The on-screen keyboard and number pad (Windows)
The Windows POS's own keyboard and number pad, for a touch screen with no keyboard. The key at the end of every box, the keyboard window, 123 to turn it into a number pad and ABC to turn it back, the number pad for amounts, the docked keyboard on the top bar, and what each box remembers.
On this page
Most counter PCs are touch screens with no keyboard plugged in. The Windows POS has its own keyboard and its own number pad, so every box can be typed into with a finger: a staff code, a password, an amount, a reason, a search.
There are three ways in:
- The key at the end of a box: a small button inside the box, at its right end. It opens the keyboard, or the number pad for a box that takes a number.
- 123 and ABC: from 0.2.52, the keyboard turns into a number pad with 123, and back with ABC.
- The docked keyboard: the ⌨ on the top bar of the table screen and the sales screen. It stays along the bottom of the screen and types into whichever box you tap.
A keyboard plugged in, and a barcode scanner, still type into every box as they always did.
The key at the end of a box
Every box you type into has a small grey key inside it, at its right end:
- ⌨ for words: a staff code, a password, a name, a reason, a search. Rest the pointer on it and it says On-screen keyboard.
- ▦ (a small grid of squares) for numbers: an amount, a quantity, a count of guests, a phone number, a PIN. It says Number pad.
Tap it, and the keyboard or the number pad opens over the screen, carrying on from what the box already holds.
The keyboard, part by part
This is the keyboard opened from Staff code on the sign-in screen.
Staff code
- The title: the name of the box you are typing into, here Staff code.
- What is typed: the box's words so far, with a blinking line where the next key goes. For a password, dots only: what you type is never shown, kept or written anywhere but in its box.
- The digits: 1 to 0, along the top, always there.
- ⇧: Capital letter. One tap makes the next letter a capital, as on a phone. It turns blue while it is on.
- ⌫: Delete: rubs out the last character.
- #+=: a page of signs (! @ # $ % & * and others). On that page, the same key says ABC and brings the letters back.
- 123: turns the keyboard into a number pad. See 123 and ABC.
- Clear: empties what is typed.
- Cancel: closes the keyboard. The box stays as it was before you opened it.
- Enter: puts what you typed in the box and closes the keyboard. Then the box does what Enter does there: moves on to the next box, searches, or signs in.
A keyboard plugged in types on this window too: its Enter is Enter, its Esc is Cancel, its Backspace is ⌫.
123 and ABC
From 0.2.52, every keyboard has a number pad inside it.
- Tap 123 on the bottom row. The letters give way to big number keys that fill the keyboard's width.
- Type the digits.
- To go back to the letters, tap ABC.
What you typed stays as it was: only the keys change.
Staff code
- ⌫: Delete, at the end of the top row.
- #+=: the page of signs.
- ABC: back to the letters.
- The point, 0 and the minus sign: on the bottom row with Clear (on the docked keyboard, Enter takes Clear's place).
Each box remembers its page
A box remembers, on this POS, whether it was last turned to 123 or ABC, and opens that way next time. If your staff codes are all digits, tap 123 once in Staff code: from then on its keyboard opens on the number pad, for everybody at this POS. The password box and the PIN box remember their own.
The number pad for numbers
A box that takes a number opens the POS's number pad instead: an amount, a price, a quantity, a weight, a count of guests, a phone number, a PIN.
Opening float (RM)
- The title: the box's name.
- The entry: what is keyed, large, at the right. Before you key anything it shows 0.00 in grey for an amount, 0 for a whole number. A PIN shows dots.
- .: the point. Grey for a box that takes whole numbers only (a quantity, guests, a phone number, a PIN). An amount takes two places after the point.
- ⌫: rubs out the last digit.
- Cancel: closes the pad. The box stays as it was.
- Clear: empties the entry. Grey while it is empty.
- Enter: puts the number in the box.
The number pad has no ABC: a number box takes numbers only. A phone number keeps its leading 0 (012 stays 012). A keyboard's digits, Backspace, Enter and Esc work on the pad too.
The docked keyboard
The ⌨ on the top bar opens a keyboard that sits along the bottom of the screen, not over it. You tap a box, type, tap the next box, type, as with a keyboard plugged in.
- On the table screen: in the top bar, just left of the language button (EN).
- On the sales screen: at the far right of the top bar, beside Refresh (↻).
- ⌨: On-screen keyboard. One tap opens the docked keyboard; another puts it away. It is lit while the keyboard is out.
- The line above the keys: the name of the box that has the focus. With no box chosen it says Tap a box to type into, in amber, and the keys are pale until you tap one.
- ✕: Close the keyboard.
- Enter: the box's own Enter, as a keyboard's: it moves on, searches or confirms, wherever Enter does that on the screen. It takes the place of Clear on this keyboard.
- Tap ⌨ on the top bar. The keyboard appears along the bottom.
- Tap the box you want to type into. Its name appears above the keys.
- Type. Each key goes straight into the box.
- Tap the next box and go on typing. A box for a number opens the keyboard on its number page.
- Tap ✕, or ⌨ again, when you are done.
The docked keyboard never covers the box you are typing into: when the box is low on the screen, the keyboard moves to the top of the screen instead. It stays open from screen to screen until you close it. It uses the same keys, 123 and ABC included, and each box opens on the page it was last turned to.
On the sign-in screen
Staff code and Password each have a ⌨ at their right end. Enter on the staff code's keyboard opens the password's keyboard at once; Enter on the password's keyboard signs in. See Sign in.