EKH Tutorial 7 - Enabling Voice Input

With version 6.4 of External Keyboard Helper a new keycode has been added that is called Voice Input. It can be mapped to a key and then that key can be used to start voice input. Exactly how this works out may vary between different devices and Android versions but here I will describe how it works on my Nexus 5 that runs Android 4.4.2.

First of all you need to assign a key to trigger the voice input. Since version 6.5 of the app you find the configuration for this in Advanced Settings > Other settings. In this example I've mapped it to Scancode 57 which is Space and I've checked the checkbox that says it also requires Alt to be held down.

As an alternative way to configure this there is also a keycode that can be used to trigger voice input (this is the only way to map voice input in if you are still on version 6.4 of the app). The example below maps scancode 88 to the keycode that triggers voice input. Scancode 88 is usually F12.

 
Voice Input can be accessed in two ways. The first way is with Google voice typing enabled.

In this mode you must disable the Physical keyboard switch or voice input will not start.

To be extra clear, you need to turn the above switch to OFF.

In this mode pushing our mapped button (Alt+Space in my case) will automatically switch to the Google voice typing input method and it will looks something like this.

  

As you speak the text will be continuously added to the input field.

 

The other mode is when "Google voice input" is disabled.

In this mode it does not matter if Physical keyboard is ON or OFF and when we press our mapped key it will start voice input in a less integrated way.

Once you spoken it will present you with a list of interpretations.

 

Once you make your choice it will pass that line of text into the active input field.

This is the two ways I got it working on my Nexus 5, it may look and work different on your device so you may need to experiment a bit to get it working.

On one device (ZTE Blade III) that was running an unofficial CyanogenMod version I needed to install this to get it working: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.voicesearch

So basically this tutorial doesn't necessarily show the exact solution for your setup but hopefully it will provide enough help to get you going.

External Keyboard Helper Pro 5.9 released

What's new in version 5.9

• Fixed an error in the Hungarian layout
• Fixed ALT+KEY problem with Emacs for Dvorak users. ALT+KEY was using original layout if not remapped.
• Fixed problem with remapped Ctrl key for Emacs users.
• Updated translations.

Get it now from Google Play

Last day of External Keyboard Helper Pro at half the normal price

Today at midnight (GMT+1) the offer at AndroidPIT.com ends. Last chance to buy the app at less than half the normal price.

External Keyboard Helper Pro reviews in 8 languages

With External Keyboard Helper Pro being the App of the week over at AndroidPIT.com they've also published a review of the app that is available in 8 different languages.

Here's direct links to the reviews:

• French
• Turkish
• Russian
• German
• Italian
• Spanish
• Portuguese
• English

App of the week on AndroidPIT.com

Starting today and ending on the 17th of Februari 23:59 (GMT+1), External Keyboard Helper Pro is App of the week on AndroidPIT.com.

That means you get buy it for only $1.48 (1.06€) during the campaign.

EKH Tutorial 6 - Workaround for Samsung devices

The is the sixth tutorial for External Keyboard Helper. You'll find a all the tutorials here.

This tutorials is only interesting for Samsung users. I'm going to use my Galaxy S3 as an example but the problem is present with most (if not all) Samsung firmwares.

The problem looks like this:

Just a little information popup, how could that be a problem? Well, once you press OK on the dialog it will change your Input Method to "Samsung Keyboard" so it's just not informing you what it thinks you should use, it also makes you use it whether you want it or not.

On my Galaxy S3 this pops up whenever I connect a Bluetooth keyboard but only if "Samsung Keyboard" is not the currently selected Input Method. So let's say I use SlideIT as my preferred Input Method:

 
Now let's say I connect my Bluetooth keyboard and since I'm using External Keyboard Helper it will show the Input Method selector. However first Samsung will show their dialog and then the Input Method selector puts itself on top of it.

So I first select External Keyboard Helper and then I get back to the Samsung dialog and press OK. What happens now is that the Input Method will be switched to "Samsung Keyboard" which is not what I wanted. Not good!

I do not think there is a way to prevent the Samsung dialog from starting unless you are rooted and willing to mess around on your system partition. Still there is a workaround, it's not perfect but it's better than nothing.

What we need to do is to increase the Detection delay in the Advanced settings for External Keyboard Helper. In this example I set it to 4 seconds but most people will probably settle for 2 seconds after getting used to the procedure.

Now we bought us 4 seconds where we can press OK in the Samsung dialog before External Keyboard Helper brings up the Input Method selector. What we do is that we let Samsung first set the Input Method to their own one and then we switch it back to External Keyboard Helper.

