SmartKeys 3.1 is a shareware control panel designed to help you type. SmartKeys does this in three ways. First, SmartKeys automatically corrects typing that violates conventional typesetting rules, such as typing more than one consecutive space. Second, SmartKeys automatically corrects fast typing errors, words that are often misspelled, such as “teh” for “the” and “THe” for “The”. Third, in the event of a system crash, SmartKeys can keep a log of what was typed.
Installing SmartKeys
To install SmartKeys, drag its icon to the System Folder icon or place it directly into the Control Panels folder of the System Folder.
If you already have SmartKeys 3.0 installed, the Finder will display a dialog asking if you want to replace the existing version. Click OK to this dialog.
It is then necessary to reboot your Macintosh (this also applies to users upgrading from 3.0). If you try to open the control panel before rebooting, SmartKeys displays a message telling you it was not loaded at startup. On the initial boot, SmartKeys will create a folder inside the Preferences folder of the System Folder called SmartKeys Folder. Inside this folder, it creates a preferences file called SmartKeys Prefs. This is where SmartKeys stores its configuration information.
SmartKeys also provides support for Apple Guide. Obviously, this must be running on your computer to use it. You should install the SmartKeys Guide file into the Control Panels folder of the System Folder. Alternatively, you can also put it inside the SmartKeys Folder. (If you already have installed the guide file from SmartKeys 3.0, you should drag this file to the trash if it had been installed in the Extensions folder; otherwise, drag the SmartKeys Guide for SmartKeys 3.1 over it. The Finder will then display a dialog asking if you want to replace the existing guide file. Click OK to this dialog.) To access it, click the guide button in the lower left of the SmartKeys control panel window.
Should it be necessary to remove SmartKeys, drag the control panel to the trash. If SmartKeys created a preferences folder, you should drag the folder to the trash as well and then empty the trash. Finally, drag the SmartKeys Guide file to drag if you had installed it in the Control Panels folder.
System Requirements
SmartKeys requires a version of System 7 to run, and it runs emulated on Power Macintoshes. SmartKeys also requires that you be using the US Roman script for its corrections to make sense (This is the script of English and many European languages, so if that includes you, you are OK). Within the confines of this script system, you can use any keyboard layout (US users: Most of you use only the US keyboard layout and won’t have to be concerned with this). SmartKeys is aware of the keyboard layout and will adjust itself automatically whenever you change layouts. To use drag and drop in the control panel, you must be using System 7.1 with Macintosh Drag and Drop installed, including Finder 7.1.3 or a version of System 7.5.x.
Configuring Application Groups
Before you can configure SmartKeys, you need to understand that SmartKeys is meant to be customized for groups of applications. The reason for this flexibility is that you will probably want to configure it, for example, to work one way in your word processing applications and another way in your Internet applications.
There are a total of eight application groups, viewable from the Settings For: popup menu. Seven groups of these empty and freely customizable. That is, you can use any or all of them in any order, and you can edit their names as well.
The eighth group, whose name cannot be changed, is called All Other Applications. It affects every application that is not already in a group. Because at the outset, the customizable groups contain no applications, the settings of All Other Applications affect every application. In a simple setup, you may just need three groups, one for your word processor, one for your Internet applications, and the All Other Applications group for everything else. (Or in the most basic setup, you need to configure only the All Other Applications group.) You then add your word processor to one group (making it a group of just one application if you have just one word processing application) where you probably want most of SmartKeys’ features turned on. To another group, you add your Internet applications where you turn off many of SmartKeys’ typesetting capabilities (because the fonts in these applications use don’t usually support typesetting characters like dashes, quotes and ligatures). And to the All Other Applications, which affects every other application you use, you might have a mixture of settings on and off.
To select among the different applications groups
Use the popup menu labeled Settings For: to select an application group. The first group in the list is All Other Applications. Initially, below this is the list of seven empty groups. Below them is a command to edit the current group’s name. The current group is the one marked in the menu. Editing the name of a group is optional (and is unrelated to whether or not it contains any applications) and you would do so, for example, to remind yourself that a particular group is not empty and what kinds of applications you added to it.
