NetShift is a public proof web browser front end for Internet/Intranet access.

It allows users to easily operate a web browser either in a touch-screen information kiosk or on a corporate Intranet. Sitting on top of and controlling the web browser, it has been designed with a simple and robust user-interface, enabling complete novices to browse in a safe, controlled and intuitive manner.

The software includes a number of functions that enable the system to be efficiently and cost effectively monitored. Consequently, for commercial operators, NetShift can significantly increase the profitability of each installation.

NetShift allows fully secure use in unsupervised access applications due to the extensive built in security features, such as the prevention of unauthorised access to the operating system.

The NetShift system will run with the two most popular browsers on the market today, Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, running under Windows 95 or NT operating systems and controls the browser dynamically via the Windows API, OLE and DDE, allowing data entry through the integral visual keyboard, or external keyboard or input device.

The self-contained nature of NetShift allows for unconstrained branding or themes, therefore the entire functionality as well as the graphical look of the system can be easily customised to suit the needs of the client. The product has been designed with the premise that the majority of devices deployed around the world will offer free (or very low cost) Internet access, supported or subsidised by advertising. Thus NetShift provides operators with the infrastructure to support various different advertising strategies, from banner ads to full screen carousel video clips. This clearly differentiates NetShift from the competitive alternatives.

Currently the software includes:

The clock shows the local system time of the kiosk. If the Exit button is enabled then clicking on the clock will also exit NetShift.

This area of the screen can be used to either show a single, static image or to cycle through a series of images or banners. Each of these banners can be 'hot', i.e. linked to a webpage or URL. There can be as many graphical banners as you wish, each of which can be set to display for a specific length of time.

The NetShift Logo can be replaced with a static graphic that can be made 'hot' to link to a web page.

These Custom Buttons can be assigned graphics of your choice and be made 'hot' to point at a specific web page or URL (similar to a 'Bookmark'). Each of these buttons can also be turned off if required.

The 4 directional Direction Buttons are used to move through the webpage currently displayed within the NetShift screen. These buttons will automatically detect when they are not needed and will be shown 'greyed out'.

The Standard Buttons can be positioned along the bottom bar using the NetShift Set-up Manager or they can be disabled and not shown on the NetShift screen. Using the NetShift Set-up Manager you can also specify whether you want 5, 6, 7 or 8 buttons to be equally spaced along the bottom panel.

This button returns NetShift to the chosen start page as defined in NetShift Set-up Manager.

These buttons can be used to cycle through the browser's history list returning to any web pages previously visited (up to the limit of the browser).

The help button can be set to lead to a help page of your choice, perhaps giving the user instructions or technical support.

This button can be used to print the currently displayed web page to a local or remote printer. In order to use this function your system and Internet Explorer or Netscape must be correctly configured.

This button will force the browser to reload the currently displayed web page.

This button will cancel the download of any web page the browser is currently trying to navigate to.

This activates the email send and receive facility.

The Show Keyboard button which in the above screen shot is shown in the bottom right hand corner of the screen activates the built in virtual keyboard. When the keyboard is called up, the browser window will automatically resize itself. To remove the keyboard when it is visible select the Hide Keyboard button.

The on-screen virtual keyboard can be used to type text directly into a form field on a web page or dialog box. A full range of languages and an ability to create custom layouts are included.

These buttons will switch the keyboard between the standard 'Qwerty' and a simplified 'ABCDE' layout.

The Busy Bar will pulse when the web-browser is busy (i.e. loading a page) in order to show activity.

Note: There is an error in Netscape v3 which means that if a webpage contains an animated graphic the browser reports activity even when it has finished loading the page.

This is the visible part of the web-browser where webpages are displayed as they are loaded.

None of the web-browser's menu structure, toolbars or system buttons are accessible when NetShift is running, thus allowing users to browse without allowing potentially dangerous access to the operating system.

NetShift will automatically compile a log file of events, including user activity, timed events, web pages loaded and other system information. This log can then be saved to the local hard disk and/or emailed to a central address for remote monitoring of the system.

The emailing facility is designed in appearance to be the same as any industry standard MailTo as found in Internet Explorer and Netscape. It has a simple interface that enables your end users to send mail to any address, cc to self, download mail from their server, delete it from the server if they wish and send hard copy to the local default printer.

In addition to this you can also send email as a result of clicking on a Mailto Link.

Security is uppermost with this service with message content, addresses etc being stored in memory and never to disk.

NetShift can be configured to block access to any specific network protocol. This prevents problems arising due to users clicking on mailto addresses, for example, or attempting to download files from ftp sites.

Any file type (MIME type) for which the web-browser is configured to request user input will be automatically blocked by NetShift.

In Netscape Navigator this is done by selecting Options|General Preferences and then the Helpers tab. Highlight the MIME type you wish to block and select 'Unknown: Prompt User'. When a file of this type is downloaded NetShift will automatically detect the dialog box and cancel it.

In IE you should be able to leave the default setup.

