WD2000: General Information about the Microsoft Visual Keyboard (241125)

MORE INFORMATION

What is Visual Keyboard?

Visual Keyboard is a program that supports typing in more than one language on the same computer by showing you a keyboard for another language on your screen. You might use Visual Keyboard when you change your keyboard layout from one language to another. When you change keyboard layouts, the characters you see as you type might not correspond to your keyboard. But Visual Keyboard lets you see on your screen the keyboard for the language you have switched to, so that you can either click the keys on your screen or see the correct keys to press to enter text.

For example, you might be working in an English version of Microsoft Word but want to type text in Greek. After you switch keyboard layouts from English to Greek, you can use Visual Keyboard to see the Greek keyboard layout on your screen.

Where do I get Visual Keyboard and how do I install it?

Visual Keyboard (Vkeyinst.exe) ships with the Microsoft Office 2000 MultiLanguage Pack. It is located in the following folder on compact disc 1: To install Visual Keyboard, run the Vkeyinst.exe file.

You can also download the Visual Keyboard from the following Microsoft Web site:

Why do I need Visual Keyboard?

Visual Keyboard is useful when you have only one physical keyboard and need to locate the character keys for multiple languages. You can enter data with either the mouse or the keyboard while the Visual Keyboard has focus. You can also see the Unicode code for any character on the keyboard by resting the mouse over the key on the Visual Keyboard.

How do I use Visual Keyboard?

To use Visual Keyboard, follow these steps:

1. Install the keyboard layouts you want to use. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
   2. Double-click the Keyboard icon.
   3. Click the Language tab (Windows 95/98), or click the Input Locales tab (Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000).
   4. Click Add.
   5. Click the language you want and click OK.
   6. Click to select the Enable indicator on taskbar check box.
2. Open the document you want to use. For example, open a document in Microsoft Word.
3. Start Visual Keyboard. To do this, click Programs on the Start menu, point to Microsoft Office Tools, and then click Microsoft Visual Keyboard.
4. Select the language you want to use by clicking the Keyboard Layout Indicator and clicking the keyboard language you want. Visual Keyboard changes to reflect the keyboard layout you choose.
   NOTE: When you have two or more keyboard languages installed, an indicator that represents the default keyboard language appears in the lower right corner of the Windows taskbar. The indicator shows a two-letter abbreviation for the selected language. For example, EN represents English. To switch between keyboard languages, click the indicator and then click the keyboard language you want to use.
5. When the Visual Keyboard has focus, click the keys on the Visual Keyboard or type the characters on your keyboard. The corresponding characters appear in your document if the Send Keys to Other Applications option on the Settings menu is selected.

Limitations

Because Visual Keyboard gets information about keyboard layouts from Control Panel, you cannot use this tool with right-to-left (bidirectional) languages. Right-to-left languages require either that you use Windows 2000, or that the operating system language match the right-to-left language.