To change the name of an application group
Switch to that group by selecting it from the popup menu. Select the Edit This Group’s Name… from the popup menu. A dialog appears containing group’s name. Type in a new name for the group. You cannot choose a name that is the same as any other group’s name. Once a group name is customized, SmartKeys reorganizes the menu to separate the customized names from the original groups. This is just for convenience of the popup menu display. You can change a customized group name back to an original name. This will put it back in the uncustomized part of the popup menu. The All Other Applications group name is not editable and when it is selected, the Edit This Group’s Name… command is dimmed.
To add an application to a group
Select the group you want to add an application to. You cannot add applications to the All Other Applications group. The application list changes to indicate the applications in this group. You can add an application by clicking the Add button. A Get File dialog appears where you can navigate the hard disk to select an application. Applications that are already in the active group won’t show up in the Get File dialog. However, applications that are in other groups do show up. Since it doesn’t make sense to have applications in more than group at once, SmartKeys applies the settings of first group it finds the application in.
Another way to add applications to the list is to drag their icons (or icons of their aliases) directly to this list. You can drag multiple icons if you wish.
Each application group can hold up to seven applications. Desk accessories and the Finder itself can also be added to a group.
To remove an application from a group
Select the group you want to remove an application from. Because the All Other Applications is applied internally by SmartKeys, you cannot remove any applications from it. (To turn off any of SmartKeys’ capability in a particular application that is not already in a group, add the application to a group and change the settings of that group.) Select the application’s name in the list and click the remove button or drag the name out of the list (by dragging to the left or right) and then into the Finder trash.
Corrections and Conversions
The individual corrections and conversions are the primary area where SmartKeys’ capabilities are put to use. Each correction and conversion must be turned on separately (or off if you so choose) for each application group independently. However, you need to configure only those groups that you have added applications to explicitly and the All Other Applications group.
A word about the corrections: SmartKeys got its start as the OneSpace INIT back in 1989. Its purpose was a simple one: prevent typists from typing two spaces after a period, which is the most egregious error a typist can make. Then with SmartKeys 1.0, the ability to convert two hyphens into a dash and to convert straight quote marks into typesetting quotes rounded out SmartKeys’ goal of converting old-fashioned typists to into typesetting professionals. Nowadays, hopefully, typists have grown out of their old habits. However, if they have not, SmartKeys 3.1 still provides these traditional corrections.
To block multiple spaces
In the control panel, check the Block Multiple Spaces… button. The options dialog lets you configure blocking to take effect only after punctuation if you wish. If you are using either Chinese or Japanese Language Kit, this option should be turned on.
When engaged, you can type only one space character in a row.
To convert hyphens to dashes
In the control panel, check the Convert Hyphens… button. The options dialog lets you add a space before and after a dash and to bypass this conversion if the current application font has been excluded (Read more about excluding fonts later on in the manual).
When engaged and you type two consecutive hyphens, SmartKeys deletes the first one and converts the second one into a dash.
When the Bypass on Control Key option is engaged, holding down the control key and typing the second hyphen bypasses this conversion.
When the Toggle Quote/Dash option is engaged, typing a third hyphen causes SmartKeys to delete the dash, which is an em dash, and to type an en dash.
To convert ligatures
In the control panel, check the ae, oe Ligatures… button and the fi, fl Ligatures… button. The options dialog, which is the same for both buttons, lets you specify whether you want SmartKeys to re-type the first character of a ligature when the ligature is backspaced out and whether to bypass this conversion if the current application font has been excluded (Read more about excluding fonts later on in the manual).
When engaged and you type the components of a ligature, SmartKeys deletes the first component and replaces the second with the corresponding ligature.
When the Bypass on Control Key option is engaged, holding down the control key and typing the second component of the ligature bypasses this conversion.
To convert shifted punctuation
In the control panel, check the < into , and > into . … button and the / into ?… button. The options dialog, which is the same for both buttons, lets you specify whether to bypass this conversion if the current application font has been excluded (Read more about excluding fonts later on in the manual).
When engaged and you type < or > symbols, SmartKeys types a comma or a period, respectively. The / character is converted to a ?.
When the Bypass on Control Key option is engaged, holding down the control key and typing any of the triggering characters bypasses this conversion.
To convert quotes
In the control panel, check the Convert Quotes… button. The options dialog lets you specify what style of quote character to use based on the language you use and whether to bypass this conversion if the current application font has been excluded.
When the Bypass on Control Key option, is engaged, holding down the control key and typing the straight quote character bypasses this conversion.
