Tutorial

Initially, the characters appear in boxes in a vertical column on the right hand side (figure 1).  Start by clicking the left mouse button near the cross-hair move the pointer towards the first letter you want to write. e.g. 't'.

Figure 1: Initial configuration.

The display will start to zoom in towards the 't' (figure 2).

Figure 2: Writing 't'.

You can stop at any time by clicking on the left mouse button.

The horizontal direction controls the rate of zooming in. Moving the pointer to the right zooms in. Moving the pointer to the left zooms out. The vertical co-ordinates determines the place which is being zoomed in on.  As the desired letter moves towards the crosshair, further letters can be selected by searching within the box of the current letter. In figure 3, 'h' is being selected.

Figure 3: Writing 't' followed by 'h'.

Always look inside the current letter for the next letter. For example, to write 'the', point at the 'e' within 'h' (figure 4).

Figure 4: How to write 'the'.

An easy mistake to make is to go for the first e you see, and not the 'e' within 't' (figure 5).

Figure 5: How not to write 'the'.

The text box above the display shows what is being written. To start again, tap New


Training Dasher

Dasher uses two files to learn the language that you're writing.

The first is <DASHER_DIR>.rc*.txt (the precise file depends on the language), and this is supplied with Dasher. It is responsible for the initial training.

The second is c:and SettingsUSERNAME>Data.rc*.txt. This contains text that you have written while using Dasher, allowing it to learn new words and your style of writing. Over time, Dasher will adapt to you in order to allow you to write faster.


Entering text into other programs

Either copy and paste from the Dasher edit box in roder to copy text to a new application, or switch on "Enter text other application" mode and Dasher will write directly into the selected window.


View menu

Orientation

Alters the direction that the text moves in. If set to "Alphabet defined", the alphabet file will choose the appropriate direction for the alphabet.

Toolbar

Configures the toolbar

Speed slider

Controls whether the Speed slider is displayed or not

Fix layout

If switched on, the relative sizes of the edit box and the Dasher canvas will be kept the same


Speed slider

The speed slider controls how fast Dasher will move. Drag it to the right to go faster.


Options Menu

Edit general options

Opens the General Options menu

Edit advanced options

Opens the Advanced Options menu

Alphabet

Allows you to choose the alphabet you want

Colours

Allows you to choose the colour scheme you want

File encoding

Alters the format the files are saved in. You should not normally change this.

Font size

Alters the size of the moving characters

Editing font

Alters the font used in the edit box

Dasher font

Alters the font used for the moving characters

Reset fonts

Resets the fonts to the default fonts

Enter text into other window

This causes Dasher to enter text into whichever window is selected

Control mode

This causes an extra node to appear at the bottom of the alphabet. Here, you can edit text directly from within Dasher, cause Dasher to speak text that you have entered and stop or pause Dasher.


General Options

One dimensional mode

Maps the Y coordinate of the mouse position to an X/Y coordinate

Eyetracker mode

Behaves like one dimensional mode near the right hand edge of the screen, and normally elsewhere

Start on left mouse button

The left mouse button starts and stops Dasher

Start on space bar

The space bar starts and stops Dasher

Pause outside window

Moving the mouse pointer outside the window pauses Dasher

On mouse position

When Dasher is paused, a red box appears. Hold the cursor inside the red box until a yellow box appears. Hold the cursor inside the yellow box. Dasher will then start.

Speak on stop

Dasher will speak newly entered text when stopped

Draw outlines around boxes

Each box will have an outline drawn around it to make it more obvious

Timestamp new files

Each file will have the current time in its filename

Copy all on stop

When stopped, Dasher will copy all text to the clipboard automatically

Draw mouse position

Dasher will draw a box where the logical position of the pointer is. This works well in one dimensional mode.

Draw mouse line

Dasher will draw a line between the crosshairs and the current logical pointer position

Use preferred colours

Dasher will automatically switch colour scheme to the one defined in the alphabet file for the chosen alphabet


Advanced Options

Scale the Y input by this amount

This defines the number of pixels of Y input that should cover the entire canvas in one dimensional mode

Distance from centre line for start on mouse position

This defines the number of pixels from the centre line that the start on mouse position boxes will appear at

Degree of uniformity

This defines how uniform the size of boxes will be. At higher values, the boxes will be closer to being the same size. This may reduce your writing speed


Feedback

The Dasher website is at http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher . The Dasher authors may be contacted at dasher@mrao.cam.ac.uk