One of the greatest challenges facing the DX1 owner is getting the most out of the device. The sense of accomplishment you experience every time you discover another possible use is astonishing but you have an ally in your quest: the Ergodex Manager.
Once you install the Ergodex software, your pad is ready to run and you can begin assigning functions to its keys. Your first move should be to place some keys on the actual pad, using them in numerical order is recommended although not vital. Calling up the DX1 control center is fairly straight-forward and can be achieved either through a button located on the frame of the device or through your desktop by double-clicking on the blue palm on your task bar.
Once the software is up and running you are presented with a choice of actions. A drop-down menu on the top left allows you to switch between the profiles of various applications so that each one has a unique set of commands assigned to each DX1 key. You are also given the option of creating a new profile for an application that is not listed. The DX1 software can recognize which executable is running and call up the appropriate profile. So as you switch from one application to the other, say from your media player to your browser, the Ergodex Manager will switch profiles automatically. Some popular applications such as Firefox and MS Word come with preset macros while you can also create a global profile which simply means that the global profile assignments take precedence over those in the other profiles.
Using the Manager software for assigning macros or single-keystrokes is a simple enough task. You press the key you wish to assign a function to and you then name the macro and select whether you wish the key to have a single-key, a multi-key, a text block or a program/file/URL macro. All this is fairly straight-forward but there is much more going on and there are options within options should you wish to go for the more elaborate setup. Ideally you should start by keeping things simple and gradually up the ante by experimenting with more complicated options such as the timing settings.
DX1 Skins with and without grid
Once you have started using the DX1 and have created a few profiles you will soon discover that different games or applications need different key placement, something which can cause confusion. The Ergodex Manager software tackles that problem by allowing users to create skins for each profile and by also allowing impressions of each key to be placed on those skins. Skins consist of an image of your choice as background and the location of each key mapped onto that image. To make things easier a grid can also be superimposed on the skin in order to help you get the key placement as accurate as possible. The application can then print your custom skin which you can place under the plastic tray that covers the DX1 pad.
Now that you know how to assign macros to the DX1 keys read on to find out what you get for your toils.
Keeper of the Keys