IMPORTANT CONVERSION INFORMATION All users will have to convert their macro files. Users of versions earlier than 4.0 will have to convert them more than once. Pick the appropriate version you are at and follow all of the instructions that follow: Version 3.0 or earlier: Users with version 3.0 or earlier will have to send us a disk and self-addressed stamped disk mailer and we will put a copy of conv1to2 conversion progam on. There was not space on the disk to accommodate everything we wished to put on it. Version 4.0: 1. Run the conv4to5 program and follow instructions. RECENT CHANGES We have been receiving many requests for a very small version. We have started development of NEWKEYVS for Newkey Very Small. This version does not have the pop-up features and lacks many other macro functions. Currently it requires only about 22k, 38k less than the largest version. Newkeysm is still available, lacks the pop-up features, and weighs in at about 35k, 25k less than the largest version. COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE CRUISE CONTROL This advice has been passed on by a user of Cruise Control (you should look at Newkey's own cursor speedup feature, which I believe works as well as Cruise Control, although a bit differently of course). 1. Redefine Cruise Control's hot key by running "CRUISE/R" first. 2. Turn off Newkey's extended buffer. 3. Turn off either Newkey's or Cruise control's screen saver feature. DELL 310 COMPUTER The 101/102 key keyboard and Phoenix 1.10 09 bios do not generate the correct code for . You will have to redefine the "edit macro being defined" key to something else using the "control eys" selection from the Newkey pop-up or Newkeysp main menus. DESKMATE 3.0 (Tandy) Deskmate will hang up on non-enhanced keyboards whenever Newkey tries to create a key and insert it in the buffer. To solve this do the following: 1. Use the "control Keys" option on the Newkeysp menu or Newkey pop-up menu to change the following control keys: dynamic display request playback multi character cancel macro cut & paste playback to other values. Make sure that the new values are not also keys created by Newkey by checking to see if they have an "@" or "*" next to them in "Appendix C - Extended Codes" in the Newkey users manual. 2. Use the "ignore keys" option on the Newkeysp menu to ignore all keys. Make these changes permanent when prompted. DESKMATE/DESKTEAM 1.04 (Alternative Decision Systems) There are several problems using Newkey together with Deskmate. Some of these problems can be resolved by changing some of Newkey's parameters. Some of them are inherent to the way Deskmate works and will require changes in the Deskmate program in order to work. To use with Deskmate do the following: 1. Turn off the extended keyboard buffer. 2. Load Newkey after loading Deskmate. You may notice that Newkey's pop-ups will not work immediately after using the Deskmate pop-ups. This happens because Deskmate apparently does not wait until a completely appropriate time to pop-up. If this happens, just do a "DIR" or some other command first. This will cause DOS to re-stabilize itself. The following problems would require Deskmate changes. If you encounter these problems we suggest you contact Alternative Decision Systems. We have written them a letter trying to resolve these problems but have received no response. 1. Deskteam will not pop-up if using an enhanced keyboard. Deskteam apparently waits until an interrupt 16h, ah=0, before checking to see if its hot key has been struck. The BIOS on PCs with the enhanced keyboard, however, supports a new set of calls, where ah=10h and ah=11h which correspond to the old ah=0 and and ah=1 calls with the exception that they expose the scan codes on the separate keypads so that the duplicate keys can be distinquished from their counterparts on the home keypad. If an program only uses these new calls, Deskteam never recognizes its hot key. Newkey, as part of its processing always uses the new calls and as a result Deskteam will not pop up when Newkey is installed. Even if Newkey was not installed, Deskteam would not pop up the program currently running used the new calls. HOMEBASE This advice has been passed on by a user of Homebase. 1. Turn off Newkey's extended buffer or instruct Homebase to not use its own buffer (set option k0 0). 2. Turn off Homebase's Clock Display (set option -c0 0) or Newkey's CAP/NUM display. MS-WORD 1. Turn on the "shift status reset" option. For a further explanation consult the Newkey manual. 2. It may be necessary to turn off the extended buffer, depending on which version of MS-WORD is being used. 3. Use the "ignore keys" option on the Newkeysp menu to ignore keys which MS-Word tries to create it self. See section on PC-Write for related information. TANDY 1000SX There are minor incompatibilities with interpretation of the numeric and separated keypads. Evidently these keys do not all produce the same key codes as the IBM PC. The net effect is that many of these keys will be mistaken by Newkey for other keys. An example might be that if had a macro assigned to , it would be played back if you pressed . WORDSTAR 4.0 Wordstar 4.0 works a little differently than Wordstar 3.3. If you feed keystrokes back too quickly to Wordstar 4.0 it will discard them, Wordstar 3.3 did not. To get around this just make sure that slow typing mode is on when Newkey macros execute. Wordstar 4.0 also require the alternate fast key mode described earlier in this readme. XYWRITE 3.53 This latest version of Xywrite works with Newkey without any apparent problems. FILES SUPPLIED WITH NEWKEY Sample Macro Files Several sample macro files are supplied with Newkey to illustrate its use and provide you with a starting point. These files are described below. DEMO.KEY This macro file is used to take you on a guided tour designed to illustrate Newkey's major features and requires 192k of memory. To take the tour, issue the command "demo". This macro file is an example of display macros. DVORAK.KEY - Dvorak keyboard customization This file contains the macros necessary to redefine your keyboard to the Dvorak layout. There is one minor problem in using the Dvorak layout with the Caps Lock feature. Caps Lock will only lock the standard alphabet into shift mode. Since the Dvorak layout uses some non-alphabetic keys, the Caps Lock feature will not automatically capitalize these keys, although normal shifting will. EXAMPLE.KEY - Example macros This macro file illustrates many Newkey functions. Other files on the Newkey Disk CONV4TO5.EXE - Program to convert version 4.0 files to version 5.0 internal format files. DEMO.BAT - This batch file will give you a demonstration of Newkey. It requires 192k of memory. EXAMPLE.BAT - examples of how to use Newkeysp in batch mode. LOADNEW.BAT - This sample batch file will load Newkey and the sample Wordstar macro file, WS.KEY. MAKEEVAL.BAT - Batch file to create disk with evaluation version that may be shared with unregistered users. NEWKEY.DOC - Documentation to introduce unregistered users to Newkey. To print, issue the command "printdoc". NEWKEY.EXE - This program actually replaces the keyboard interrupts (x'9' and x'16'). It is always present while other programs execute and unless called upon to translate, will be transparent. NEWKEY.EVA - Full-power evaluation version of Newkey.exe. NEWKEYSM.EXE - This is the small version of Newkey.exe. It lacks the pop-up features and is about 25k smaller. NEWKEYSM.EVA - Full-power evaluation version of Newkeysm.exe. NEWKEYSP.EXE - This program provides several functions necessary to effectively use Newkey and is described further in the users manual. NEWKEYSP.EVA - Full-power evaluation version of Newkeysp.exe. NEWKEYVS.EXE - This is the very small version of Newkey.exe. It lacks the pop-up features plus several other features and is about 38k smaller. ORDER.FRM - Current Newkey prices and order form. README - This file will contain any Newkey updates that may have come up since this manual was printed and information on using Newkey with other software.