This action will be logged.

NetShift continually monitors Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator and will restart it if the browser software crashes.

The web-browser will occasionally display message dialog boxes, these messages automatically come up in a number of circumstances such as a warning of a potential security violation or when the browser is unable to locate a server etc.

All of the user functions are accessible from large graphical buttons allowing for easy use on a touch screen monitor. You can configure NetShift to show either 5, 6, 7 or 8 buttons on the bottom panel and each button can be placed in any of the available slots.

Each of the buttons can be configured to display a graphic of your choice allowing you to completely customise the look and feel of the kiosk.

As well as the standard function buttons you can also define up to 10 Custom 'Bookmark' buttons. These will take the user to a pre-configured URL. As with the other buttons these can also be assigned a graphic to fit the look and feel of the rest of the system.

Note: if you wish to use the direction buttons to scroll then you can only use the first 6 custom buttons.

NetShift can run at any of the standard screen resolutions: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x1024, 1600x1200 in 16-bit high colour. It can be either set up to automatically detect what resolution the screen is running or it can be set to a specific resolution. The only adjustment necessary is in the size of the graphics used for the buttons and banners.

The four scroll buttons can be configured to either scroll half a page each time a button is pressed or to scroll continuously for the duration the button is held down.

If you wish to run NetShift alongside another application, e.g. a payment control system or Multimedia presentation, you may need to shut down NetShift for a short period of time. NetShift can be switched into 'idle' mode (and subsequently re-activated) by using the Windows DDE interface or simply by creating a file in the NetShift directory,

While Idle mode is active NetShift will no longer update any graphical banners or instigate any timed events (i.e. return to start page, update carousel or start video). When Idle mode is deactivated NetShift will resume from exactly where it was. NetShift also switches itself from a 'stay-on-top' window into a 'normal' window while in Idle mode. For this reason it is imperative that whatever program you execute while NetShift is in Idle mode is run as a full screen application. Otherwise the user may be able to access the Operating System.

The two DDE commands are as follows:

Type: Poke

Server: NETSHIFT

Topic: NS_IdleOn

Arguments: none

This will switch NetShift into Idle mode.

Type: Poke

Server: NETSHIFT

Topic: NS_IdleOff

Arguments: none

This will switch NetShift out of Idle mode, into normal operation.

If NetShift finds a file called 'idle.txt' in the same directory as it was executed from (if you have used the default installation this directory will be 'c:\netshift') it will switch itself into Idle mode. When this file is removed, or renamed, NetShift will switch itself out of Idle mode, into normal operation.

The two methods for switching into and out of Idle mode are entirely separate, i.e. if you switched into Idle mode with the 'idle.txt' file you cannot switch out of Idle mode using DDE.

Active mode control is provided to enable another program to control NetShift remotely. It controls where user input is allowed or not. In Active Mode no User input will be accepted by the NetShift System (i.e. no Mouse clicks, or Touch Screen presses). This enables sophisticated 'pay as you surf' systems to be implemented with NetShift. For example a coin operation application could be employed to launch NetShift. When the users time is up the program could create active.txt to disable NetShift and then delete or rename this file when more money has been deposited. You can remotely switch NetShift into and out of Active Mode either via the Windows DDE or via a simple file.

At present this feature is only available with Internet Explorer v3.

The two DDE commands are as follows:

Type: Poke

Server: NETSHIFT

Topic: NS_ActiveOn

Arguments: none

This will switch NetShift into Active mode.

Type: Poke

Server: NETSHIFT

Topic: NS_ActiveOff

Arguments: none

This will switch NetShift out of Active mode, into normal operation.

If NetShift finds a file called 'active.txt' in the same directory as it was executed from (if you have used the default installation this directory will be 'c:\netshift') it will switch itself into Active mode. That is to say that NetShift will not allow user input until this file is removed, or renamed. Following this NetShift will switch itself out of Active mode and back into normal operation.

The two methods for switching into and out of Active mode are entirely separate, i.e. if you switched into Active mode with the 'active.txt' file you cannot switch out of Active mode using DDE.

In addition to these standard protocols, there is a special, NetShift-only protocol called ns-command: which can be used to tell NetShift to execute a specific function.

The NetShift functions which can be triggered via the ns-command protocol are:

The syntax of the ns-command protocol for all functions apart from 'execute' is as follows:

For the syntax of the ns-command:execute construct see 'Dynamic Program Execution' below.

The ns-command protocol can be used in any URL either embedded in a web page link or assigned to a function in NetShift such as a custom button or banner.

Warning:
Make sure you do not create a self-referencing loop. E.g. do not set the URL of custom button1 to 'ns-command:custom1?password'

This function allows you to execute an external program from NetShift or a web page, wait for that program to finish executing and then return to your web browsing.

The syntax of this is as follows:

User input into a form on an HTML page can be saved locally via the ns-command:feedback function. When submitted this information is saved to the feedback directory of your NetShift path, i.e. c:\netshift\feedback on a default installation. The resulting file is named using the following format:

where yymmddhhmmss represent the year, month, date, hour, minute and second that the file was created.

