| 1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic
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| 3 | PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 4 |
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| 5 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="soft-keyb">
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| 6 | <title>Soft Keyboard</title>
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| 7 |
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| 8 |
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| 9 | <body>
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| 10 | <p>
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| 11 | Oracle VM VirtualBox provides a <i>soft keyboard</i> that
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| 12 | enables you to input keyboard characters on the guest. A soft
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| 13 | keyboard is an on-screen keyboard that can be used as an
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| 14 | alternative to a physical keyboard. See
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| 15 | <xref href="soft-keyb-using.dita#soft-keyb-using"/>
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| 16 | for details of how to use the
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| 17 | soft keyboard.
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| 18 | </p>
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| 19 | <note type="caution">
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| 20 | <p>
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| 21 | For best results, ensure that the keyboard layout configured on
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| 22 | the guest OS matches the keyboard layout used by the soft
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| 23 | keyboard. Oracle VM VirtualBox does not do this automatically.
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| 24 | </p>
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| 25 | </note>
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| 26 | <fig id="fig-soft-keyb">
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| 27 | <title>Soft Keyboard in a Guest Virtual Machine</title>
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| 28 | <xref href="images/softkeybd.png" format="png" platform="htmlhelp">
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| 29 | <image href="images/softkeybd.png" width="14cm" placement="break" id="image_u5k_f4r_wwb"/>
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| 30 | </xref>
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| 31 | <image platform="ohc" href="images/softkeybd.png" width="14cm" placement="break" id="image_u5k_f4r_wwb"/>
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| 32 | </fig>
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| 33 | <p>
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| 34 | The soft keyboard can be used in the following scenarios:
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| 35 | </p>
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| 36 | <ul>
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| 37 | <li>
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| 38 | <p>
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| 39 | When the physical keyboard on the host is not the same as the
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| 40 | keyboard layout configured on the guest. For example, if the
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| 41 | guest is configured to use an international keyboard, but the
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| 42 | host keyboard is US English.
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| 43 | </p>
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| 44 | </li>
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| 45 | <li>
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| 46 | <p>
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| 47 | To send special key combinations to the guest. Note that some
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| 48 | common key combinations are also available in the
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| 49 | <b outputclass="bold">Input</b>,
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| 50 | <b outputclass="bold">Keyboard</b> menu of the guest VM
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| 51 | window. See <xref href="specialcharacters.dita#specialcharacters"/>.
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| 52 | </p>
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| 53 | </li>
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| 54 | <li>
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| 55 | <p>
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| 56 | For guests in kiosk mode, where a physical keyboard is not
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| 57 | present.
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| 58 | </p>
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| 59 | </li>
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| 60 | <li>
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| 61 | <p>
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| 62 | When using nested virtualization, the soft keyboard provides a
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| 63 | method of sending key presses to a guest.
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| 64 | </p>
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| 65 | </li>
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| 66 | </ul>
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| 67 | <p>
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| 68 | By default, the soft keyboard includes some common international
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| 69 | keyboard layouts. You can copy and modify these to meet your own
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| 70 | requirements. See <xref href="soft-keyb-custom.dita#soft-keyb-custom"/>.
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| 71 | </p>
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| 72 | </body>
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| 73 |
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| 74 |
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| 75 | </topic>
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