IMG's Blog - Recorded Keystrokes

The My Boards tab has been addressed to allow Default boards to be assigned to individual platforms (so, for example, Windows can have a different default board vs. Android). Because of the inherent differences in platforms, this provides needed flexibility in customizing boards specific to a platform. In order to make My-T-Soft for Android work seamlessly with this change, a minor update to 2.20.32 was required, and this allows the automatic selection of the current keyboard to be the default, when "Get My Boards" is selected via the option in My-T-Soft Settings.

For those not familiar with the 2 categories in My Boards, the Favorite Keyboards section are boards that will be retrieved when Get My Boards is selected on a run-time platform, and Default Keyboards are boards that will retrieved and made the current selected and default keyboard (e.g. KEYBOARD.KBF) after the download process is completed. At the moment, there hasn't been a need or request to separate out favorite boards to specific platforms, and this is not currently on any to-do list. Since the cost of carrying a few extra boards is negligible, and you never know what situation may throw itself at you, always having your favorites, no matter the platform, seems to be the correct approach.

There are also some updates in My Projects, adding Windows, Android, and Linux as options to quickly select Default boards for these platforms, and also a similar change in the Board Browser tab for the publicly available boards. When you upload a Board Project from Build-A-Board to your account, it will appear in the My Projects tab. There are 3 scope options for each project - Private, Public, and Marketplace. Whenever a new project is uploaded to your account, it is Private. Only if you select Public will it be available in the Public browseable boards (i.e. Board Browser). Currently the Marketplace is not engaged, and a warning will be shown if you select this option (e.g. Board is public, but the Marketplace is not currently available). So for practical purposes, there is private and public, with most customers focusing on their own custom boards. Not yet available in the current release of Build-A-Board is "Get My Projects", and this is on the to-do list... However, there is a Download Project icon (black folder/green down arrow) that can be used to manually obtain the Project zip file, which can be dropped into the SOURCE folder / Project folder for use within Build-A-Board (i.e. you find yourself at a different system and want an uploaded project).

The License Manager tab has 2 new buttons - Manage Licenses and Manage Device Settings. The Manage Licenses allows you to update or name licenses so keeping track of deployed licenses can be easily managed. Note that IMG has many types of customers, with some being individuals, some being companies with a small number of deployments, and some are resellers using My-T-Soft on per project basis. For customers using Live, Enterprise, or OEM type licenses, this section does not apply. Also this option allows customers to update license status if a device is missing, damaged, or destroyed.

The Manage Device settings provides tools to manage device settings (currently only for the Android platform). Since certain settings are relevant across a large number of similar devices, but don't make sense as part of the actual board, My-T-Soft for Android has the ability to upload/download settings to your account. You also have the ability to set Account defaults. The logic is setup so that if a device requests settings, and that device has a set of saved settings, it will retrieve the current set of saved settings. If the device does not have settings, but the account has defaults, then the device (and any other device) will retrieve the account default settings. This provides a mechanism to standardize on custom settings for a family of devices by using the same Build-A-Board.com account for licensing.

As customers let us know their needs and requirements, updates and changes are rolled into the appropriate area. The vision of having a cloud based store for your favorite boards, with the ability to get a new device, install My-T-Soft, license, retrieve your boards (and settings), and be off and running is complete for major platforms. As time marches on, more & more refinements will be rolled into the system, and we welcome everyone along for the ride. Keyboards have been in use for over 160 years, and will continue to have important roles in all types of situations. Now, with the complete flexibility of customization, your own set of optimized boards are quickly & easily available on whatever device you are using today!

The Build-A-Board 2.20 Release 6 includes updates to run-times, including My-T-Soft for Android and Linux, updated help, and many minor user interface fixes. For product information, current download, and online help just go to the Build-A-Board product page.

Now that My-T-Soft for Android has been rolled out in major installs, and we have customer feedback and requests, there have been updates to address these requirements. The current version includes support for Honeywell devices / bar code scanners, import/export options, automatic account and settings import options, and numerous other updates and new features. Details are available at the Features tab at the My-T-Soft for Android product page.

For users running earlier releases of Build-A-Board, you just need to go to Help | Check for Updates... and walk through the automatic update option. For Android users, simply download and install the current release.

