HandOFF! is an onscreen keyboard program for MS Windows based desktop and notebook computers. It is preprogrammed with the most commonly required keyboard layouts. The speech is clear and quite acceptable. The key arrangements on each keyboard layout are easy to learn and follow. HandsOFF! has inbuilt switch access and can be used with a mouse, trackball, head pointer, joystick, touch window or switche(s). It sends keystroks to your target application, launches new applications, switches between tasks and can re-size your application windows.

The HandsOFF! grids can be moved around the screen or reduced to an icon - and you can bring it back with a click of your pointing device or at the touch of a switch. Apart from the many built in features and functions, it is relatively easy to configure. You need only to click with the right mouse button on any cell button to cal up the simple editor screen that allows you create a new layout or edit individual cell contents.

HandsOFF! has a range of input options including switch styles for single or multiple switches. The program offers sophisticated control over timing, and response, as well as intelligent ways to recover from errors in switching. In addition to the pre-programmed scanning modes, HandsOFF! allows the use of coded input, such as Morse Code and Microwriting, for users requiring rapid entry.

It is a very comprehensive program with numerous features. The startup menu keyboard appears on the bottom left of the screen display. Depending on your screen resolution, it will take up only a fifth of the screen (in 1024 x 768 XGA mode) to about one quarter of the screen (in 800 x 600 VGA mode). You can change the dimensions at any time. You can also decrease or increase the size of the HandsOFF! keyboards in the Cell Setup dailogue box.

The onscreen keyboard can be repositioned to the top left or right of the screen, or to the bottom left or right, depending upon the users's needs. Some applications or menus might be obscured so that you might wish to access it in different screen posiitons when using it with particular software packages. You can temporarily hide the onscreen display by pressing on an "eye" icon (Hide). It reduces the window to a very small icon that once selected, re-displays the current onscreen keyboard to its previuos, size function and position. In its reduced size, the icon is a picture of a hand with a finger outstretched touching a key. It appears in the top left hand corner of the screen display as a small window. It can be moved to any other part of the screen (by clicking and dragging it to reposition it).

A selection of commonly used keyboards that can all be customized and rearranged is available including:

• Alpha - where the keys are arranged alphabetically and displayed in lower case characters
• Fastscan - Where the mose commonly used keys are positioned so that the user can access them quickly
• QWERTY - the keyboard layout used on all standard keyboards. It is not the most effective nor the fastest to work with, but represents the typical mainstream key layout used on most computers today
• Auditory - this is a layout that contains the alphabet with Shift, Alt and Control keys, as well as the Enter and Space Bar keys. The period and comma are included with the question mark key, with an icon of a hand pointing backwards (displayed on a colored background) that indicates that you wish to return to the previous layout. This 'hand icon' is displayed on all layouts and is a global option in all layouts (with the exception of the main grid).

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