FEWER KEYSTROKES FOR LAZY KUGGERS
by Bob Ballard, SLKUG, August 1987

(One way to set up the keypad)

I am basically a very lazy person.  I have an automatic shift on
my poor old Buick (does that make me shiftless?)  I am big on
remote controls for my video equipment.  I even have a device
that turns on the porch light when someone walks up the walk. I
have reconfigured my numerical keypad so that I save a few
strokes on the keyboard.  Don't knock it until you've tried it! 

I have a Kaypro-10 with a hard disk.  This has USER AREAS (16 of
them on each side of the hard disk, sides "A" and "B").  It also
has a single floppy designated as "C" drive.

  My keypad originally looked like this:

    +-------+-------+-------+-------+
    |       |       |       |       |
    |   7   |   8   |   9   |   -   |
    |       |       |       |       |
    +-------+-------+-------+-------+
    |       |       |       |       |
    |   4   |   6   |   7   |   ,   |
    |       |       |       |       |
    +-------+-------+-------+-------+
    |       |       |       |       |
    |   1   |   2   |   3   |   E   |
    |       |       |       |   N   |
    +-------+-------+-------+   T   |
    |               |       |   E   |
    |       0       |   .   |   R   |
    |               |       |       |
    +---------------+-------+-------+

  I have reconfigured it to look like this:

    +-------+-------+-------+-------+
    | ^  ^  | ^  ^  | ^  ^  | ^  ^  |
    | Q  S  | Q  D  | Q  R  | Q  C  |
    |       |       |       |       |
    +-------+-------+-------+-------+
    |       |       | ^^ ^^ | ^^ ^^ |
    | WS    |EPS[CR]| KS QP | KB KK |
    |       |       |       |       |
    +-------+-------+-------+-------+
    |       |       |       |       |
    | d c:  | $uvs  |  [CR] |   U   |
    |       |       |       |   S   |
    +-------+-------+-------+   E   |
    |               |       |   R   |
    |     SAFE      |TY[CR] |       |
    |               |       |       |
    +---------------+-------+-------+

I use Wordstar most of the time.  The top row gives me the
equivalent of the function keys found on the MS-DOS machines.

  "Control QS" puts the cursor back at the beginning of the line.

  "Control QD" puts the cursor at the end of the line.

  "Control AR" puts the cursor at the beginning of the document.

  "Control QC" puts the cursor at the end of the document.

The next row down gives me the following:

  The "WS" in addition to the "EPS Return", on the next key, puts
  me in Wordstar from a warm boot.

  "Control KS, Control QP", saves the document I'm working on and
  also puts me right back where I was working in the document.

  "Control KB, Control KK" when hit twice, erases a highlighted
  block, provided you are not at one end or the other of the
  block.  (If so you will have a residual block marker left.)

The third row down is for calling up a directory on "C" drive
showing all user areas, from any user area on "A" or "B" drives.

  The command is "d", space, "c:".  The "d" is for the directory,
  the "c:" designates the drive. 

  The next key is "$UVS" and designates that we want to know the
  files in all user areas.  Since there wasn't enough room for
  the "RETURN" command on the second key, I put it on the third
  key.  It is very easy to hit the three keys sequentially. if
  you are used to drumming your fingers from left to right.

The bottom row of keys is used to spell "SAFETY", which is the
command to shut off my computer.  The result of this command is
to safely store the read/write heads on the hard disk drive.  I
strongly recommend that such a command be put on TWO keys to
minimize the chance that you might hit it by mistake and lose
what you had been working on.  The MS-DOS designers had that in
mind, I'm sure, when they required simultaneous keystrokes on
both sides of the keyboard for the warm boot command.  I used to
have a cat, Sam, that was able to step on these two keys more or
less simultaneously and shut me down.  I thought of exchanging
the "TY [CR]" and the "USER" keys to make this less likely, but
now that Sam has found a better home, I haven't had the problem.

The last key on the right helps me change USER areas easily.  I
hit this key followed by the number of the USER AREA I want, then
hit a RETURN" and I'm there.

All this "function key" designation was done with a neat little
program called "CONFIG.COM", available from the SLKUG club disks. 
To use it, get CONFIG.COM on your directory, type in CONFIG and
the a "RETURN".  It will bring up a menu that will enable you to
change the use of many keys besides the number pad.  Since I use
the arrow "VECTOR KEYS" all the time, I left them alone.  When
you have the menu hit "N" to change the keys.  It will then ask
you how many keys you want recorded on each location (You can
have up to 4 on one location).  For the upper left key I called
for two, since holding the control key down while hitting letter
keys, still counts as one stroke.  The lower right key, of
course, used 4 for the word "USER" as did the "CONTROL KB,
CONTROL KK".

I just wish I had a whole lot more of these extra keys around to
reconfigure.  Now, if I had an electronic organ hooked to my
KAYPRO......
