The Dial Pad has undergone a lot of revisions in MacDialer. Early on, it was a very simple representation of the buttons on a telephone handset. Then it morphed into an input field (for phone numbers) and a search field for searching the internet. In v2.0, it became a multi-purpose utility that was handier than the prior versions.
The Dial Pad is available to be shown using a set of user-defined hot keys. You can edit these hot keys in the preferences window. Once set, you can activate the Dial Pad by either the hot keys or by the "Dial Pad" menu item of MacDialer's main menu. Activating the Dial Pad opens up a rectangular, semi-transparent window.
While this window is active, you can type a name or a number into the field. A list pops up showing entries in your Address Book that contains similar information. You can click on an entry and pick the number from a second list that shows or you can continue typing to filter the list more or, if you are entering a number be to dialed, finish typing. You can then click the dial button on the left to dial with MacDialer or, if you have selected someone from the list, you can show them in the Address Book.
The Dial Pad is designed to be entirely navigatable by the keyboard. If you have typed a name, you can use the up and down arrows to select from the list and the left or right arrow keys to move from the entries list to the numbers list. If you wish to delete your entry you can use the delete key above the "\" key to remove one letter at a time or press the del key under the help key (on most keyboards) to remove the entire string. Pressing return will perform an action on the currently selected item or number. You can also press the tab key to toggle between dialing with MacDialer or showing in the Address Book. You can close the Dial Pad by clicking anywhere outside of it or pressing the escape key.