Many people with disabilities have trouble holding down two keys at once, making combinations like Control-D or Shift-Mouse-Click difficult. When StickyKeys is turned on, modifier keys (generally, Shift, Alt, Control, and Meta) stay active while you type another key or click a mouse button.
There are three ways to turn StickyKeys off:
Check the StickyKeys check box in the AccessX main window.
Press a modifier and any other key — for example, Shift-x or Control-Shift (valid only if you've started OpenWindows with the -accessx option).
Press two modifier keys at once (see under StickyKeys Settings).
Sticky keys may be either latched or locked:
You latch a modifier key by pressing it once.
A latched key stays active until a non-modifier key is pressed. Suppose that, with StickyKeys on, you press the Control key. It will stay “pressed” while you press the l key, giving you Control-L. Once you press l, Control is “released.”
You lock a modifier key by pressing it twice in succession.
The key stays locked until you press it again. For example, suppose you want to enter
:WR |
In this case, you would press Shift twice to lock it. Then you'd press the colon key and the letters w and r. To unlock Shift, press it again.
You can bring up a Status window to see which keys are latched or locked. (See Displaying the Status of Buttons and Keys.)
You can have your computer beep every time you press a modifier key (with StickyKeys on). Since pressing these keys latches, locks, or releases them, a beep can be a useful reminder that you've enabled or disabled a modifier. (It's easy to forget this in the course of normal typing.)
To enable this setting, check the “Sound when modifier pressed” check box in the Settings window. (See Figure E–4.)
When you check this box (in the Settings window), you allow yourself to turn off StickyKeys by pressing two modifiers at once (such as Control and Shift). Some people find this easier than clicking with a mouse or pressing Shift five times.