BrailleNote: An overview of KeySoft Part 5: Switching to and exiting out of a task

In this last installment at a brief tour of KeySoft, let's take a look at how to switch tasks and exit from current activity. Exiting a task was briefly demonstrated on the first post in this series. Now, let's examine how we can actually switch to a different task.

Just like Windows Mobile's Task manager, BrailleNote's Task Menu allows you to switch to another task - but not shut it down. To access this menu, either go to Options Menu then press M for "Move to another task," or press the hotkey for this menu - SPACE with DOTS 2-3-5 (FN+S). KeySoft will announce, "Task menu." The items in this menu are similar to that of Main Menu. The difference now is that once you choose an item, keySoft goes directly to a likely task you'll perform using that program e.g. switching to the media file you are playing, asking the user to open a file, etc., unlike Main Menu, which opens the application menu upon selection of a program.

In addition to using Task Menu, KeySoft programs have dedicated shortcut keys, just as Windows Mobile devices have hardware buttons to move to different programs. These are not covered here due to amount of text, but a general overview is that, on braille keyboard models, the shortcut is the first letter of a program with BACKSPACE and ENTER. For instance, if you want to add a new contact, press BACKSPACE with ENTER with A for Address List, then if you want to continue with a chat you were having with someone, press BACKSPACE with ENTER with C for Chat. On qWERTY models, the numbers 4 through 0 in conjunction with FN key is used to open a select list of tasks e.g. FN+4 for word processor, FN+5 for calculator, FN+0 for web browser and so forth. Other tasks use FN with either a letter e.g. FN+B for braille terminal mode or FN+Shift+the first letter e.g. FN+Shift+D for Database manager.

As always, you can use exit command (SPACE with E/ESC) to quit the current task or a program. To close all programs except media player and web browser, go to main Menu (SPACE with DOTS 1-2-3-4-5-6 or MENU key).

Thanks for enjoying a brief tour of keySoft from Windows Mobile perspective. I'm sure you've learned something from this series...
// JL