This file may then be optionally emailed to a central address for along with the log file.

To have simple, non user, information saved to the Hard Disk simply use the following URL for a button or as a Anchor Tag in HTML.

A better, and probably more useful, way of using the feedback command is in an HTML form. Simply set up a form with the Action set to 'ns-command:feedback' (note no '?') and set the Method to 'Get'. Then any field in you form will be saved of along with the data the user input.

When you are running NetShift in a live environment you may still need to occasionally close the program down and access the OS for software maintenance. NetShift allows you to set up a Password Sequence which will close NetShift down. This Password Sequence is a sequence of clicks on particular parts of the NetShift system. This sequence can be up to 255 items long for maximum possible security. The various items that can be used in the sequence are:

A simple Password may be the sequence ABACAR, this would mean that at any time during the systems operation you could click on the Clock, followed by the Banner, the Clock, the Logo, the Clock and finally the Start Button and NetShift would close itself down. Obviously this Password is to short to be used on a live site, the likelihood of someone pressing the sequence by accident is still too high. We would recommend at least 20 items to be in any Password on a live system. It is also possible to disable this functionality if it is deemed to be too much of a security risk.

Note: a disabled or 'greyed out' button cannot be pressed and hence cannot be part of a password sequence.

There are three different modes that NetShift can enter after a pre-defined period of user inactivity:

NetShift can be set to return to the Start page.

The system can be configured to cycle through a series of Web pages, either stored on the local hard disc or, as a standard URL, anywhere in the world. Like the graphics banner, each page can be shown for a specified length of time before it moves on to the next one.

The carousel can be set to either continue with the currently displayed page or return to the Start page when the screen is touched.

An AVI video can be played. This video will automatically shut itself down when the screen is touched, returning the user to the Start page.

The NetShift Set-up Manager is used to customise NetShift to your requirements. You can assign your own graphics and/or text to the various buttons, determine which web pages you want the buttons to link to and choose the Attract mode web pages and AVI video that you want.

The Button Panel is located on the left hand side of the interface and allows you to open and save configurations, reconfigure the NetShift example set-up and exit the Set-up Manager.

Use the Open button to load a previously saved configuration file from disk. These files are loaded from the Configurations folder of your NetShift directory structure.

The Save As button is provided to save your configurations to disk. NetShift reads its data from a configuration file called NetShift.ini. This file is written to when you exit Setup Manager via the OK button. Use Save As to write backups, multiple client configurations and experimental settings to disk. By default these are saved to the Configurations folder of your NetShift directory structure. The Open facility (see above) will only load from this directory so although you may save your configurations anywhere on your system they should be saved to this folder to enable reloading with Open.

Tip: To ensure that a specific virtual keyboard is associated with the configuration load or reload the keyboard from disk before saving your data.

NetShift ships with an example set-up. All directory paths are set to the default installation path of C:\NetShift. If you have chosen to install NetShift to a different path then the demonstration will not work. For example if you installed to C:\Program Files\NetShift then this would necessitate your changing every reference to C:\NetShift to suit your installation path. Click the Set Dir button to automate this process.

Note: If you have installed NetShift to the default path then this button will not appear on the Button Panel.

This documentation now ships in both HTML format as well as Word 97 format. You may access it from Setup Manager by pressing this button. Please ensure that .HTM files are associated with your web browser or that .DOC files are associated with your Word or Word Viewing application.

This documentation will soon be available for download in a variety of MS Word formats, including Word 6, from our web site.

The Cancel button closes Set-up Manager WITHOUT saving. Your latest changes are therefore NOT implemented within NetShift.

Use the OK button to close Set-up Manager and save the current settings to NetShift.ini.

Upon exit Set-up Manager will also examine your system display properties. This is to ensure that your font size is set to Small Fonts. If not then again Set-up Manager will offer to make the change and subsequently reboot your computer to instigate the new setting.

When the user selects a link which opens up a new browser NetShift will detect this and offers a number of ways of dealing with this. These messages can be customised from a drop down list.

Closes the old browser and transfers control to the new browser.

Closes the new browser and control stays with the old browser.

Brings up a dialog box which allows the user to decide what to do with the new browser. This option has potential security risks and should only be used in supervised conditions.

Toggles the exit button 'On' or 'Off'. The Exit button shuts down NetShift returning the user to the Windows operating system. Useful during testing of the set-up, this should be disabled for general use to prevent the user shutting down NetShift. When this option is disabled the only way to exit NetShift is to press ctrl+alt+del (if Key Blocking is OFF, see below) and end the NetShift Task.

Whenever the browser is asked to send information to an unsecure server or download a file into an external app (i.e. sound files) it will display a dialog box asking the user if they want to proceed with this operation. NetShift provides two ways of dealing with this dialog box automatically. If this option is selected NetShift will automatically cancel the dialog box. If this option is not selected the dialog box will be OK'd, this poses obvious security risks and should be avoided.

