 
The problem
Some clever guys (names are known to
the author ;-) once invented a graphical user interface with mouse
support and dozens of nifty features. During the development, someone
must have had a bad day and decided to use the tab key to move the
cursor from field to field; the enter key instead activates the
so called "default button" where available. This was a
bad decision for at least three reasons:
- Old habits: Those users
who have been using DOS based programs were simply used to pressing
the enter key to move to the next field. It has been my experience
that it is a useless discussion when trying to teach them to use
the tab key: they won't get it. Instead, you can often watch people
taking their hands off their keyboard, grabbing their mouse, point
to the next field and click it - a very time consuming, ineffective
process!
- Key location: If you look
at your keyboard (supposed you have a standard one), you'll see
that the enter key is the largest key by far. Believe me, this
HAD a reason when those things were invented! The tab key on the
far left of the keyboard is definitely harder to reach, even for
those users that are able to do 10 finger writing.
- Numeric keypad: Those users
who have to enter large amounts of numeric data usually do this
with the small numeric keypad on the right of the keyboard,
using the left hand to "navigate" on a piece of paper.
If you look closer you'll notice that there is no tab key on the
numeric keypad. This results in the people having to take their
finger off their paper sheet to press the tab key, slowing down
data entry and increasing the number of typing errors.
What can you do? As an end user, your
only chance until now was to contact the developers of the software
and ask them to include support for Enter=Tab conversion in their
applications. If possible at all, this is a time consuming and therefore
expensive task in most cases. Until now...
The solution
EntabberPro aims directly at the above
mentioned problems. It enables Enter=Tab conversion for ALL win32
gui applications*
by simply running a small program in the background.
No changes to your existing applications
are required! So, how does it work? EntabberPro monitors all
pressed keys before they are sent to the target applications; if
it detects an enter key it checks it's internal database and if
required changes the key stroke to a tab key. This process is "invisible"
to the target of the key press, IOW the running applications don't
even "know" that the enter key had been pressed at all.
Download a free 30-day evaluation
version now!
*
EntabberPro does NOT support console mode applications; 16bit applications
ARE supported, but additional considerations will have to be made,
depending on the operating system used.
Features
Unlike the free version of Entabber,
which only does a general, system wide Enter=Tab replacement, the
pro version allows fine tuning so it can EXACTLY fit your needs:
- Choosable apps
(Screenshot 1)
You can choose for which
applications to enable the Enter=Tab conversion individually (since
it doesn't make sense in all cases). Simply add the application's
executable to the list and activate the checkbox to Enter=Tab
enable it.
It is also possible to choose a default setting (enabled or disabled)
for applications not listed.
- Chooseable classes (Screenshot
2)
Similar to choosing the applications,
you can select individual window classes as well. For some window
classes (push buttons, for example) it might not be wanted for
the enter key to act like tab, for others (edit controls, ...)
it might very well be.
You can easily populate standard classes by choosing predefined
sets from a menu (by default, presets for standard Windows controls,
the Windows common controls, Clarion controls and Borland controls
are available).
Adding unknown classes is also easy: Using the built-in targeting
system, it's just a matter of point-and-click!
Each of the classes can be enter=tab enabled individually. There's
also a default setting for window classes not listed.
- Advanced options (Screenshot
3)
- You can treat the regular enter
key and the enter on the numeric keypad differently: For those
who are typing large amounts of numbers can turn the enter
key on the numeric keypad into a tab, whereas the regular enter
key stays unchanged.
- Optionally, you can generate an
enter key stroke by pressing Ctrl+Enter.
- Additionally you might want to choose a global hotkey that
toggles EntabberPro's activity, no matter what application you're
currently typing to. The icon in the system tray reflects the
current activity state (see screenshots below).
Licensing and prices
Licenses are available both for end users
and for developers:
- End
user licenses
These are very fairly priced licenses directly for end users.
The number of applications for which to enable Enter=Tab conversion
is not limited in any way. Actual pricing depends on the
number of users (see chart below)
Screenshots:
You'll never see much of EntabberPro
except the tray icon showing the current activity state ( =enabled
or  =disabled),
so here are some screenshots of the options dialog):
  
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