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Portable Keyboard Layout


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muse_ee
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@fmate14

Love your ahk script. It is much better behaved than the installed version, and portable on top of that!

I use this on a shared computer where people tend to get angry if I forget to turn off the mapping! It'd be great to have a timer of about 30 minutes after which the script will suspend (and not come out of suspension until clicked on). I downloaded and modified your script to do this, so my personal needs have been met. But, I wanted to see if you would be interested in incorporating this into your "official" version as an ini option so others can benefit.

MateFARKAS
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I downloaded and modified your script to do this, so my personal needs have been met. But, I wanted to see if you would be interested in incorporating this into your "official" version as an ini option so others can benefit.

Thank you for your feedback! I am happy for you can use my program.

What do you think, it is not better to go suspend after (for example) five minutes inactivity and if the user don't break the suspend mode exit after thirty minutes? If you give the shared computer to others, within five minutes they can cry to you…

Sorry my english.

MateFARKAS
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Dear muse_ee! What do you think?
I would like publish the version 0.3 soon, and I would like build in your idea if possible.

muse_ee
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Sorry - forgot to reply! I like your idea of two modes - suspend then shutdown. Might want to make the two times (time to suspend, time to auto-close) configurable in the ini file though so users can set this to their own preferences.

aoeui
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Thank you, fmate14.

PKL is awesome!

I use a customized Dvorak layout. When someone else use my computer, I just open PKL in standard QWERTY laout. I don't have to keep QWERTY layout in my language bar.

When I use other computers, I just open PKL in my customized Dvorak layout. I don't have to install the keyboard layout (which is generated by MS Keyboard Layout Creator). And MSKLC has a lot of restrictions, like swapping Caps Lock and Backspace, PKL just meets my needs.

But I got some problems when using PKL:


1. When the Caps Lock is on, the Caps Lock LED keeps blinking when typing. Of course, it's not a big problem. But I think it will be better if the LED doesn't blink.


2. I'm Chinese. In East-Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea, people use IME to type characters of their own language. Most Chinese IMEs use Shift key to toggle beween Chinese Input Mode and English Input Mode. Just a hit on Left Shift or Right Shift will toggle between these two modes. But if you wanna type capital A, you hit Shift + a, and under this situation, the Input Mode doesn't change.

But PKL seems has a problem here. If you wanna type Right Shift + a, PKL sends a Shift Down command. So the Input Mode of the IME will change. I have to hit Right Shift again to go back to the previous mode. It is anonying especially when doing a lot of typing. :( (Right Shift has this problem, Left Shift seems okay.)

I don't know if it is possible for you to modify the script to not send Shift Down when typing key combinations like Right Shift + a/s/d... .


Thank you. :)

MateFARKAS
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1. When the Caps Lock is on, the Caps Lock LED keeps blinking when typing. Of course, it's not a big problem. But I think it will be better if the LED doesn't blink.

I think too. But it is because of AutoHotkey, I can't do anything.


2. I'm Chinese. In East-Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea, people use IME to type characters of their own language. Most Chinese IMEs use Shift key to toggle beween Chinese Input Mode and English Input Mode. Just a hit on Left Shift or Right Shift will toggle between these two modes. But if you wanna type capital A, you hit Shift + a, and under this situation, the Input Mode doesn't change.

But PKL seems has a problem here. If you wanna type Right Shift + a, PKL sends a Shift Down command. So the Input Mode of the IME will change. I have to hit Right Shift again to go back to the previous mode. It is anonying especially when doing a lot of typing. :( (Right Shift has this problem, Left Shift seems okay.)

I don't know if it is possible for you to modify the script to not send Shift Down when typing key combinations like Right Shift + a/s/d... .

PKL don't send Shift Down if you don't remap it. So... In the layout.ini you can remap the keyboard layout, but the keys which don't listed in here remain the original. (Sorry my very poor english).
Because Dvorak doesn't remap the right shift, if you press it, it will be pressed. :) (Like Escape, F1-F12 etc.)

But you can remap Right Shift to Left Shift if you want (see ddvorak for example).

didier69
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Hi,

when I use pkl with another autohotkey scripts I wrote, I can't use the shortcuts I made. For example:
^!x::
Run, c:\program files\puttycyg-20071202\putty.exe -load cygwin
return

is not working any more.