This will enable or disable the blocking of various keyboard strokes such as Ctrl+Alt+Del. The default setting is ON which you may wish to turn OFF during testing/evaluation.

Sets the Default Keyboard layout. This layout will be used at start-up and whenever the system activates the 'return to start page' attract mode.

Sets it to the QWERTY layout.

Sets it to the ABCDEF layout.

NetShift will automatically detect the current screen resolution.

By selecting the desired resolution from the drop down list, NetShift can be configured to run at a particular resolution.

NetShift's four scroll buttons will function like normal Window's scroll buttons. They will scroll the page for as long as the button is depressed. To use this setting have your Touch screen set to 'Draw' mode.

The four scroll buttons will scroll half a page every time they are pressed, regardless how long the button is depressed. Use this mode if your Touch screen is set to 'Click on Touch'.

Direction buttons are not an option in this version of Internet Explorer and therefore should be disabled via the "Activate Direction Keys" checkbox on the Buttons page.

Will set NetShift to run with Microsoft Internet Explorer v3.x or v4.01 (we do not recommend use of v4). MSIE must be installed on you machine.

Will set NetShift to run with Netscape Navigator v3.01 or higher (NetShift is not compatible at this time with Netscape v4.x or any version of Netscape Gold). Navigator must be installed on your machine and you can specify the location of the netscape.exe file in the file name edit box or Setup Manager will find it for you if left blank.

The file name and path of the Netscape Navigator executable (netscape.exe). This is generally found in C:\Program Files\Netscape\Navigator\Program\netscape.exe.

Sets the File Name field.

Sets the protocols that you wish blocked. This should normally include mailto, ftp, news and snews. If these protocols are not included it can lead to possible security problems and risks.

This contains a list of all protocols which are currently being blocked. If you wish to edit a setting simply click on the entry and edit it in the field below.

Adds a new protocol to be blocked. Simply enter the protocol in the field below once this button has been pressed.

Will delete the currently selected protocol, asking for verification first.

This field lets you edit the currently selected protocol.

Sets the browser generated dialog boxes that you may wish your end-users to process. This will enable user response to specified dialogs such as Java script alert dialogs for example.

This contains a list of all dialogs which are currently cleared for processing.

Adds a new dialog to be processed. Simply enter as much or as little of the dialog boxes caption as you wish in the field below once this button has been pressed.

Will delete the currently selected dialog string, asking for verification first.

This field lets you enter some or all of a specific dialogs text. NetShift looks for a match between your text and the text in the dialog box reading from left to right. Therefore a 20 character string will be far more specific than a 1 character string.

It should be noted that this facility applies only to dialog boxes with "Netscape" or "Internet Explorer" in its dialog box header.

Select this option to have the log file saved to the local hard drive. It will be saved in a 'log' directory in the directory in which the NetShift program resides. This directory will be automatically created if it does not exist. The current date and time will be used to give the log file a unique name.

Select this option if you wish the log file to be emailed for remote monitoring of the system. The Email settings below must be configured correctly for the option to work.

The time that you want the Log File to be saved and Emailed.

Allows you to set which actions you wish to be included in the Log File

All user activity, including pressing buttons and activating banners. This will not monitor keyboard actions.

The initial loading of the Start page and the 'return to start' attract mode.

All carousel actions and the automatic return to start (if selected).

Video activities.

Logs the URLs of pages loaded by the browser.

Incidences of Blocked Protocols.

The Email address of the kiosk. This must be set if email is to be used.

The Email name of the kiosk. This is optional but recommended.

Address of the SMTP server which the kiosk should use. It can have a format 00.00.00.00 or mail.somehost.com. If you want to use the port which is peculiar to your system and differs from the default value of 25, you can specify it separated by a colon from the name of the server (i.e. mail.somedomain.com:2311). This server address is also used by the Email window when a user sends any mail.

This section lets you set up all the recipients of the log file via email.

This contains a list of all the email addresses of the recipients. If you wish to edit a setting simply click on the entry and edit it in the fields below.

Adds a new recipient. Simply enter the name and address in the fields below.

Will delete the currently selected recipient, asking for verification first.

This field lets you edit the currently selected recipient's e-mail address.

This field lets you edit the currently selected recipients e-mail name.

This section allows you to configure the function buttons at the foot of the NetShift border frame. Choose the buttons you wish to configure from the drop down list, these being the Start, Back, Forward, Help, Print, Stop, Reload and Email buttons .

This allows you to set the position of the buttons along the bottom panel. Position 1 is the farthest left, with the positions going from left to right. The highest number visible is determined by the 'Number of Buttons' setting on the preferences tab. If this is set to 0 (zero) then the button will not be shown in NetShift.

Allows text to be added next to, or instead of, the button graphic.

The file name and path of the button graphic. See the section below for a description of the graphic files which can be used.

