![]() ![]() Highlight it by clicking on the name, and its settings will appear as well. ![]() The key will then show up in the list of assigned keys displayed in the UI. To add a function, click New, press the key you want to assign to the function, then enter a name for the key. The KeyTouch-Editor user interface is not perfect, but it’s better than searching for and tweaking obscure configuration files. ![]() I searched for a way to alter those assignments, and found a tip in the Ubuntu forums, but that tip didn’t offer a reboot-proof solution, so I took the easy way out and used F2, F3, and F4. It appears that if an application and GNOME fight over a key, GNOME wins. Further experimentation revealed that the F5 key also has a prior assignment, evidently to refresh the desktop. Selecting F1 as one of the keys to assign a function to brought me face to face with the first implementation issue. I decided on using one F-key to begin playing an MP3 file, another to increase the volume, and a third to decrease the volume. Once you’ve done that, you can start making assignments on a key by key basis. KeyTouch-Editor allows you to create a new definition file or select an existing one to work with. Next, you’re asked to press one of the function keys on the keyboard, to be sure that you’ve chosen a valid device. As you can see in the accompanying image, the list I was presented with included a PS/2 keyboard, so that’s the device I chose. After selecting KeyTouch-Editor, you’re asked to select your keyboard from a list of devices, which includes mice, speakers, and other devices. KeyTouch and KeyTouch-Editor then appeared on my System -> Preferences menu. On my Ubuntu 8.04 desktop box, I installed KeyTouch, KeyTouch-Editor, and the recommended menu package - no, not libgnome-menu, but a package named menu. The KeyTouch-Editor, which allows you to assign commands, programs, or functions to specific keys also allows you to create your own keyboard configuration file for unsupported hardware. None of my keyboards for either of my desktop boxes were among them, but that’s not an uncommon occurrence. The current shipping version of KeyTouch comes with more than 80 predefined keyboards included. If you want to download and compile the application yourself, you’ll need to have the development versions of libxtst and libgnome-menu installed. Today, KeyTouch is included in most modern distributions (Mandriva, openSUSE, Fedora, and Ubuntu, to name a few) and the project is actively seeking packagers for other distributions. Marvin Raaijmakers wrote the first version of KeyTouch in 2004, after finding he could not configure the extra function keys on a new keyboard he had just bought. But as is often the case, the devil is in the implementation details. It’s a great idea, especially with all the multimedia applications that come standard with today’s PCs. KeyTouch is an application designed to allow you to make full use of all the special function keys on your keyboard, whether the hardware supports Linux or not. ![]()
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