External Display BrowserMouse & keys3 min read

Mouse, Keyboard and Shortcuts: Making It Feel Like a Real Computer

A desktop on a monitor is only half the story. What turns it into something you can work on for hours is input, a pointer that moves the way you expect, a keyboard whose shortcuts do the right thing, and a sensible fallback for when you have neither. This guide covers all three.

Using a Bluetooth mouse

Pair it in iOS Settings › Bluetooth before opening XeOS. Once connected, you get a proper pointer on the external display, with hover states, right-click menus and scroll wheel support.

The Mouse pane in XeOS Settings, with sensitivity and scroll options. — Settings › Mouse, pointer speed, scroll speed and scroll direction.

If the cursor feels slow at every setting, this is why. iOS applies its own accessibility pointer tracking speed underneath the app's, and the two multiply. Set iOS Settings › Accessibility › Pointer Control › Tracking Speed to a high value first, then bring the sensitivity in XeOS down until it feels right. Doing it the other way round leaves you fighting a low ceiling.

Right-click works everywhere it should: on pages for the browser's context menu, on files for file operations, on tabs, dock items and sidebar entries for their own menus, and in any text field for Cut, Copy, Paste and Select All.

Using your phone as a trackpad

No mouse? Your device's screen becomes one. Swipe to move the pointer, tap to click, two-finger scroll.

Dragging works by long-press then drag, press and hold until the drag engages, then move. (It's deliberately not double-tap-then-drag, which fires accidentally far too often.) That's how you move windows, resize them and drag files.

Using a Bluetooth keyboard

Pair in iOS Settings › Bluetooth. Typing goes to whatever field has focus on the external display, and the shortcuts below all work.

The Keyboard pane in XeOS Settings. — Settings › Keyboard.

The on-screen keyboard

With no physical keyboard, tapping a text field raises the on-screen keyboard on your phone while the field stays on the big screen. With a mouse connected, the on-screen keyboard is suppressed by default, you presumably have a keyboard too, but the keyboard glyph in the status bar raises it any time you want it. There's also a setting to keep it available whenever a mouse is connected.

Dictation

The microphone glyph in the status bar starts speech recognition, and what you say is typed into whichever field on the external display has focus. Genuinely faster than a trackpad for a long search query or a message.

Shortcuts worth learning

Shortcut	What it does
Option Space	Search overlay, apps, sites, files, web
Ctrl Tab / Ctrl Shift Tab	Cycle open windows
Ctrl ↑ (Option ↑ on iPad)	Overview of every open window
Cmd T / Cmd W / Cmd Shift T	New tab / close / reopen closed
Cmd N	New window of the focused app
Cmd R	Reload
Cmd Shift F	Find on page
Cmd Shift R	Reading mode
Cmd Shift B	Show / hide bookmarks bar
Cmd + / − / 0	Zoom in / out / reset
Cmd S	Save (documents, PDFs, notes)
Cmd X / C / V / A	Cut, copy, paste, select all

The Shortcuts pane in XeOS Settings listing keyboard shortcuts. — Settings › Shortcuts, the full list.

Windows

Drag a title bar to move; drag an edge or corner to resize.
Drag a window to a screen edge to snap it to that half or corner.
Double-click a title bar to maximise.
Windows are kept on screen, change resolution and nothing gets stranded off the edge.
Whatever is open when you unplug reopens where it was next time.

Making it yours

Settings › Appearance covers theme (dark, light or automatic), accent colour, wallpaper and reduced transparency. If you came from Windows, you can move the window buttons to the right-hand side there too.

The Appearance pane in XeOS Settings with theme, accent and wallpaper options. — Settings › Appearance.

The XeOS desktop in light theme with two windows open. — The same desktop in light theme.

XeOS: External Display Browser turns an iPhone or iPad into a full desktop on any monitor, TV or projector.

Download XeOS on the App Store

Common questions

Does any Bluetooth mouse work?

Yes, anything iOS itself will pair with.

Can I hide the iOS pointer circle on iPhone?

No. On iPhone, the AssistiveTouch pointer indicator can't be hidden by an app through any public API, that's an iOS restriction, not an oversight. It's less intrusive than it sounds once you're working.