NetTerm Keyboard Customization

I have not been maintaining this tutorial since 1996 and stopped using telnet to create and edit files in VMS. Please do not send me questions about NetTerm. I only use VMS to check directory structure, run programs, and do account maintenance. Everything else I create in the PC and FTP to VMS. With WS_FTP I can create and delete directories, and even run some programs remotely. Of course the University continues to use VMS to run an IMAP server to manage mail folders, but I use either PC-Pine or Pegasus Mail to process my mail.

Table of contents:

Parts a and b are valid no matter if you have NetTerm or not. In this later case, I suggest you see how is done in NetTerm or PROCOMM, and look for similar facilities in the manual of your software. This is not an endorsement of NetTerm.

A. Keys common to all applications in the VT-100 emulation

KEY	Normal VT-100 action	Regular PC action	code to make keyboard work as regular PC
BACKSPACE	beginning of line	delete character left	hexa 7F or decimal 127
DELETE (not in numeric keypad)	delete character left	delete character right	^[Ol
HOME (not in numeric keypad)	nothing	go to beginning of line	^H
END (not in numeric keypad)	nothing	go to end of line	^E

These keys are the ones that generate the highest level of annoyance to PC users when in VT-100 emulation.

B. The EDT/ TPU keys: to be used to edit files and/or messages in VAXMail.

KEY	Normal VT-100 action	Regular PC action	code to make keyboard work as regular PC
PAUSE/BREAK	none	none - to be used to issue the COMMAND (GO) in EVE	^[OP^[Ow
PgUp	none	move 1 page up in text	^[Ou^[Ox
PgDn	none	move 1 page dawn in text	^[Ot^[Ox
- (in numeric keypad)	delete line	- use to delete line	^[OS
F9	none	none - to be used to center text in line	^[OP^[OwCENTER^M
F10	none	none - to be used to reformat paragraphs (EVE FILL command)	^[OP^[Ox

Note:

If for any reason your VT-100 emulation is not mapping the GOLD key (VT-100) to the NUMLOCK key (PC) as it should, program the NUMLOCK key with the code ^[OP

C. How to customize the keyboard in NetTerm (Windows 3.1and 95).

1. Before changing anything create a backup copy of the file netterm.ini in the Windows directory.
2. select the Keyboard icon in the toolbar. You will see the following image:
   
   
3. click on the key to be customized.
4. the data entry aread after the change button will show its present definition, if any.
5. enter the codes as shown in parts A and B of this tutorial.
6. press the change button, then the save button and save in DEFAULT by pressing OK in the popup dialog.
   (repeat 3,4,5,6 for each PC key you want to change).
7. press OK after you have changed all keys. You are done with all but the Backspace key.
8. exit NetTerm.
9. open the file netterm.ini located in the Windows directory (not in the NetTerm directory) in notepad, or other text editor (don't do this in a word processor).
10. find the section [KEYS-WORDPERFECT] in this file.
11. find the line 46[Del]=|||||| and copy |||||| that is after the equal sign (the first | will be thicker and shorter -- a special symbol).
12. find the section [KEYS-DEFAULT] that is located before the section you are now.
13. find the line 8[BS]= and paste |||||| after the equal sign. If a line 8[BS]= is not there create one and paste the |||||| after the equal sign.
14. save the netterm.ini file, and you are done.

This page is maintained by Al Bento who can be reached at abento@ubmail.ubalt.edu. Although we will attempt to keep this information accurate, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided. This page was last updated on October 10, 1999.