When the Toggle Quote/Dash option is engaged, typing a second straight quote immediately following the first one causes SmartKeys to delete the first one and type the opposing quote mark.
To save keystrokes
SmartKeys can keep a log of every character you type in a typing log file. Located in the SmartKeys folder, which is inside the Preferences folder of the System Folder, the file is called SmartKeys Typing Log. SmartKeys also maintains an older version of the file called the SmartKeys Typing Log (Previous).
In the control panel, check the Save Keystrokes button.
Keystrokes are saved every 500 characters typed (this number is counted up globally across all application groups) and there is only one typing log file (and its predecessor file) for all groups.
You can modify various global settings regarding how keystrokes are saved. Read more about this later in the manual.
To correct transposed words
One of SmartKeys’ features is to correct transposed words. A transposed word is an effect of typing fast. It results in the word with a transposed set of letters, for example: “becasue” for “because”.
In the control panel, check the Transpose Corrections button.
You can modify the global list of transposed words and their corrected counterparts. Read more about this later in the manual.
When you type a transposed word followed by a tab, space, return or enter, SmartKeys deletes the transposed word and replaces it with its corresponding correct word.
SmartKeys tries to match up capitalized and plural forms of transposed words. For example, if you have entered the word “cout” for the word “court”, SmartKeys will correct “Cout” to “Court” and “couts” to “courts”. Therefore, you should enter transposed and corrected words in their lowercase, singular form where possible.
To correct doubled capitals
One of SmartKeys’ features is to correct doubled capitals. A doubled capital is an effect of typing fast with the shift key held down too long. It results in the capitalization of the letter immediately following a legitimately capitalized letter, for example: THe quick brown fox.
In the control panel, check the Doubled Cap Corrections button.
You can modify the global list of doubled capitals that are excluded from correction. Read more about this later in the manual.
When you type a doubled capital in a word followed by a tab, space, return, or enter, SmartKeys deletes all the letters up to and including the offending capital, replaces the offending capital in its lowercase form and then retypes the remaining letters in the word.
Global Group Options for Corrections
Some of SmartKeys’ corrections have options that apply to them as a whole. Note that these settings are independent for each application group.
To just beep on error
In the control panel, check the Just Beep on Error button.
The effect of this option depends on which corrections and conversions you have enabled. Assuming all of them are on, when you type an extra space, a transposed word or a doubled capital, SmartKeys will just beep and make no correction.
To bypass on the control key
In the control panel, check the Bypass on Control Key button.
This option allows you to bypass space, dash, and quote conversions as you are typing. It was described in detail above.
To toggle quotes and dashes
In the control panel, check the Toggle Quote/Dash button.
This option allows to change the type of dash and quote typed. It was described in detail above.
Excluding Fonts
Since some of SmartKeys’ corrections involve converting characters into typesetting characters that are either not available in every font or don’t make sense (such as a graphic font like Symbol or Zapf Dingbats, both of which are included in the list by default), you will probably want to exclude them. SmartKeys maintains a list of fonts, each of which, when active in an application, can be excluded from conversions. SmartKeys does this by scanning for a checked font name in the menus of the application. If there are no font menus, then SmartKeys ignores the font exclusion list and proceeds with the correction.
To add a font to the list
In the control panel, click the Excluded Fonts… button to show the font exclusion list. Click the Add Fonts… button. A list of all your excluded fonts appears. Click on a font name in the list to add it. The listing of fonts goes away immediately after you click on a font name or click Cancel. The list can hold up to 12 fonts. Click OK to exit the font exclusion list dialog.
To remove a font from the list
In the control panel, click the Excluded Fonts… button to show the font exclusion list. Select the name of the font you want to remove. Click the Remove button. Click OK to exit the font exclusion list dialog.
Note that in order for fonts to actually be excluded from any corrections or conversions, the Bypass on Excluded Fonts option must be engaged individually.
Excluding Doubled Capitals
Sometimes, there are instances where a doubled capital is correct spelling of a word. An example of this is the name of the Macintosh application Quark XPress™. Another example is the plural form of a two letter word, such as MDs. You can configure SmartKeys to ignore these words through the doubled capital exclusion list.
To ignore plurals from doubled capital correction
In the control panel, click the Excluded Doubles… button to show the doubled capital exclusion list. Check the Ignore Plurals button. Click OK to exit the doubled capital exclusion list dialog.
