Latest - 7/17/2001

Latest release is a minor one to fix bugs related to the hotkey functionality. DVAssist would always try to register the default hotkey when executed, even if the hotkey had been changed. If another app had the hotkey already registered, DVAssist would shut down. Also a couple of problems with the hotkey configuration form. Pressing the Enter key would close the form, but not before sneaking in and resetting the hotkey to Ctrl+Alt+Enter. Also, you can no longer open more than one config form as this was giving DVAssist (and users) fits. Big thanks to Sean Flanigan for the bug reports and the assistance getting it all ship-shape.

Also thanks to Joey Day for confirming DVAssist's functionality on Windows Me.

I've had some contact from England and Australia with some locale complaints. DVA is decidely American, but that's only due to my laziness. As time provides, I'll be looking into these issues. If there are any of you out there who'd like better support for the other Englishes, let me know.

Several of you have noticed that Outlook and DVAssist on NT/2k don't play nice. See Known Problems for some info.

Overview

Dvorak Assistant is a Windows tray utility that toggles between QWERTY and Dvorak layouts.

DVAssist is Open Source with a BSD License, hosted by SourceForge. Please feel free to email me with any questions.

DVAssist is written in Delphi.

Features

• DVAssist runs on 95, 98, Me, NT 4 & 2000.
  
  
• Tray icon displays current layout.
  
  
• Double-click tray icon or configurable hotkey to toggle between Dvorak & QWERTY layouts. Great for shared machines.
  
  
• Resizeable stay-on-top layout window for both layouts. Dvorak layout includes some color coding to help a beginner Dvorak-er.
  
  

Mailing List

SourceForge hosts a Mailing List for DVAssist. Click here to subscribe.

Known Problems

• You must have the Dvorak layout installed before running DVAssist.
  
  Do this by selecting Start | Control Panel | Keyboard ... go to the Language tab, choose Properties and select United States-Dvorak. If you don't have the necessary file installed (kbddv.kbd [9x] or kbddv.dll [NT]), you'll be prompted for your OS installation CD/diskettes.
  
  I'd hoped to remedy this by distributing kbddv.kbd / kbddv.dll with DVAssist, but the information I currently have received indicates it is not legal for me to distribute.
  
  
• DVAssist cannot change the layout to Dvorak until after the network login screen - so all logins will be with the QWERTY layout. I got a lead somewhere on how to change this so the layout goes into affect before the login prompt appears ... another future option.
  
• 
  
  

  Win NT/2k Issues:

• If Microsoft Outlook is running when DVAssist is used to toggle the layout, Outlook will hang in a tight loop that consumes all available CPU cycles. To get out of it, (and this is weird), right-click on the Outlook entry in the task bar. Not sure why this happens, but it probably has to do with the unorthodox code used to get the word out to all applications that the layout has changed. The documented method which works on 9x, doesn't work on NT.
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  Win 9x Issues:

• You must *not* have Dvorak selected as your keyboard layout in Control Panel | Keyboard. Leave it set on QWERTY, then run DVAssist.
  
  The current API calls being used makes Dvorak a substitute for the current layout. If the current layout is Dvorak - then the substitute and the current layout are both Dvorak. It will appear as though nothing happens because DVAssist is switching between Dvorak and Dvorak.
  
  
• Win95 keyboard mappings don't work in DOS windows. This is a limitation of the OS, not DVAssist. Microsoft has a DOS driver for Dvorak layout. You can download it here. Thanks to Joshua Conway for mentioning the file and Greg Schussman's Dvorak page for the link. I think someone emailed me news that Win98's console window automatically supports the current layout. I know NT 4's console window does.
  
  

Thanks to: Mark Randall (we wouldn't have NT support without his help), Sean McMains, Robert Leahey, Joshua Conway, Sean Flanigan, Joey Day and others who have given me feedback.

Fix History

0.7.1.44 - 7/15/2001

• Fixed hotkey bugs that tried to register default hotkey upon load even if it'd been changed. Handle error if hotkey registration fails. Enter key no longer closes the configuration form, because the hotkey edit box would capture it as the hotkey immediately before the form closed. Multiple instances of the configuration form can no longer be opened.

0.7.0.33 - 8/1/2000

• Added configurable hotkey toggling support.

0.6.1.17 - 3/7/2000

• Fixed bug: if Qwerty was the current OS layout, when DVAssist was first run, it would try to toggle to Qwerty and an error was raised saying it could not unload the previous layout since the current and previous were the same: Qwerty.

0.6.0.16 - 3/3/2000

• Added in cLabs About Box with hyperlinks and credits.

0.6.0.15 - 3/2/2000

• DVAssist now works on NT.

0.5.1.2 - 12/28/1998

• You can Shut Down Windows without having to first close DVAssist.
  
  
• Settings are now 'remembered' between sessions. If Dvorak was the current layout when the system was shut down, Dvorak will automatically be loaded when the system is booted again. The layout form will also remain where it was last located.