Sets the Glyph field.

Enables support for Single state, bi-state or tri-state button graphics. For example a tri-state setting (3) enables a tri-state bitmap to be displayed in one of three states (button up, button down, button inactive).

Selects an audio setting for the button from the drop down list. These settings are defined thus:

Unless NONE is selected then the associated sound is played when the button is pressed.

Allows you to define a custom sound by entering the path and name of an audio (.WAV) file. This information is only applicable when the above Audio property is set to Custom.

Sets the Custom field.

This section allows you to configure the keyboard function button at the foot of the NetShift border frame. The properties are the same as those in the Function Buttons section above. However the keyboard button has additional Text and Glyph fields to allow for both the Show and Hide conditions.

This section allows you to configure the direction buttons located down the right hand side of the NetShift border frame. Again the properties are the same as those for the Function Buttons but without the Pos field. Choose the buttons you wish to configure from the drop down list, these being the Up, Down, Left and Right buttons.

The four direction buttons double as Custom Buttons (see next section), check this box if you wish to use the direction keys when URL's for Custom Buttons 7 through 10 are not defined.

Allows you to set the text, graphics (glyphs), sounds and URLs of the custom buttons. Again you may choose the button you wish to define from the drop down list (Button 1 through Button 10). Again the properties are the same as those for the Function Buttons but minus the Pos field and with the addition of a URL field..

The URL of the web page that you wish the button to point at. If this field is blank, the custom button will not be shown. This is the only way that these buttons can be turned off.

Sets the URL field, enabling you to enter an address of a web page stored on the local system.

Allows you to set the attract modes that you wish to be operating and the time period of user inactivity before the attract modes starts.

Sets the length of user inactivity (in seconds) before the attract mode starts. Set the time to 0 (zero) to disable the attract mode.

The time delay between user actions after which NetShift will return to the Start Page.

Sets the time delay between user actions after which the carousel will start.

Sets the time delay between user actions after which the attract video will start.

Allows you to choose the Start Page to come up after the Carousel is interrupted. If this is not chosen then the carousel will stop on the currently displayed page and allow the user to continue browsing from that point.

The file name and path of your Video file. See the section below for details of the Video files that can be used.

Sets the File Name field.

Sets the Width of the AVI file so it can be positioned centrally in the screen.

Sets the Height of the AVI file so it can be positioned centrally in the screen.

Choose the URLs and times for each of the pages you wish to be in the carousel.

This contains a list of all the web pages in the carousel. If you wish to edit a setting simply click on the entry and edit it in the fields below.

Adds a new web page to the carousel. Simply enter the URL and the time in the fields below.

Will delete the currently selected web page, asking for verification first.

These buttons allow you to change the order of the web pages in the carousel by moving the currently selected web page up or down in the list.

This field lets you edit the currently selected web page's URL

This field lets you edit the currently selected web page's time.

The URL of the web page that which will be visited of the logo is selected.

The graphic file which will replace the NetShift logo. If this file is empty the default logo will be used.

Sets the Graphic File field.

Specifies the URL which is used for the Start button and for the 'return to start' attract mode.

Specifies the URL which is used for the Help button.

Allows you to choose the graphics that will be displayed in the Banner section of the NetShift page, their sequence and the length of time each graphic will be displayed for.

This contains a list of all the graphics to be used. If you wish to edit a setting simply click on the entry and edit it in the fields below.

Adds a new graphic to the list. Simply enter the File name, URL and the time in the fields below.

Will delete the currently selected graphic, asking for verification first.

These buttons allow you to change the order the banner graphics will appear by moving the currently selected graphic up or down in the list.

This field lets you edit the currently selected graphic's file name.

This field lets you edit the currently selected graphic's URL. This is the URL which will be visited if this graphic is selected. If this field is blank or set to 'none' then the graphic will not be hot and pressing the graphic will have no effect.

This field lets you edit the currently selected graphic's time.

This Option will prevent all URL Command from being processed.

This will prevent any execute commands from being processed.

Allows you to enter the programs which an execute command can use.

This contains a list of all programs which can be used. If you wish to edit a setting simply click on the entry and edit it in the fields below. The first program in the list will be numbered 1, the next 2 and so on.

Adds a new program to the list. Simply enter the file name and any command line parameters in the fields below.

Will delete the currently selected program, asking for verification first.

These buttons allow you to change the order of the programs in the list by moving the currently selected program up or down.

This field lets you edit the currently selected program's file name and any command line parameters you wish to add.

Sets the Program File field.

With this option enabled NetShift will block all right Mouse Buttons clicks received. (this is only really useful when using Internet Explorer with NetShift)

With this option disabled NetShift will not block all right Mouse Buttons clicks received.

This Option will enable NetShift to be closed using the Password Sequence.

This Option will disable NetShift to be closed using the Password Sequence.

Allows you to enter the Password Sequence which will close NetShift.

This contains a list of items in the sequence which need to be clicked to close NetShift.

