Using Remapping Utilities to Remap the Keys on Your Keyboard


By this point, you should have your keyboard pretty well configured. But there s one more option you should be aware of: you can remap the keys on your keyboard so that they produce different keystrokes than normal for the keyboard layout you re using.

This is where it gets a little weird. With a standard keyboard layout, such as U.S. English, you ll get the letter for the key you press: press [C], you get a c , and so on. If you ve applied a different keyboard layout, such as Dvorak, you ll get a different letter for that same key: press [C], and you get a j , because that s where the j is in the Dvorak layout. But even with a different keyboard layout applied, you can remap any given key so that it produces a different keystroke yet.

Fair enough, you may be saying ”but why would you want to remap a key from your chosen layout? The usual reason is to work around a marginally abnormal layout that the manufacturer has designed into your laptop. For example, for years Toshiba designed its laptop keyboards with only one [Alt] key, which was positioned in the regular location for the left [Alt] key. Anyone used to using the right [Alt] key was straight out of luck if they or their company bought a Toshiba laptop. But with a remapping utility, they could make the key Toshiba put in the right [Alt] position into an [Alt] key, thus saving time and temper. Similarly, some people like to swap the positions of [Ctrl] and [CapsLock] on their keys to make typing easier. Others find they want to put a [ z ] key next to a [Shift] key so that they can invoke keyboard shortcuts more easily on Mac OS X.

To remap the keys, you use a remapping utility. If you search on the Web, you ll find various remapping utilities ”mostly for Windows, but you ll find some for the Mac as well if you search diligently. Some remappers are free, having been written by disgruntled keyboard users who choose to share the fruits of their labors. Others cost a few dollars.

At this writing, one of the best freeware remappers for Windows XP is Travis Krumsick s KeyTweak, which you can download from http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/. KeyTweak has a straightforward interface in which you specify which physical key to remap, which logical key to remap it to, and then commit the changes.




Adobe Creative Suite Keyboard Shortcuts
Adobe Creative Suite Keyboard Shortcuts
ISBN: 0072254998
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 91

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