3.5 Keyboard Mapping

Keyboard mapping is a new useful feature available in Private Shell 1.4. By using it you can define the character sequence that is sent to the server when you press a specific key.

This has two primary uses - you can customize Private Shell to work with non-standard terminal servers or use this feature as a macro to save time by assigning often-typed phrases to hotkeys.

Use default keyboard mapping for current terminal type

Tells Private Shell to use default keyboard mapping for currently selected terminal type. (Hint: the current terminal type is selected in the Terminal page).

Use default keyboard mapping for terminal

Tells Private Shell to use standard keyboard mapping for a specific terminal. In this case you can select a terminal type from the list of available types located to the right of this option.

Custom keyboard mapping

This option lets you set up your own keyboard mapping. In most cases it is enough only to edit existing items if you want to customize Private Shell to work with a non-standard terminal server. This is done by selecting an item in the list and clicking the "Edit" button. You will see the "Edit Key Action" dialog.

However, if you want to assign an often-typed phrase to a hot-key, you should click the "Add" button. You shouldn't delete or edit existing key mappings in such a case because it can lead to partial or full Private Shell inoperability.

You can use the "Remove" button to delete selected key mapping from the list.

Edit Key Action Dialog

Predefined key / Custom Key

Usually you check the "Custom key" option and enter the desired hotkey in the corresponding field. But you cannot enter keys like "Enter", "Space", "Escape" etc. in this manner. If you need to map one of these keys (or a key combination with these keys), you should check the "Predefined key" option and select the key you need from the drop-down list.

Character sequence produced by the key

If you check the "Sequence depends on terminal mode" box, you can enter different sequences for different terminal (cursor keys and numpad) modes, otherwise sequence produced by the key will always be the same.

Use the following rules to enter non-printable characters:

• Escape code (0x1B) is entered as "\E".
• CR, LF and Tab (0x0D, 0x0A and 0x09) are entered as "\r", "\n" and "\t" correspondingly.
• Symbols "\", "%" and "^" are entered as "\\", "\%" and "\^" respectively.
• You can enter any other symbol if you know its hex code as "%xx" where "xx" is its hex code.
• You can enter a symbol with the hex code from 0x01 to 0x1A as "^A" .. "^Z".

Convert sequence to terminal code page

Check this box if you want the sequence to be translated in compliance with the selected terminal code page. Usually it is not needed (unless you do use national symbols in the sequence).