Adds a new item to the list. Simply select the object to add from the drop down list below.

Will delete the currently selected item, asking for verification first.

These buttons allow you to change the order of the items in the list by moving the currently selected item up or down.

This drop down list contains all the available objects, simply select the object you wish from the list.

This section allows you to set error strings and messages for when NetShift detects a new browser window or has to handle an email error message. Choose the event or error for which you wish to compose a message from the drop down list and define it in the input box.

When the user selects a link that opens up a new browser NetShift will detect this and offers a variety of ways to deal with this. When the Ask User option is checked (see Preferences | New Browser Windows Handling) this event brings up a dialog box which allows the user to decide what to do with the new browser.

NOTE: The Ask User option has potential security risks and should only be used in supervised conditions.

By editing the Title, Transfer and Remove fields and the error strings you can customise the messages into, for example, a different language. This information is saved alongside the keyboard layouts in the language files.

The error strings are for use with the Email facility and again can be re-phrased or interpreted into your local language.

Allows you to customise the virtual keyboard for both full QWERTY and limited ABCDEF modes. Both the characters displayed on the key and the character output by the key may be set.

The keyboard is displayed in the main window of this tab page, use it to select the keys you wish to configure, use the scroll bars to scan the whole keyboard.

Note: Please ensure that the operating System is configured to run with the same keyboard layout as you configure in NetShift. Simply specifying a keyboard layout in NetShift is not enough! To set a keyboard layout in Windows 95 select Keyboard from the Control Panel select the Language tab and add a new layout.

Enter the character or string you wish to place in the top left hand corner of the selected key.

Enter the character or string you wish to place in the bottom left hand corner of the selected key.

Enter the character or string you wish the selected key to generate when pressed. It is the character placed in this edit box that dictates how Windows "sees" the key and not the characters displayed on the key. For example on most international layouts the '%' character shares a key with the '5' character. If Send String is set to '5' then it's shifted condition will always output a '%' regardless of the values you have assigned to the key face.

Similarly the same association exists between lower and uppercase letters. Note however that if Send String is set the value 'A' for example, then an uppercase letter will be output in both shifted and non-shifted state. Applying the Caps Lock will generate a lowercase letter.

Besides conventional single characters keys may also output strings, for example, you might assign a key the string 'WWW'.

Select a layout option from one of the five listed in the drop down input box.

Places the character in the top left-hand corner of the key with font size set to 8. This is an ideal layout for displaying left-aligned top and bottom values.

Places the character in the top left-hand corner of the key in bold typeface and with font size set to 16. This is an ideal layout for displaying a single character.

Places the character at the top centre of the key with font size set to 10. This is an ideal layout for displaying centralised top and bottom values.

Places the character in the top left-hand corner of the key with font size set to 10. This is an ideal layout for displaying characters in the top left, bottom left and bottom right hand corners of the key.

Places the character in the top left-hand corner of the key in bold typeface and with font size set to 16. This is an ideal layout for displaying characters at the top left and bottom right hand corners of the key.

When unchecked the selected key will not be displayed or available in NetShift.

Set the font for the text displayed on the selected key from the drop down input box.

Set the font size for the text displayed on the selected key from the drop down input box.

Press the Swap button to toggle between the full QWERTY and limited ABCDEF keyboard modes.

Use the drop down list to select a virtual keyboard layout that matches the layout of the currently loaded keyboard language on your system. If you have made any changes to the keyboard currently in memory then you will be asked if you wish to save this new configuration.

If NetShift recognises your systems keyboard configuration, indicated above the Synch button, then the Synch button becomes available for use. When pressed it will synchronise your virtual keyboard with the current Windows setting. Once again, you will be offered a chance to save any changes you may have made to the current keyboard.

NOTE: The Austrian keyboard is the same as the German, the Swiss [Italian] is the same as the Italian and the Afrikaans, Australian and Indonesian keyboards are identical to the American. Despite this fact they have all been included for your convenience. Consequently the Synch operation for these keyboards will actually load from the German.ini, Italian.ini and American.ini files and display these languages below the System Keyboard indicator.

When you exit the Setup Manager by way of the OK button, the current configuration is auto-saved for use with NetShift. Additionally, if you make any changes to a keyboard layout you will be prompted to save a library copy which becomes available to your drop down list for future loading.

Just as the audio properties for the NetShift buttons can be configured so too can the audio field for the virtual keyboard. Please note however that this is a single setting and is applied to all keys.

Selects an audio setting for the keys on the virtual keyboard from the drop down list. These settings are defined thus:

Unless NONE is selected then the associated sound is played when the button is pressed.

Allows you to define a custom sound by entering the path and name of an audio (.WAV) file. This information is only applicable when the above Audio property is set to Custom.

Sets the Custom Sound field.

Allows customisation of both the Busy Bar and the Clock.

Determines if the Busy Bar is displayed or not, check the box to display it.

Allows you to select a colour for the upper half of the Busy Bar.