The My-T-Soft^® Family (including My-T-Soft for Android) along with IMG's Build-A-Board Keyboard Designer offers a consistent cross-platform onscreen user interface that is fully customizable and programmable for various hardware / software platforms. It allows customers to control user input in any field or any application and maintain a higher level of security than with a traditional physical keyboard or membrane panel.

The main focus of the product is to provide a controlled user interface, integrated at the lowest level of the operating system for best performance, reliability, and security, on any commercial, industrial, kiosk, mobile, pen, rugged, tablet, or touch screen based system or application supporting those devices..

The My-T-Soft product family is ideal for use in environments such as automation, field service, food and beverage, instrumentation, in-vehicle, kiosk, laboratory, logistic, medical, military, mobile, pharmaceutical, ruggedized, utility, warehousing, whiteboard, or other extremely clean, dirty, or hazardous interactive user environment.

About Innovation Management Group

Since 1995, Innovation Management Group has been the primary supplier of onscreen keyboard user interfaces and designer utilities for major automation, handheld, instrumentation, in-vehicle, kiosk, pen, rugged, tablet, touchscreen, ultra mobile, vehicle mount, voting, wearable, and whiteboard systems manufacturers, integrators, and users worldwide. IMG's products run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on some of the most secure, advanced, and critical systems in the world.

About VisionID

VisionID Ltd. was formed to provide Barcode and Data Capture solutions in today's "real time" society. Whatever the industry sector, data capture technology can facilitate improved performance and efficiency, delivering a realistic ROI in a very short timeframe. VisionID's philosophy is to be the leading independent supplier of Mobile Computing, Identification and Barcoding solutions to all industry sectors throughout Ireland.

New features include the ability to use the [CMD:KEYCODE=nnn] for the Key Action so any Android key code can be used. This can be helpful or important for various specific uses, and allows even more flexibility with building boards to do various tasks or provide the user/operator with the tools they need to optimize the user interface. One of the capabilities of My-T-Soft is to separate the Key Label from the Key Action, and being able to put any Android virtual key event(s) behind a key press opens up a wealth of possibilities.

There is also a Force Visibility option that can be used to create a fixed user interface. Although this is non-standard operation, if a device is used for a single purpose/single-app, being able to tie My-T-Soft into the whole system as a constant presence adds another unique capability. There is also a [CMD:TOGGLEFORCESHOW] key action command that enables/disables this feature, providing a way for the user to dismiss the keyboard if there is a need to exit this special mode.

Another new feature is the ability to import/export My-T-Soft for Android settings. This can be done locally via a file, or can be tied to the device in a user's Build-A-Board.com account. This can be used for backup, so desired settings can be retrieved, or for deployment purposes.

For those not yet familiar with My-T-Soft for Android, key features include the ability to customize layouts with IMG's Build-A-Board, tie layouts together into sets, position layouts anywhere on the screen, and customize key actions with keystroke macros and internal commands (Launch Apps, Open New Keyboard File, etc.). The software installs as another input method, and can be swapped in & out with other methods. My-T-Soft for Android can tie into accounts at Build-A-Board.com, so favorite boards can be quickly brought onto any device, and provides access to the ever growing online database of onscreen keyboard layouts. Because layouts are customizable, key sizes are flexible, and both text and images can be used on keys, the possibilities for optimizing the user input interface are endless.

For those not familiar with Build-A-Board, here is a quick overview/history. Back in the last century, the success of IMG's My-T-Soft/My-T-Touch/My-T-Pen/My-T-Mouse on-screen keyboard software led customers to ask for custom layouts, different capabilities, and different platforms. So starting in the late 90's, a review of the industry and a long wish-list of what on-screen keyboard software could be was laid out, all while structuring things so that the market could define the path forward (vs. taking a best-guess and risk being way off the mark). So the first Build-A-Board builder was released in the early 2000's providing a tool to create custom layouts, and integrating with the existing Windows software. As time marched on, new platforms were added - Windows CE (EXE and DLL), Linux (32-bit/64-bit), Mac OS X, Windows 64-bit, and most recently Android. Each iteration of Build-A-Board refined the user interface, added capabilities, and slowly began to realize the original goals - complete flexibility of the user interface for text input software and able to operate on any platform (i.e. computing device with a pointing device interface - touch, stylus, mouse, etc.) Along the way, the online database at Build-A-Board.com was created and filled out, user accounts were added, and a complete eco-system was also created to truly realize the vision - a way for your layouts to be available on whatever device you were using today. Also note, in case you don't know or realize, My-T-Soft is a just a contraction of My Typing Software. Having your own customized and optimized layouts on any device you use seems like a much better future than having to deal with whatever the system decides to give you. Finally, because of various constraints and the nature of IMG's business, some of the features and capabilities have been only available to existing customers prior to this public release.