To add a doubled capital to the list
In the control panel, click the Excluded Doubles… button to show the doubled capital exclusion list. Click the Add a Doubled Capital button. Type in the doubled capital you wish to exclude in its doubled capital form. For example, type in “THe” for “The”. Click OK. The list can hold up to 12 exclusions. Click OK once again to exit the doubled capital exclusion dialog.
To edit a doubled capital in the list
In the control panel, click the Excluded Doubles… button to show the doubled capital exclusion list. Click on a doubled capital in the list. Click the Edit a Doubled Capital button. Edit the doubled capital you wish to exclude. Click OK. Then click OK once again to exit the doubled capital exclusion dialog.
To remove a doubled capital from the list
In the control panel, click the Excluded Doubles… button to show the doubled capital exclusion list. Select the name of the doubled capital you want to remove. Click the Remove button. Click OK. Then click OK once again to exit the doubled capital exclusion dialog.
Note that the doubled capitals correction must be turned on individually for each application group. In groups where it is turned off, the exclusion list has no effect.
Editing Transposed Corrections
SmartKeys maintains a list of transposed words and their corrected counterparts for the transpose corrections. This is the transposed word list.
To ignore plurals from transposed word correction
In the control panel, click the Transposed Words… button to show the transposed word list dialog. Check the Don’t Correct Plurals button. Click OK to exit the transposed word list dialog.
To add a transposed correction word pair to the list
In the control panel, click the Transposed Words… button to show the transposed word list dialog. Click the Add Transposed Word button. In the upper edit field, type in the transposed word in its transposed form. For example, type in “becasue” for “because”. Then in the lower edit the field, type in the corrected form. Click OK. The list can hold up to 48 word pairs. Click OK once again to exit the transposed word list dialog.
To edit a transposed correction word pair in the list
In the control panel, click the Transposed Words… button to show the transposed word list dialog. Click on a transposed word pair in the list. Click the Edit Transposed Word button. Edit the transposed and corrected forms of the word as necessary. Click OK. Then click OK once again to exit the transposed word list dialog.
To remove a transposed correction word pair from the list
In the control panel, click the Transposed Words… button to show the transposed word list dialog. Select the transposed word pair you want to remove. Click the Remove button. Click OK. Then click OK once again to exit the transposed word list dialog.
Note that the transposed word correction must be turned on individually for each application group. In groups where it is turned off, the list has no effect.
Saving Keystrokes
There are number of global settings associated with saving keystrokes. As you type, the file grows in size. To prevent the file from becoming too large, you can have SmartKeys delete the file and replace it with a new one either at every restart or in daily increments or never at all. When you need to open the file, you can setup the file so that it can opened in your favorite word processor. Sometimes, you need to restrict where what you type is recorded. Typing a password is an example. You can setup SmartKeys to temporarily disable saving keystrokes in this situation.
To alter the times when a typing log is created
In the control panel, click the Save Keystrokes… button. Use the arrow button next to where it says “Cycle the typing log file, deleting the old one after” to adjust the increment. The first increment is never; the second is every restart and thereafter the increment is adjusted by a single day. Click OK.
Note that the file is initally not created until after Save Keystrokes has been engaged and 500 characters have been typed (this number is global to all application groups). When it is time for the file to be deleted, it is actually renamed to SmartKeys Typing Log (Previous), and the existing version of this file if it already exists is deleted. In this way, you will have available all that was typed for at least the number of days specified by the increment setting.
To alter the application that opens up the log file
In the control panel, click the Save Keystrokes… button. Click the Change Application button and choose an application that you want to use to open the typing log file from within the Finder. Click OK.
Beware that the typing log file is always open and that some applications may not be able to open open files. In that case, you will need to select a different application to use. SimpleText, the default application, can. Also, if you keep the file open in your word processor, changes to it will not show up there. You will need to close the file first, then re-open it.
To temporarily disable saving keystrokes
In the control panel, click the Save Keystrokes… button. Check on the Temporarily disable saving with button. To actually disable saving keystrokes, you need to type the keystroke combination indicated. Initially, this is command-control-Z. You can change this by clicking in the keystroke combination field and typing a different combination. The combination must contain and only contain command and control as the modifier keys. Once saving keystrokes is disabled, it re-enables itself automatically after the indicated number of keystrokes have been typed. You can edit this number by using the arrow button to change the increment anywhere from 3 characters to 30 characters. While saving keystrokes is disabled, you check on the Play Sound button to have SmartKeys play a sound at each character typed. This lets you know that the characters you are typing are, in fact, not being logged and it also tells you when logging resumes. Once you are done, click OK to exit the dialog.