Allows you to select a colour for the lower half of the Busy Bar.

The bitmap file for use with the Busy Bar.

Sets the Graphic File field.

Determines if the Clock is displayed or not, check the box to display it.

Determines if the second hand of the clock is displayed or not, check the box to display it.

Check the relevant radio button to choose between a circular or square appearance.

Allows you to select the colours for the clock. The editable properties consist of background, clock face, outline, second hand and tick colours.

Sets the above colour fields.

This facility enables you to provide help for both Email accounts and Email reading in the form of text files.

Enter the path and file name of a text file containing helpful information on Email accounts.

Enter the path and file name of a text file containing helpful information on reading Email.

Sets the Text File fields.

When this option is checked the virtual keyboard will pop up when the user presses the Email function button.

When this option is checked the virtual keyboard will hide itself when the user presses the Email cancel button.

Check this option to allow "mail to" support. Permitting this facility enables your end user to send Email by touching on a mail to link on a web page and thus automatically invoke NetShift Email.

For configuration of the Email buttons.

Allows text to be added next to, or instead of, the button graphic.

The file name and path of the button graphic. See the section below for a description of the graphic files which can be used.

Sets the Glyph field.

Enables support for Single state, bi-state or tri-state button graphics. For example a tri-state setting (3) enables a tri-state bitmap to be displayed in one of three states (button up, button down, button inactive).

Selects an audio setting for the button from the drop down list. These settings are defined thus:

Unless NONE is selected then the associated sound is played when the button is pressed.

Allows you to define a custom sound by entering the path and name of an audio (.WAV) file. This information is only applicable when the above Audio Source property is set to Custom.

Sets the Custom Sound field.

The graphics page is where you can most dramatically customise NetShift by assigning bitmap files to the following properties.

The top of the NetShift border frame.

The bottom of the NetShift border frame.

The left hand side of the NetShift border frame .

The left hand side of the NetShift border frame with keyboard showing.

The right hand side of the NetShift border frame.

The right hand side of the NetShift border frame with keyboard showing.

Graphic for the main Email background.

Graphic for the Get Email background.

Graphic for the Send Email background.

Graphic for the error dialog box

Sets the bitmap file for graphics, this applies to all the above fields.

The Notes page is provided so that you may document configuration/project settings within your individual set-ups. This proves useful from the evaluation period through to a live project situation.

Below is a list of required and recommended settings to enable optimum performance of NetShift.

If you wish to use the 'Hold to Scroll' option you must have touch screen set to 'draw' mode, i.e. when the screen is pressed it sends a mouse down command and does not send the mouse up command until the finger is removed. If you do not wish to use this screen mode then make sure that NetShift is not set to 'Hold to Scroll'.

NetShift must be used with the English/US version of Windows 95 to enable it to respond to Windows messages.

It is vital that your copy of windows includes the Dynamic Link Library (DLL) file olepro32.dll in order to run NetShift. It should be found in your Windows System directory, i.e. C:\Windows\System\olepro32.dll.

The Windows 95 Task bar should be set to 'Autohide', moved to the top of the screen and NOT 'Always on top'.

The Font size must be set to 'small', i.e. 100% scaling.

Colour depth set to at least 16bit high colour.

All icons should be moved to the edge of the screen (This will prevent them from being selected if the browser crashes!).

Colour scheme set to 'Windows Standard', except background.

Background colour set to black.

The current version of NetShift only functions with Netscape Navigator v3.x

When you exit Setup Manager the program will check your Netscape settings for you. If you do not wish Setup to make these changes for you then the correct settings are as follows:-

Show Toolbar turned On with Text only.

Show Location turned Off.

Show Directory Buttons turned Off.

Show Java Console turned Off.

Set the width of the Netscape window to nearly full screen.

Reduce the height of the Netscape window to as small as it will go.

Then move the window to the very top of the screen and close it (This should ensure that no part of the Netscape window is visible until it is automatically sized to fit in the Space provided by NetShift).

JPEG, Gif and HTML mime type should be set to load in the Browser. All other mime type should be set to 'Ask User', this will provide the maximum of security and stability. These settings are accessible from the Options|General Preferences menu item, under the helpers tab.

standard Windows Bitmap

The glyphs used in NetShift incorporate transparent colours (e.g. for backgrounds).

The bottom-leftmost pixel in the glyph bitmap defines the transparent colour for the image. Additionally, the image is centred both vertically and horizontally on the button. Thus, if you require the image to have no transparency, you should surround it with a 1 pixel wide border, the colour of which is not used elsewhere in the bitmap. This forces the border colour to be transparent and leaves the rest of the image intact.

Examine the custom button bitmaps supplied with NetShift for examples of this technique.

In NetShift the buttons can have three states, up, down and inactive. NetShift allows you to create different images for each state. The bitmaps for these buttons consist of three images placed side by side on a single canvas. The left image is used for the up state, the middle image is inactive state and the right image for the down state.