The following outlines some of the technical aspects of the release that are new since the last public release. It is assumed that everyone already knows that you can create, design, customize, and deploy on-screen keyboards pretty easily with the previous releases, so highlighting the new features is most important here. It is also worthwhile to note the market is becoming increasingly aware of the need for customization, because if you are providing the same dang thing as everyone else, you really aren't providing any value...

Conversion between 2.10 and 2.20 compatible sources: In previous versions, you could only convert one way to the 2.20 Unicode formats, and there was no way to convert back to the ANSI 2.10. Because there are enough legacy installs in use, and some customers started off in 2.20 not realizing they couldn't target 2.10 installs, the ability to convert projects back & forth between the 2 targets was added. As an important item to note, when converting from 2.20 to 2.10, information in the projects (especially key data) will be lost and not be recoverable. Projects should only be converted to legacy 2.10 when there is a specific need for that target. As a helpful reminder, doing a Save As step first can save a lot of grief if considering doing a 2.20 to 2.10 conversion.

Open KMF and Open KBF options: With this release, the only real support is for 1.xx software, and provides a limited way to modify keys and labels on the older software. Because the trend is to use the newer/more capable 2.xx targets, these options are for special cases with the older, legacy software. If you feel there is a need for these options, it is recommended you contact IMG Technical Support to discuss what you are trying to accomplish.

Builder Properties, Project and Project Details tabs: There are 2 new tabs on the Properties dialog which show internal settings regarding the current project, and a Project Details page to establish a category and sorting options for use within the public database. If you plan to make a project public or place on the marketplace, updating these details is recommended and may be required for certain situations.

View Key Images: This opens a sub-window that shows the current available key images that can be used on keys with the HiRes Key Type and Frame Type set to Key Images. Select or Double-Click on a Key Image to make it the current image used for the Board (all keys with the correct Type/Frame Type will be updated for the entire board).

View Keyboard Layouts: This opens a sub-windows that shows all available language maps (KMF files) that can be embedded in a layout. With the correct Key Label and Key Action configuration, layouts can be easily toggled between 2 language maps, or scrolled through all included layouts within a Board. Layouts can be selected from the available list, or removed from the already included layouts, so a final set of layouts to be included with the target KBF file. Note this is currently only fully supported on the Windows targets.

Grid + layout: When the grid is enabled (F4), and the Add tool is in use (F3), a click and drag will enable a multiple key grid layout. The keys are based on the current default width/height, and the current grid size. Note that if the default key size is not a multiple of the current grid size, the top/left of keys added in this way will not be on grid points - if this is the case, you may wish to disable the grid once you have your field of keys.

Spacing logic/pixels: When aligning a row or a column of keys, the spacing logic allows for fixed end points, or an approximate end point with guaranteed even spacing. There is now also a way to select a specific number of pixels to be inserted between adjacent keys.

Keystroke Macro Recorder: A utility to record formatted macros is included, so more complex keystroke sequences can be monitored and recorded for use within Key Action keystroke macros.

Integration with Build-A-Board.com: When licensed, you can go directly to Build-A-Board.com (in your browser), projects can be uploaded to your account, and favorite and default boards can be managed for use with run-time targets

Flexible licensing: With this release, a new IMG License Manager is integrated, allowing for more flexible options, and ties platform licenses to your Build-A-Board.com account. Most importantly, the ability to get a Build-A-Board license for Free is now available, and once licensed, non-evaluation boards can be created. Because licenses can be embedded in the .KBF files (layouts), device and platform licensing can be managed from a Build-A-Board.com account, so the Build-A-Board builder can be used by anyone to create layouts. Note that to deploy licensed layouts (e.g. Platform licensing), a Serial # is required, only available when an appropriate license has been purchased.