, hope those of you find this helpful and apologies to those who may have seen this before!
Kawal. Begin forwarded message: > From: Paul Erkens <paul.erk...@gmail.com> > Date: 17 September 2011 03:18:08 PM GMT+01:00 > To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com > Subject: Re: Running a Mac with Windows on > Reply-To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com > > Hi Jeff, > > Here is the text you requested. > --- > Your first question, what to do about a non-existent insert key inside a > virtual machine, is quite a story if you want to know the ins and outs. Along > the way, we will get there. Here you go. > > First off, it is true that you have no insert key on the mac, while you often > do need one in windows. You can create a key mapping for yourself in 1 of 2 > ways. Either using fusion itself, and there is no real down side as far as > I'm aware, but it is a little trickey to set up because of an interface issue > in fusion. The other way to get an insert key is to use the sharp keys > program. Sharp keys lets you remap a few more keys than fusion will allow. > For example, using sharp keys, you can even remap your right command, or your > right option key, to the windows insert. > > If you do it via fusion, then all your virtual machines willl get an insert > key. If you have windows 7 and xp like I do, creating the insert key using > the fusion keyboard remapper creates it for all virtual machines because > fusion only allows you to do it inside its global preferences, command comma, > and not on a per machine basis, command e. > > If you create your insert key using sharp keys, then it is going to be a > local setting for that windows installation only, because sharp keys modifies > the windows registry to do the trick. Both methods will give you the same > result: an insert key that is not just insert, but that can be held down as > if it were a modifier key for other keys. > > This answers your other issue, where capslock cannot be used inside the > virtual machine as a modifier. It works as a caps lock, but you can't hold > it down and press a letter inside the virtual machine, in order to give > commands to your screen reader. Sharp keys and fusion itself though, will > give you an insert key like the one on a normal windows computer. This lets > you use insert rather than caps lock for your screen reader's commands, so > let's concentrate on insert, and I will leave caps lock for someone else. > > Now, let's look at the way you can do it inside fusion. I'm using fusion > 3.1.3, which is the latest version as of today. To update, go to the menu bar > in fusion, vo m, then once right, then down to check for updates, and then > follow the instructions. > > First, fire up fusion and, just to be certain, have your virtual machines > shut down. Then press command comma to open fusion's global preferences. > > At the top of this window is a toolbar. Interact with it and click keyboard > and mouse. A new window will appear. > > The first thing you will encounter is a pop up button where you choose your > keyboard and mouse profile. The window itself consists of 4 tab sheets, and > all those settings together are stored in a keyboard and mouse profile. I > don't think we will ever need a second profile, but that's what the button > allows. Leave it at its default. > > The first tab sheet of this dialog, named, key mappings, is where you can > swap your windows logo and alt keys. By default, fusion will map your command > key to the windows logo key, and your option key to the windows alt key. This > is not very intuitive for those of us who are used to windows and its > keyboard layout, but it's easy to swap them. See below. In this window, you > will also be able to create your insert key inside fusion, and if you want, > give yourself a num lock toggle as well. > > If you look at this table, then many mac keys are mapped to some windows > counterparts. Personally, I don't think that is necessary at all. For > example, in windows, you use control plus c to copy an item to the clipboard. > On the mac, we're used to pressing command plus c to copy. In fusion, there > is a default key mapping that makes command c the equivalent of control c. In > other words, pressing control c or command c in windows will do the same > thing. This is non-standard windows tweaking I don't like, so what I did to > begin with, is clear this entire list. To the right of this table, you have 2 > unlabeled buttons. The left one is add, and the right one is delete and entry > in this table. Just focus on the right button of the 2, and hit vo space > until the list is empty. You will also delete the undesired alt and windows > logo key mappings this way. > > Now, you must create your own mappings, so that your mac command key will > become the alt key in windows, and so that your option key can become your > windows logo key inside windows. Here's how to do it. > > First, click add, to add a new mapping to the table. This is the left > unlabeled button, to the right of the table. A new window appears, that you > will later close with an ok button to return here. > > In the new window, you see your mac modifier