To change default settings, select
Preferences command in
Settings menu. This launches the
Preferences dialog, shown in
, , ,  and .
Preferences dialogDasher has support for many languages, and the choice of which language to write in is made with this dialog.  Note that some languages (for example, Hiragana, Korean and the International Phonetic Alphabet) may require fonts that you do not have installed.  For information on creating your own alphabet files, see the Dasher website.Preferences dialogDasher has support for different colour schemes.  The 'Default' colour scheme is a simple rotation of colours that should work with any language.  Enhanced colour schemes may be used for languages with logical groupings (such as Hiragana or Korean) or to increase contrast.Preferences dialogOne dimensional mode—maps the Y coordinate of the mouse position to an X/Y coordinate, for use with one-dimensional input methods.Eyetracker mode—optimisations for eyetrackers -- specifically, makes Dasher behave as in one-dimensional mode near the right hand edge of the screen.Start on left mouse button—the left mouse button starts and stops Dasher.Start on space bar—the space bar starts and stops Dasher.Start with mouse position—when Dasher is paused, a red box appears. Hold the cursor inside the red box until a yellow box appears. Hold the cursor inside the yellow box. Dasher will then start..Copy all on stop—when stopped, Dasher will copy all text to the clipboard automatically.Speak on stop—when stopped, Dasher will speak newly entered text automatically.Pause outside window—Dasher will pause if the mouse pointer moves outside its window.Preferences dialogOrientation—alters the direction that the text moves in. If set to "Alphabet default", the alphabet file will choose the appropriate direction for the alphabet.Show toolbar—you can hide Dasher's toolbar if you wish.  Calling dasher with the '-o' switch will open a reduced-options version of dasher, designed for entry into other applications.Show speed slider—enable/disable the speed slider.Show mouse position—in some situations (such as one-dimensional or eyetracker mode), the absolute position of the mouse will differ from Dasher's perception of the mouse position.  This option shows you where Dasher's mouse is.Draw line between crosshairs and mouse—helpful for users who have trouble keeping track of the pointer.Draw box outlines—increases the contrast around the edges of boxes, to help distinguish between them.Change colour scheme automatically—languages such as Hiragana are aware of which colour scheme they should be using.  This option allows an alphabet to select its colour scheme automatically.Preferences dialogSmoothing—adds a "uniform" element to the language model's predictions.  A smoothing value of 100 will result in an entirely uniform distribution being used -- each box will have the same size.Timestamp new files—each file created by Dasher will automatically have the current time in its filename.Distance from centreline for start on mouse position—controls the range for the 'Start on mouse position' option.Number of pixels that should cover the entire Y range—some input devices do not have enough gain to cover an entire Dasher window; this option increases the gain of displacement on the Y axis.