Do you have any idea why it doesn't work ?

Regards.

MateFARKAS
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is not working any more.
Do you have any idea why it doesn't work ?

I know it, but I don't have any idea. For me with PKL I can not play anything (car simulator of First Person Shoot game). -- I must disable PKL if I want to play, but I don't play games, so it is not to bad. ;)

It is recommend to use a native keyboard driver if possible.

Ola
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Hi, How do you create the layouts? Are there any documentation available?

I looked in the utilities folder in the SVN repository but couldn't figure out how it worked...

I have been using some standalone scripts for the Swedish Dvorak layout (http://aoeu.info/) but I think it would be nicer to have my layouts in PKL than in different files (I use some customizations to my layouts on different keyboards).

Best regards,

Ola

MateFARKAS
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Hi, How do you create the layouts? Are there any documentation available?

No, there is no documentation, because I don't speak well english.

I use this:
* Copy the .klc (generated from MS Keyboard Layout Creator) to the utilities directory
* run klc2ini.pl (requires Perl)
* review out/layout.ini
* run ini2html
Generating images is NOT so easy:
* move the files into it's folder within layouts
* run generateAllImages.pl and generateImages.bat
* it is not easy, because requires a specific Firefox and ImageMagick

If your layout is final, I can generate this files for you. (Final means: I make it to you now, but not now AND at the next week AND at the next week AND…)[/list]

Ola
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Wao! Thanks a lot! I had missed out the MS Keyboard Layout Creator -part but I'll have a go at it later.

I'm planning on doing some optimizations to my layouts (moving around some keys) so I think I'll play around with it myself. Thanks for offering to make the layout though.

Have a nice weekend. Best regards,

Ola

Ola
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I have done some progress with my layouts! Thanks a lot!

I generated the layout in MKLC (Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4) and converted it to a PKL (Portable Keyboard Layout) ini-file (as you described). I think it worked fine. I have one problem though... The shortcuts are as if I'm using QWERTY rather than my custom layout. I couldn't find any settings in either MKLC or PKL.

KLC file: http://pastebin.com/f468a20a3
Generated PKL ini-file: http://pastebin.com/f416aeb6a

When using standard Autohotkey scripts I could use the following to remap CapsLock key to an other Ctrl-key:
CapsLock::Ctrl
;RCtrl::CapsLock
(I have similar code for swapping CapsLock and Left Shift on my Kinesis Contoured keyboard) I couldn't get that to work with PKL. Are there any similar features? I looked into the extend_key but I didn't understand how to use it.

What do you mean by "specific Firefox"? Could you describe the image generation progress a bit more?

Thanks a lot for all support and help!

MateFARKAS
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(I have similar code for swapping CapsLock and Left Shift on my Kinesis Contoured keyboard) I couldn't get that to work with PKL. Are there any similar features? I looked into the extend_key but I didn't understand how to use it.

See the sample.ini or the DDvorak layout.

Creating images: load the .html into a Firefox, capture the whole page (for example with FastIcon Screen Capture, or Screengrab, etc.) It is important to capture the whole page! I use the ScreenGrab extension. <!-- m -->https://addons.mozil...efox/addon/1146<!-- m -->
Then copy the captured .png file into the utilities folder and run the split_png.pl

MrPG
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First of all, sorry for asking a stupid question - I see many multi-language users here and feel that I just can't find something obvious that everyone else knows.

I use two languages: English and Russian. In English I want to use a Colemak layout, and in Russian - the default system one. Obviously I want to have some convenient switch key - say, Left Shift.

If I just use a system hotkey (Ctrl-Shift) to switch languages while the Colemak layout is active, I get Russian letters but they are displaced according to Colemak mapping.

What is the correct way to do it? Do I have to make my own Russian layout and switch to it using PKL? Or is there some other way?

MateFARKAS
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If I just use a system hotkey (Ctrl-Shift) to switch languages while the Colemak layout is active, I get Russian letters but they are displaced according to Colemak mapping.


As I wrote some times, it's recomenend to use native keyboard layout instead of PKL. Download and install the Colemak's layout.

If it is not possible to use native layout (for example at school) use PKL with Colemak AND Russial layouts!