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Easily remap and create customized keyboard layouts
Authored by: thoughton on Jun 30, '05 03:24:30PM

That webpage is pretty non-descriptive :)

What does the app do? It looks like an app for colouring in keyboards on screen. I hope that isn't actually the case...



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Easily remap and create customized keyboard layouts
Authored by: Arturia on Jun 30, '05 11:31:24PM
Indeed, it's not really descriptive ;-)

The prog is specifically made for remapping a keyboard.

Here's what's said in the read me's:

Guide on Creating .keylayout Files Using Keyboard Builder

Keyboard Builder displays a keyboard using a number of text fields. Each text field is in
place of a key which would mean editing the text in that field would change the output of
that key when pressed. To add characters that can't be typed requires the need to drag
and drop them on the key. There is a table that shows every character; and it is available
by clicking on the 'Edit' menu and selecting 'Special Characters...'. This is automatically
built into most text editing applications. From there, just simply drag and drop the
character onto the keyboard where it should go.

To add characters that can't be typed like the delete, return, escape, and others just
simply type the name of it in the text field. For example, type in 'return' for the return
key. After clicking in another text field it should update that last field's text color to
a blue color signifying that it is now has a 'return' value in it.

A keyMap is what a keyboard uses when say for example a user holds down a modifier like
the shift key. Different characters are outputted when holding down the shift key and
these characters can be assigned much the same way as described above. First look at the
bottom of a Keyboard Builder document and there will be a box titled: 'keyMap' this box
has a popup menu and two buttons titled 'new' and 'delete'. The popup menu displays the
current keyMap that is being displayed in the keyboard text fields. Clicking on new will
create a new keyMap and will change all those text fields to be blank. Now, adding
characters to the above text fields will only be accessed by this new keyMap. Switch back
and forth between keyMaps using the keyMap popup button.

To assign a modifier, like the shift key modifier, to a keyMap just select the keyMap in
the keyMaps popup menu and then click on the check box that just so happens to be in the
shift key location. These check boxes can have 3 different states: unchecked, dashed, and
checked. Putting a check in one means that this key must be down in order to access the
current displayed keyMap. Unchecked would then mean that the key must not be pressed down
. A horizontal line in the check box means the key can be either down or up.

These modifiers are also displayed in a popup menu in the box titled 'modifier keys for
current keyMap'. To make things even more complicated... there can be multiple modifier
groups all assigned to one keyMap. These are all displayed in that popup menu. Selecting
one of the items in that popup will change the modifier check boxes.

Guide on Installing Keyboards in Mac OS X

Locate the .keylayout file and move it to '~/Library/Keyboard Layouts' folder to make it
usable only by the current user. Or, move it to the system's folder which is located at:
'/Library/Keyboard Layouts'. If the folder 'Keyboard Layouts' is not there then just
create one with the name 'Keyboard Layouts'.

Now, when the .keylayout file is in the Keyboard Layouts folder just logout completely and
back in to activate the keyboard. Next, open up System Preferences and click on 'International'.
Click on 'Input Menu' and there will be a list of all the keyboard layouts. Scroll down until
the keyboard that was recently put in the folder is displayed and click the checkbox next to it.
This will add it to the list in the menu bar which has a little flag. Click on the menu and select
the keyboard.

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