So by setting up a delay we can make sure that Samsungs switch takes place before our switch and not the other way around.

EKH Tutorial 5 - Application shortcuts and Text strings

The is the fifth tutorial for External Keyboard Helper. You'll find a all the tutorials here.

A nice feature in External Keyboard Helper is the possibility to add Application shortcuts and Text strings to keys. In this example I will configure Alt+G to start Gmail and Alt+M to start Maps. I will also make it possible to quickly write http://www.apedroid.com by just pressing Alt+A.

I will not go into details on how to create a new custom layout, go to the second tutorial for that.

First I enter the Advanced settings and choose to setup some Application shortcuts.

Right now all the slots A0 to AF are empty.

I select the first slot, A0, and a list of all my installed and system apps shows up. From that list I select Gmail.

I repeat the procedure for A1 and select Maps and when I'm done the list looks like this.

Now I go back into Advanced settings and choose to configure Text strings.

Also here we find 16 empty slots, T0 to TF.

In the first slot, T0, I enter http://www.apedroid.com.

Do not forget to scroll down to the bottom of the list and press Save.

Now all that is left is to map them to keys so i choose to customize my layout. If I would already have mappings for G, M and A then I would need to select those from the list but since I'm using the English(US) layout in this example there are no current mappings to those keys so choose to add a new mapping.

First out is G which has scancode 34 and in the AltGr field I enter a0 for Application shortcut 0. The app will automatically change a0 into unicode 0x2410 so I could, if I wanted, have entered 0x2410 directly. However entering a0 (or A0) is much easier.

I repeat the procedure for M (scancode 50) and enter a1 in the AltGr field. For mapping the Text string the procedure is the same and I enter t0 in the AltGr field for A (scancode 30).

Back in the list of remapped keys I can see the new mappings.

Checking the mappings confirms that a0, a1 and t0 are translated into 0x2410, 0x2411 and 0x2400.

This is the end of tutorial 5 that should give you a pretty good idea on how to setup Application shortcuts and Text strings for yourself.

EKH Tutorial 4 - Using CapsLock as AltGr

This is the 4th tutorial for External Keyboard Helper and it is based on a real support question I got yesterday.

Let's say you have a compact bluetooth keyboard that doesn't have an Alt or AltGr button. However you want to use the US-International layout which has a lot of extra characters that can only be reached with AltGr and AltGr+Shift.

In this example I will show you how to sacrifice the (in my opinion rather useless) CapsLock key for a more useful AltGr key.

First I select the layout I intend to use. In this example the English (US-International) layout.

After that I enter the Advanced settings and

I choose to Customize keyboard mappings.

I choose to the create the Custom 1 layout using my selected layout as a base and

then Add a new key mapping.

Pressing the CapsLock key makes it read it's scancode which is 58 and I check the Keycode checkbox and choose Right Alt modifier as the keycode I want to map it to.

To make sure External Keyboard Helper ignores whatever the Android system things that the CapsLock state is I must also check Override special keys and make sure Always remap keys is checked.


That's it. CapsLock now serves as AltGr and I can access all the special characters that my selected layout has mapped for AltGr and AltGr+Shift even though my keyboard does not have a physical Alt or AltGr key.

EKH Tutorial 3 - Tweaking some advanced settings

This is the third tutorial for External Keyboard Helper. You'll find the first tutorial here and the second tutorial here.

After some testing I find some things I want to address. First of all since my Targus iPad keyboard uses scancode 139 this conflicts with the menu key on my Samung Galaxy S III so when remapping scancode 139 to Back (see tutorial 2) I also remapped my menu key on the phone.

This I will address using the Device ID filter in the Advanced settings. For most phones the buttons on the phone uses device ID 0 or a negative number. For this the default setting will make sure they are not affected by the remapping in External Keyboard Helper. However for my Galaxy S III running Android 4.1.1 this is not the case.

The first step is to use the Debugging screen to find out what device ID the phone buttons are using so I enter Advanced settings and then Debugging. Pressing the menu button on the phone both confirms that it uses scancode 139 and that it uses device ID 5.

 

So now I now that I don't want External Keyboard Helper to touch anything that has device ID 5 or lower so I set the Device ID filter to 6.

I also find the keyboard repeat to be a little bit to sensitive for my taste so I change the delay to Slight delay.

I also want to be able to switch between my custom layout (based on the Swedish layout), the Xperia Play layout and no remapping at all so I setup a Language-switch key.

I also check that I want to use a third layout.

I then choose the Xperia Play layout as my second layout and let the third keep it's default setting (No remapping).

This is the end of tutorial 3.