Using StickyKeys in Windows 95

• What can StickyKeys do?
• StickyKeys settings:
  • Keyboard shortcut
  • Press modifier key twice to lock
  • Turn StickyKeys off if two keys are pressed at once
  • Make sounds when modifier key is pressed
  • Show StickyKeys status on screen
• Setting Up StickyKeys

What can StickyKeys do?

The StickyKeys feature is for people who can only type one key at a time. When StickyKeys is turned on, you can electronically hold down the SHIFT, CTRL, and/or ALT keys while you type other keys. The SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT keys are considered modifier keys since they do not produce any characters themselves, but modify the characters and functions generated by other keys on the keyboard.

StickyKeys Settings

The following options are available with StickyKeys. Any of them can be enabled or disabled without affecting the basic use of StickyKeys.

Keyboard shortcut

When the keyboard shortcut is turned on, you can activate StickyKeys by pressing the SHIFT key five times. This enables you to turn StickyKeys on and off without going to the Control Panel.

If this settting is specified and you hit the SHIFT key five times, you will see a dialog box informing you that you have typed in the StickyKeys shortcut. From the dialog box you can choose "OK" to turn StickyKeys on or "Cancel" to keep typing without StickyKeys. You can also change the other StickyKeys settings by choosing "Settings" or pressing "S", which brings up the Control Panel dialog for all of the Accessibility Properties.

Press modifier key twice to lock

When this feature is activated, pressing a modifier key (SHIFT, CTRL, or ALT) twice will lock down that key. You can then unlock the key by pressing it a third time.

For example, if you press SHIFTand then type the word "hello", the output will be "Hello". Note that just the "h" is capitalized. However, if you press SHIFT twice before typing the word "hello", the output will be "HELLO". Note that this time, the entire word is in capital letters. In fact, any letter you type before hitting the SHIFT key again will be capitalized.

Turn StickyKeys off if two keys are pressed at once

If this option is selected and you press a modifier key (SHIFT, CTRL, or ALT) at the same time as any other key (including another modifier key), StickyKeys will be turned off. You can then turn StickyKeys back on using either the Control Panel or the shortcut, if it is enabled.

Make sounds when modifier key is pressed

This option causes the computer to make a sound when you have pressed a modifier key. The sound does not differ from key to key; that is, pressing SHIFT does not sound different from pressing CTRL. However, the sounds are different for pressing a modifier key the first time (holding it for only one character), pressing a modifier key the second time (locking it until further notice), and pressing a modifier key the third time (unlocking it).

Show StickyKeys status on screen

When this option is selected, the StickyKeys icon will show up in the lower right corner of your computer screen (in the control bar that contains the time and other system information). When StickyKeys is turned off, the icon will disappear.

The StickyKeys icon is made up of a rectangle on top of two squares: The rectangle represents the SHIFT key, the square on the left represents the CTRL key, and the square on the right represents the ALT key. This is easy to remember because the locations of the keys in the icon correspond to the locations of the keys on your keyboard.

When StickyKeys is holding one of the modifier keys, its rectangle is shaded. For example, if you press the SHIFT key once, the rectangle in the StickyKeys icon will remain shaded until you press another key. If you press the SHIFT key twice, the rectangle in the StickyKeys icon will remain shaded until you press the SHIFT key again, no matter how many other keys you press in between (as long as the setting "Press modifier key twice to lock" is turned on). The image above shows the StickyKeys icon with the CTRL and SHIFT keys held.

Setting Up StickyKeys

1. Bring up the Accessibility Properties window. The Keyboard option will be on top. StickyKeys is the top option as shown below:
   
2. If the focus (the highlighted or outlined portion of the screen) is on the Keyboard label at the top of the screen, press TAB. If the focus is anywhere else, press u to bring the focus to the "Use StickyKeys" checkbox as shown in the picture.
3. If the "Use StickyKeys" checkbox is not checked, press u. This turns on StickyKeys.
4. The default setting is to have all of the StickyKeys features turned on as shown below. If you want to change any of them, press s to bring up the "Settings for StickyKeys" dialog box:
   
   If someone else has saved changes to your system, the settings may not be at their default values. It's a good idea to check the settings at this point to make sure they are set the way you want them.
   NOTE: All of the settings toggle. This means that if they are on and you select them, they turn off. If they are off and you select them, they turn on. A feature can be toggled by pressing the underlined letter in its description. For example, to check or uncheck the box labelled "Use Shortcut", press u.
5. To allow the keyboard shortcut (or turn off that feature if it is on), press u.
6. To press the modifier key twice to lock (or turn off that feature if it is on), press p.
7. To turn StickyKeys off if two keys are pressed at once (or turn off that feature if it is on), press t.
8. To hear sounds when modifier keys are pressed (or turn off that feature if it is on), press m.
9. To show the StickyKeys status on the screen (or turn off that feature if it is on), presss.
10. When all of the settings are the way you want them, press ENTER to return to the Accessibility Properties window.
11. If you want to test your StickyKeys settings without closing the Accessibility Properties window, either hit ALT+A or hit TAB eight times, until the focus is on the "Apply" button, and then press ENTER. This allows you to test your StickyKey settings and change them if needed without having to reopen all of the windows. To close the Accessibility Properties window, hit ENTER again.
12. If you want to save the settings and close the Accessibility Properties window at the same time, hit TAB six times, until the focus is on the "OK" button, and then press ENTER. This will close the Accessibility Properties window.
13. Hit ALT+F+C to close the Control Panel window if it is still open. (You should now be able to use StickyKeys to select ALT+F by hitting only one key at a time.)

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