Note that the transparency colour is defined by the bottom-leftmost pixel of the bitmap. This means that the transparency of the inactive image is actually set by the bottom-leftmost pixel of the active image.

Examine the standard button bitmaps supplied with NetShift for examples of Tri-State glyphs.

Note: Whilst the Start, Help and Keyboard Hide/Show buttons can only ever be active, and therefore do not require an inactive image, for reasons of consistency and simplicity they must be created as Tri-State bitmaps. Obviously, since the inactive image will never be shown the middle area of the bitmap can be blank.

You can change the background colour by changing the Windows 95 desktop colour (3D Objects).

Not in the present version but you can use the Help button to point at any URL you want, this is the only button on the bottom bar, at this moment that can be configured in this way.

When you exit NSSetup the program will check your Netscape settings for you. If you do not wish Setup to make these changes for you then you may manually adjust the following settings in Netscape:-

Yes.

Ensure that you are using the correct size graphics for the resolution you are running.

The version number is displayed when you launch NetShift.

All evaluation/demo version numbers end in a 'd'. If this character is not in the version number then you have a full version.

Yes all copies of NetShift.ini are compatible with all versions of NetShift.

If you are carrying out a completely fresh installation of Netshift please note that this configuration file will be overwritten by a default copy of NetShift.ini, therefore be sure to make a backup of your current file first.

Once NetShift is reinstalled you should place this copy into the Configurations directory of NetShift from where it can be reloaded into NSSetup for use with NetShift.

Yes. The only difference between the full version and the evaluation copy is that the evaluation copy has a "mote" that floats across the banner area of the display stating that this is an unlicensed copy.

NetShift is now fully compatible with version 4.01 of Internet Explorer (we do not recommend use of v4.0), Netscape v4 compatibility is currently under development.

Yes.

This is because you have the Touchscreen set up in the click mode as opposed to drag. This means that whenever you touch the screen a mouse click is generated only rather than the desired mouse down - mouse up events. If you wish to leave it in click mode then set NetShift up to do half page scrolling whenever you press a scroll button.

The '@' character is wrongly printed on the virtual keyboard (full QWERTY mode). When I press the '@' button on the bottom right of the keyboard it generates a double quotation, why?

You have probably got your system set up to use an American keyboard layout but have NetShift set to use a British keyboard layout. Make sure that the layout you have set in NetShift is the same as you have set in the Operating System.

It is possible to have the keyboard popup on a page, which requires keyboard input.

Simply put a META tag at the top of the page with a refresh statement set to zero seconds and the URL pointing to ns_command:show?password. For example:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0;URL=ns-command:show?password">

The following code (HTML and JavaScript) when built into a webpage will set the cursor focus to a specific form field and activate NetShift's keyboard.

Set Focus:-
Firstly, create a JavaScript function in the 'HEAD' section of your webpage to set the focus on a specific field (called 'MyField' in a form called 'MyForm'):

When using NetShift in a live situation ensure that only vitally required programs purely for the optimum kiosk operation (including NetShift.exe) are in this folder.

NetShift works best with the following versions of IE and Netscape:-

Add the following line to the top of your Autoexec.bat file.

Every time the disk is rebooted, the hard disk will be scanned, fixed and will not require input from a user.

Through the 'active' option in NetShift, third party products can be used to interface between NetShift and the payment device. Please refer to "Related Products" on our website.

This is all handled by the operating system.

This can happen with early versions of Dial-Up Networking so check that you have the latest "bug fix" version installed, this is available from Microsoft's website.

Through the 'active' option in NetShift, third party products can be used to interface between NetShift and the payment device. Please refer to "Related Products" on our website.

No it is not possible for NetShift to run an AVI file from an ns-command. You should however be able to simply execute the AVI file from NetShift and the operating system will play it.

Please refer to the question "How can I automatically set focus on a form field and trigger the NetShift Keyboard?" above.

Create a web page with the following form and JavaScript information:

Since this could compromise the security of your operating system any attempt to do this causes NetShift to cancel the download dialog.

We recommend the following specification although NetShift will run on a lesser system.

CPU 166MHz

32MB RAM(minimum)

2MB Graphics/Video

1.7GB HDD

3.5" FDD

SB16 compatible sound card

33.6K modem

Network card (or optional ISDN, LAN card or other form of connectivity)

Touchscreen or normal CRT monitor

Keyboard and Mouse (for system maintenance)

On-line UPS

This is not available at the present time but is something, which we will be looking at in the future. As well as studying the help in this document please visit our website for more up to date information.

If you need help with the installation and running of this software, have any further questions on the operation of the software or would like to speak to someone about pricing and availability then please contact NetShift Software Ltd.

NetShift Software Ltd
14 Hughenden Yard
Marlborough
Wiltshire
SN8 1LT

NetShift is a trademark of NetShift Software Ltd

Internet Explorer, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT and Word are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

Netscape Navigator is a trademark of Netscape Communications Corp

Mac and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc