Hi Ed, When I read the description of iKeyboard, it didn't seem as though it supported cut and paste of text from the Mac side. At least, the user comments from November state that this function was wanted and it didn't show up under the improvements to the latest version. Also, I can type option key combinations from my Mac keyboard and have these entered correctly on my iOS device (I paired my iPad, as well as my iPhone). I can also switch my input language keyboard to another language, and have the text correctly supported by Type2Phone. I suspect that this function is also supported by iKeyboard, and perhaps for more languages, since although Type2Phone currently supports 18 international keyboards, it did not support typing in Russian, and I note that Greek is also not supported, although iKeyboard does support these.
Another comment on Type2Phone pairing when you set up a second connection: you need to use either Control+Click or use use some other "hardware click" to press the button to select the device. That means that on a desktop Mac you should be able to press the "5" key with NumPad Commander to click, or you can turn Mouse Keys on (if you have this set to toggle on or off with 5 presses of the Option key, this is the easy way), and then tap the "i" key on your laptop keyboard, or click the button of a physically attached mouse. (I'm assuming the last works, since I'm not using a mouse with my laptop.) VO-Space won't work here, but Control+Click on the trackpad gave me the menu options to connect to a new device. Again, the first time I did this with the iPad, the pairing took place immediately, after initiating it from the iPad's Settings > General > Bluetooth screen, and I got the dialog prompt on both my iPad and my MacBook Pro screen for the same pairing code. So I doubl e tapped to accept this on the iPad screen, and also accepted it on my MacBook Pro screen, and the devices showed up as paired. But because I hadn't chosen the menu option to connect to a new device, Type2Phone identified this as being paired with my iPhone, and the keys that I typed didn't show up on the iPad. (This was immediately obvious, because the Type2Phone toolbar not only identifies your status as "Connected", but also says what device you have connected to -- which was still "Esther's iPhone".) So I chose the menu option for "Disconnect" from the button that announced "Esther's iPhone", went back to the Bluetooth menu on my iPad under Settings, went to the entry for "Apple's MacBook Pro, Connected", and flicked right to the "More Info" button, then double tapped, and double tapped on the button to "Forget this device". Then I started the pairing again after choosing the menu option for "Connect to new device" in the Type2Phone app. This all went pretty fast, and made sense. The only thing odd is that the app will register the Bluetooth connection with the first device I set up (my iPhone), even though the pairing was initiated from my iPad and actually connected to my iPad. Apparently, it gets the information about the device configuration to use the first time it does the Bluetooth pairing. Afterwards, it's just re-established when you select the device (if you have more than one paired). But it only goes through correctly with keyboard actions if you're act ually paired to the device that is correctly identified. Another piece of information: once connected, if you VO-Left arrow from the Type2Phone toolbar there's an unlabled button. Using Control+Click on this shows that this gives a menu of supported keyboards, with your currently used input keyboard identified as "Selected". If I use my assigned Mac shortcuts to change my input language keyboard, the selection will be reflected here. As I mentioned, this works when I switch to an input language that is supported, such as French or Spanish, but not to a language such as Russian. Apparently this button displays a country flag icon for the associated input language similar to the one that appears when you use multiple input languages on the Mac, and have the icon on your status menu bar. The icon image usage here may be why the button is not announced by VoiceOver by default. Now some odd experiments: I tried typing TextExpander snippets. I have this implemented on both my Mac and on my iPhone and iPad, and was typing in the Simplenote app that supports this. What happened is that I heard the sound that TextExpander makes when it expands text, but what happened is that the current contents of my Mac clipboard, not the TextExpander associated snippet, got copied to the Simplenote app on my iPad. I suppose that TextExpander must make use of the Clipboard. What was more interesting is that when I turned VoiceOver off on my Mac while typing in Type2Phone that the arrow keys on my Mac enabled rotor functions. So, for example, if I were typing in French on my Mac keyboard, I could set the default language to French on my iPad by using the arrow keys to set the rotor to languages and then to select French. OK, more odd experiments: I wanted to know whether I could use the arrow keys for movement and key combinations for selection in the text I typed in my iPad. Well, I could -- but only when I triple-clicked the Home button on my iPad to toggle VoiceOver off. Then pressing arrow keys moved my insertion point around in the text on my iPad, similar to the way I could do this using a paired Bluetooth keyboard in the app. I could also select text with the Shift key and the Option and arrow keys while VoiceOver on the iPad was toggled off, and the selection would present when VoiceOver was toggled back on, but I wouldn't have heard the feedback of VoiceOver announcing what was selected as I would if I were using a paired Apple Wireless Keyboard. Otherwise, I have to make changes in the insertion point on my iPad by double tapping to move to the start or end. At one point of the combination of toggling VoiceOver on and off I got the interface to work as though it were a Bluetooth keyboard using the arrow keys to move insertion points, but I lost track of the sequence of toggles where I got this to happen. Anyway, I've been enjoying playing with this app. I'd be curious to hear any reports from Ed about iKeyboard, and am curious about the need to turn VoiceOver off on the computer to use it. Type2Phone does not require me to turn VoiceOver off on my Mac. However, I do need to enter the text field that I want to use before I start typing. Ed, are you saying that if you turn off VoiceOver on your Mac when you use iKeyboard that it works exactly like a paired Bluetooth keyboard for navigation on your iOS device? OK, I've turned VoiceOver off on my Mac, and can use the keyboard to navigate my iPad. But in this mode I don't think I can copy and paste from my Mac. The QuickNav functions seem to work, but not shortcuts like VO-H. I'll be interested in hearing more about these apps. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Dec 23, 2011, at 06:51, Ed Worrell wrote: > Hello, I have tried this one too. I have also found and use iKeyboard, this > app also does the same stuff as type2phone. It is a little more pricy but it > is an all around good app. You do have to turn off VO on the computer to use > this app, but it will function as a full bt keyboard aswell. Both apps are > good though. > > Ed <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to mac-access@mac-access.net You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