keys with checkboxes, and a > combo box for an additional key. For example, you will hear shift unchecked > checkbox, and command, unchecked checkbox. In this case, where we want to map > our option key to the windows logo key, we don't need the combo boxes in this > dialog, so ignore them for now. Focus on the from, and the to, parts. > > We are mapping our option key to the windows logo key. In the from, area, > tick the checkbox for the option key. Leave the rest in the from for what it > is. Next, find the text that says, to. Here, you will find checkboxes for the > windows counterparts of the mac key you are mapping. Now take care. One of > those checkboxes will only say, checkbox, without a description like alt, or > control. It is this unlabeled checkbox that we need to map our option key to. > On the screen, this checkbox, in the to, field, is an icon with the windows > logo key. So tick that box. Finally, proceed to the okay button and press it. > You will return to the command comma, toolbar item keyboard and mouse screen, > where you pressed the unlabeled add button. your first key mapping, is in > place. Option is now windows logo as soon as the virtual windows machine is > active. > > Now, repeat the same procedure for your alt key. So, click add, then in the > from, field, tick command, then in the to, field, click alt, and press okay. > > Now that you know how to remap keys, you can do the same thing for your > insert key. However, this is where it is a little tricky and you will soon > understand why. > > As above, again click the add button in this dialog. Reminder: we came here > by starting fusion, then command comma, then keyboard and mouse from the > toolbar, then the first tab sheet named key mappings. > > After the remapper dialog with the from, and to, field, appears again, do the > following to create your insert key. > > In the from, field, you need to choose which key on your keyboard is going to > loose its function for windows, and act as your new insert key. Leave all the > checkboxes for the modifier keys like shift, option etc alone, and focus on > the combo box with voiceover. Once focus is on this field, assuming you have > keyboard focus track your voiceover cursor, as is the voiceover default, then > you can now input the key you wish. I use the accent key, just below escape > on the mac keyboard. Press it, or press your own choice, and you will hear it > spoken by voiceover. > > Of course, because this is a combo box, it does have a few presets, and you > can reach them with vo space. However, once you do this, you cannot get out > of the box anymore with vo right or anything, because that keystroke too, > will be interpreted as the key combination you are going to map. So, my > advice is not to go through the 13 presets of this combo. Instead, never > open it and just type your desired insert key replacement, once the voiceover > cursor and keyboard focus is on the combo box in the from, field. Don't open > the combo, just type your key when the box is focused. > > Now, focus on the combo box of the to, field. This second combo box, you do > need to open with vo space, because you need to select the item named insert. > However, you should only walk to it with the voiceover cursor, and you should > not press vo space. This is the oddity you need to be aware of. This is > because if you press vo space on the insert item in the combo box, then vo > space, as well as all subsequent keys, will be interpreted as the key you > want to execute when you press accent, and you don't have a way to close the > combo box to get to the okay button. > > So, after walking to the insert item with voiceover, and the to, combo box is > still open, you must command tab away from fusion, to have os10 focus move > out of the combo box. Depending on what you had open, you may land in the > finder. Command tabbing away from fusion is the only keystroke I have found, > to get you away from the combo box. Then, simply command tab back into > fusion, and you will find that the combo box is now closed, and it is set to > insert. > > Now, all you do is go to ok and click it. You will be returned to the key > mapping dialog, where the list of keystrokes can be found. Now, you should > have 3 mappings. One for command to become alt, one for option and windows > logo, and a third for accent, that is now remapped to insert inside any > fusion virtual machine. > > If you want to give yourself a num lock toggle, that can be achieved the same > way you created your insert key. Let's say you want to toggled your num lock > with control shift f12. So, first click add, then in the from, field, click, > for example, the control and the shift box, go to the first combo, select > f12, move to the second combo in the to, field, and select numlock from > there. Again, don't forget to open the box, walk to numlock, command tab away > and then back into fusion, and hit okay. > This is what you need to do in the first tab sheet of the fusion keyboard and > mouse dialog, and as I said, it was quite a story. > > We're not done yet. In the second tab sheet, named mouse shortcuts, you can > tell fusion how you want to do a right click