is a nice feature in PKL but since this application displays all the most common modifier characters along side the normal keys I didnt see any point in complicating the implementation. Also in that application I think it is simply displaying an image file where as in this application everything is created using .NET API in code so it would take a bit longer to implement /refactor the code. I am not sure how helpful that feature is for the purposes of this application, if it is worth the effort.

    I guess both application serve a different purpose.

    Last edited by manu (27-Sep-2014 01:30:10)
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    27-Sep-2014 23:28:45#4 Re: ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    Hi,

    First off I love the app, super neat!!! I'm learning Colemak with my 2 daughters. I'm really excited about this app, I've been using just a picture of the keyboard for reference and this with it being interactive would be SO MUCH BETTER!

    However I can't figure out how to make it work for Colemak layout when my computer is in colemak layout. If my computer is in Qwerty layout, and and load the app, and it's in qwerty, then everything lines up as would be expected. If I switch the app to colemak layout, then the letters in the app corrispond to the letters I type on my qwerty layout keyboard. Meaning that if I press a "S" on my keyboard the "R" on the app lights up (it's in the position where the S is on the qwerty layout). That's all expected.

    However when I change layout to colemak (by pressing Win+Space), I cannot figure out what is happening. Now pressing "R" on my keyboard (the S key) the app shows "P" light up. And seamingly random keys light up for each key. So when I'm in Colemak layout with the app in colemak layout it does corrispond correctly ;( 

    Am I doing something wrong?

    I have Windows 8.1 with the Colemak layout 1.1 installed. I can switch from qwerty to colemak by pressing "win+space."

    Thanks in advance for your help and the amazing looking app!!

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    28-Sep-2014 02:41:33#5 Re: ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    I think the problem was that you got too excited and somehow the electromagnetic waves created in your body interfered with the CPU logic and corrupted the registering of the keys of your keyboard! :P

    Seriously though thanks for the heads up I just tested on both windows 8.1 and 7 and using the colemak normal installation exe does cause this problem to occur. I am not sure why it works on my windows 7 test system it could be because I used MS Keyboard Layout Creator to modify the colemak layout to get it working on my system long time back when I first installed colemak layout.

    Either case I will try to fix it.

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    30-Sep-2014 00:34:01#6 Re: ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    version 1.0.2 is online on the download site it should fix the problem with wrong highlighting using colemak/dvorak layouts, I hope everything is ok and working correctly now!?

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    08-Oct-2014 17:17:40#7 Re: ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    Thank you manu!!!

    That works perfect now. It's a very nice help to have running, so I can be in Colemak layout. Very very nice.

    Thanks again

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    08-Oct-2014 21:43:24#8 Re: ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    Hi again manu,

    Okay, I've had about 40min with the keyboard, and still absolutely love it. I can leave my layout in Colemak for non-critical or low typing applications and it's great.

    I was wondering if you would consider putting the "tick marks" on the index finger keys, and possibly highlight the finger keys.

    Like this one:  https://colemak.com/Learn

    Let me know your thoughts, and thanks again for your program.

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    10-Oct-2014 01:38:23#9 Re: ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    I remember having this idea before but I dont know why I didn't add it at the time.

    So yes I probably should add a marking of some sort for all resting finger positions since this would be very helpful for beginners.

    Ill see what I can do.

    P.S You have one more wish and then you are all out of wishes so I would be very careful what I wish for next if I were you......:D
    No but seriously stop making me do more work ..........im not kidding.........well i am kidding but lets petend I am not! >:(

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    11-Oct-2014 01:51:38#10 Re: ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    Version 1.0.3 is online on download site I hope it helps.

    v1.0.3
    -Resting finger position indicators added
    -Fix for letter X highlighting not being displayed when pressed

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    14-Oct-2014 22:17:32#11 Re: ColeType - Keyboard Overlay

    Hi Manu,

    WOW!!! Extremely nice!! I just downloaded the shiny new 1.0.3 version and the finger positions are VERY NICE!!!

    Thank you, thank you, thank you. It is SOOOOOOO much easier for me to visualize where my fingers are now. I can't wait to get better at colemak (I have 1.5 hours of practice so far).

    AND on top of all this amazing work you've done, I still have one wish left!!! Here I thought I would have to create a new name, and appear to be someone else to make another request.

    Hmmmm... Have to think about that for a while.

    Thank you very much for all your hard work Manu, I really appreciate it!

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