Soft Input Panel (SIP or virtual keypad) options

17 May 2011

Note: This information is provided as a reference and does not imply that Juniper Systems will provide full support for the use of any specific third-party device or software with a Juniper Systems product.

To assign a hardware button to pop up the virtual on-screen keyboard (SIP - Soft Input Panel), tap on Start > Settings > Personal > Buttons > Program Buttons tab (which it should go to by default), select which button you would like to use, tap on the bottom drop-down (up) menu, scroll to “<Input Panel>”, tap on it to select, and then tap OK. Navigate to a program that uses the SIP, and then press that hardware button to test it.

Changing the input method under Start > Settings > Personal > Input > Input Method tab is not permanent. To change input methods, while in an app (such as File Explorer) which shows the bottom SIP (Soft Input Panel) button, you must tap and hold on that button to select a more permanent option.

The Allegro 2, Archer 2, and original Mesa include our default custom "Mega Keys" virtual keyboard. The Microsoft Windows Embedded Handheld (formerly Windows Mobile) operating system also has included several Soft Input Panel (SIP or virtual keyboard) options. These include the following.

All of these besides just the default Keyboard were removed from the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, but we optionally included them on the Allegro 2, Archer 2, and Mesa Rugged Notepad to be consistent with our previous products. We have also provided alternative AZERTY and QWERTZ virtual keyboards as downloads at the following web page.

AZERTY and QWERTZ virtual keyboards

Alternative virtual keypads (for either direct end user or just developer use) are available from the following websites.

 

Other third party options (such as AZERTY and Dvorak) are also available for support of other written languages, but these usually must be integrated while writing a software application such as in Microsoft Visual Studio.

The SIP can also be allowed or prevented from appearing automatically by changing the state of the following Windows registry keys using a registry editor.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Sip] "TurnOffAutoDeploy"=dword:0 "AllowChange"=dword:1

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shell] "HasKeyboard"=dword:0

Several external hardware text input methods are also available including USB and Bluetooth keyboards, barcode scanners, and RFID readers. Not highly recommended, but developers may also be able to implement OCR (Optical Character Recognition) functionality using an integrated or attached camera.