in windows. The mac only has a > normal mouse click, and not a separate left and a right one, so by default, > holding the control key and then pressing the mouse pad, a control click, > will perform a right mouse click in windows, as if you pressed the secondary > button. Nothing need to be changed here. Of course, you have your windows > shift f10 key combination as the keyboard equivalent of the right mouse > click. Furthermore, you can also create your own windows applications key, > normally near your arrows on a windows keyboard, the same way you created > your alt and windows keys above. > > The third tab sheet, named fusion shortcuts, can make life a lot easier for > us, screenless folks. By default, if you're inside the virtual machine and > you happen to hit f12, f11 or another magic mac key that does something under > os10, then even if you are inside the vm, you will fly out of it, and land > somewhere where you will need to turn on voiceover, command tab back into > fusion, minimize windows with command control enter, move the voiceover > cursor to where it says progress bar because that's where windows shows up > minimized, turn off voice over with command f5, and finally enlarge windows > back to normal with command control enter, the same keystroke used to > minimize windows. A lot of work, and not funny if you discover that windows > no longer talks and you don't know which key you hit by accident. > > So, what you do is, turn the checkbox off here that says: enable mac os > keyboard shortcuts. Now, if you accidentally hit f12 or f11, it won't mess up > things any longer. These keystrokes will instead be passed to windows, and no > longer to os10 disturbing your windows experience. > > In the fourth tab sheet of this dialog, named fusion shortcuts, you can > enable and disable a number of key combinations that you can press when the > virtual windows machine is running, that affect fusion itself. You can mess > with these because there is a friendly restore to defaults button as well. > You will find a table here that you can interact with. On each line, a key > combination is listed, along with a checkbox to enable it. Here's a few > explained. > > Full screen. You need this keystroke, to make windows full screen when it is > minimized. It is the control command enter to minimize and maximize windows, > as already mentioned. Make sure you have this checked. > There are nine others, and some of them I have turned off, for reasons > explained below. > > Unity: this makes one space out of the windows desktop and the mac side. So > far, I have never used it in daily work, because I can't figure out how it > works. If you play with it and find out some benefits, please let us know. I > have this off, to avoid accidentally dropping into unity. > > Also off are cycle through windows, and cycle through windows reverse. This > is because we can easily do this with voiceover, and I don't want to loose > keystrokes that may otherwise be used for jaws or NVDA commands. > > Next is hide application. I have this off as well, because if you're in the > middle of a windows program and you want help, it is likely that you begin by > pressing alt h to open the help menu. But watch out for this one, because if > you don't turn off command h for the virtual machine, and remember that alt > and command are now the same key, then instead of opening the help menu > inside your windows program, you will instead hide fusion completely, and be > dropped into os10 where you don't have speech for the moment unless you turn > it on. I fell into this pit some 5 times until I realized what might be going > on here. Turning this key combination off resolved the issue. Now, pressing > alt h will nicely open the help menu in windows, and you will no longer be > kicked out. > > Next, there is hide others. I have this off, because it does something to > os10 where I have no speech as long as I'm inside windows, and you want to > let windows get your keystrokes as much as possible. > > The same goes for settings, the next key to turn off, which in fusion is > command e. I hear you thinking. Usually command comma is for settings. > Correct. However, command comma in fusion opens the general preferences for > all virtual machines and fusion, while command e, as in echo, opens the > settings for your specific virtual machine. How many processor cores to > allocate it, how much ram etc. So, if windows wants you to press alt e, then > you don't want to speechlessly land into fusion settings. Rather, you want > the alt e command to run in windows. Turn this off. > > The last key to turn of is command q for quit. Again, we don't have speech > outside fusion so we can safely turn this off, so that command q, or alt q > for windows, is available to windows and not to fusion or os10. > > If you want to use sharp keys instead, let me know. > > Hth, > Paul. > On Sep 5, 2011, at 9:47 AM, Hypnotic Consulting wrote: > >> Ditto, very much appreciated Paul. >> Is anyone interested in doing a audio walk through? Or has anyone done one? >> Jorge >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. 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