Controlling the Keyboard

In this section and the next, we describe the heart of BlueRemote: the control screens that you will use to control the keyboard and mouse pointer of your PC.

BlueRemote emulates a standard 104-key PC keyboard. You can press keys on the PC by any of the following three methods:

Note that while the key captions shown by BlueRemote correspond to a US keyboard layout, the actual letters and symbols that appear on your PC depend on the keyboard layout that is currently set. (This is a limitation of the Bluetooth HID protocol that is implemented by BlueRemote.) While this may sometimes cause confusion, it also allows you to enter accented national characters or special symbols that are not normally found on a US layout.

Using On-Screen Buttons to Control the Keyboard

The 104 keys on a standard US PC keyboard layout would not fit comfortably on the screen of your Palm device. Therefore, we distributed them on four separate screens in BlueRemote: Alpha, Numeric, Cursor and Function.

To switch between screens, use the push buttons displayed at the top of each screen, or, if you prefer, press the second hard key to cycle between screens.

When you first connect to a PC, BlueRemote displays the Alpha screen shown below. We will use this screen to demonstrate the elements common to all screens in Keyboard Mode.

  1. You can use the mode selection pop-up list to switch between controlling the keyboard and mouse. You can also toggle between these modes by pressing the first (leftmost) hard button on your device.

  2. To switch between different screens in the keyboard mode, tap on the selection buttons. For more efficient access you can use the second hard button to cycle between these screens.

  3. The main area shows the keyboard buttons available on the specific screen you are on. This area is different for each screen available in Keyboard mode.

  4. The bottom area is common between all Keyboard screens and shows a selection of the most frequently used buttons and all available keyboard modifiers. From left to right, the top row consists of the Escape, Tab and Backspace buttons. The bottom row contains special “sticky” toggle buttons for the modifier keys. The rightmost button spans both rows: it's Enter.

The Alpha Screen

The Alpha screen lets you enter letters of the alphabet, digits, and punctuation symbols. It also has both Left Alt and Right Alt modifier keys, to let you enter special characters on international keyboard layouts.

The Numeric Screen

The second screen in Keyboard mode shows the keys on the numeric keypad. The NumLock key (marked NumLk) is drawn with a blue background when the NumLock LED is enabled.

The Cursor Screen

The third screen in Keyboard mode is for navigation. Besides the four arrow keys, it also includes Home, End, PageUp and PageDown. Note that all these keys are repeating buttons: when you hold your pen on them, they send keyboard presses continously in regular intervals.

If your device has a 5-way navigator, you can also use it to control the arrow keys. The center button is for the Enter key.

The Function Screen

The fourth and final screen in Keyboard mode is for function keys. Beside the twelve numbered keys from F1 to F12, it also contains the set of special keys normally found above the arrow keys on a PC keyboard. Caps Lock (labeled CapsLK) and Scroll Lock (marked ScrLk) is also shown here, along with a copy of NumLk from the keypad. Beside toggling the lock status, these three keys also indicate the current state.

The button between PrintScreen (PrScr) and Pause is the Task button.

Using Graffiti to Control the Keyboard

If your device has a Graffiti input area, you can draw letters, numbers and symbols there as usual.

BlueRemote automatically converts symbols and punctuation characters to the corresponding keystroke on a US keyboard layout. For example, if you enter the $ symbol, BlueRemote will send Shift-4 to the PC. Remember that BlueRemote expects a US keyboard layout; if you use another layout, then the symbols that appear on your PC may be different from what you entered on your Palm.

Using Your Device's Builtin Keyboard

If your device has a builtin keyboard, you can use it to control your PC's keyboard. The keyboard layout is demonstrated below on a Treo 650 device. Other devices have similar layouts.

Note that the Option key retains its original meaning so that you can input numbers, punctuation and other symbols in the familiar way. However, BlueRemote redefines the other modifiers to emulate standard modifiers on a PC keyboard. See Table 1, “Treo keyboard combinations.” for a list of keyboard mappings.

Table 1. Treo keyboard combinations.

PC keyTreo key
Up Arrow5-way Up
Down Arrow5-way Down
Left Arrow5-way Left
Right Arrow5-way Right
Enter Enter or 5-way Center
ShiftShift
AltAlt
Control0 (zero)
Win. (period)
Tab Option-Space
Escape Option-Backspace
Page Up Option-Up
Page Down Option-Down
Home Option-Left
End Option-Right
0 (zero) Option-0
. (period) Option-.