Note that saving keystrokes must be turned on individually for each application group. In groups where it is turned off, these settings have no effect.
SmartKeys 3.1 replaces all previous versions of SmartKeys, the previous current version of which was 3.0. Prior to that, version 2.1 was current.
Thanks to Luke MZJ Arthur, Bob Canfield, Frank H. Easterbrook, Blaine Erickson, Philip Giltner, Mark Johnson, Pedro A. Lopez-Valencia, Philip W. May, Sanders McNew, Uwe Senkler, Irving R. Silver, Kenneth R. Simpson, Paul Starrs, Gene Steinberg, Martin S Taylor, Darryl Zurn, and all the other beta testers.
Updates
SmartKeys was written by Maurice Volaski and is published under the name Flux Software. Flux Software maintains a web site at http://www.fluxsoft.com/. Visit it to learn all about Flux Software’s other products and to obtain the latest versions of SmartKeys. For technical support and other information, please contact Flux Software directly at support@fluxsoft.com. SmartKeys comes with no warranty, either expressed or implied. Flux Software, who is Maurice Volaski, the author, claims no liability for any damages arising out of the use of this software.
Bug Fixes and Enhancements in 3.1
SmartKeys 3.1 fixes bugs in 3.0 and adds a few minor features.
• For those using the typing log, if you had set SmartKeys to delete this file at some daily increment and you rebooted your machine, you would find that file was deleted six hours later regardless of this daily increment setting. This was because SmartKeys wasn’t computing the age of the file at boot time. Now SmartKeys always checks the age of the file.
• Also for those using the typing log, if you had set SmartKeys to delete this file at some daily increment SmartKeys deleted the whole file erasing not only the first text typed but also the most recent text. Now SmartKeys keeps the last version of this file around under the name SmartKeys Typing Log (Previous).
• The system no longer hangs when an offline floppy disk (ejected, but still mounted) is reinserted after the appearance of the disk request dialog. This also fixes a conflict with ZMac’s utility, PIXs. (This problem is actually due to a bug in the Mac OS.)
• Doubled capital and transposed word corrections now work when they are preceded with punctuation.
• Doubled capital corrections can take place anywhere within a word (e.g., PostSCript is changed to PostScript).
• Doubled capital corrections will affect only situations where there are just two capitals consecutively. Words with more than two are ignored (e.g., RAMDoubler).
• Transposed word corrections now have some intelligence about capitalized and plural forms of a word. For example, if you have “cout” for “court” in the list, SmartKeys will correct “Cout” to “Court” and it will correct “couts” to “courts”. It’s also possible to turn off the automatic plural conversion.
• The transposed word list no longer allows a transposed word to be entered more than once in the list.
• The corrected form of a transposed word can contain spaces (i.e., can contain multiple words).
• Accented characters as part of either doubled capitals and transposed words are treated as different characters, thus allowing users to convert ä to ae.
• The available fonts list dialog no longer shows font names already in the exclusion list. It was sometimes removing the wrong font, in fact.
• A few minor cosmetic changes were made to the control panel (e.g., among them, scrolling a list with the arrow keys automatically scrolls the list to display items hidden from view).
Registration
Registration of version 3.0 automatically carries forward to version 3.1. Therefore, registered users of version 3.0 can ignore this section.
Try out SmartKeys for thirty days for free. SmartKeys is not crippled in any way but after the thirty day free trial period, SmartKeys will begin posting registration reminders. However, if you like it, please pay the shareware fee of $15 (US).
SmartKeys uses the Kagi Shareware system for submitting shareware payments. Kagi Shareware is a payment processing service that can accept many forms of payment including major credit cards. To pay via Kagi, please use the Register program that accompanies the SmartKeys package (if your package did not contain Register, you can obtain a complete SmartKeys package by visiting the Flux Software web site or via ftp at the Flux Software ftp site at ftp.fluxsoft.com). After you fill in the fields for payment, you can, depending on the payment method, mail, fax, or email the payment and form to Kagi Shareware.
Distribution
SmartKeys may be distributed freely so long as it is accompanied by its About text, its Apple Guide file, and the Register program and that none of these items have been modified.
