• You are not logged in.
  • Index
  • Technical
  • Problems with keymappings in Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4

    Problems with keymappings in Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4

    • Started by assassassin
    • 9 Replies:
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 24-May-2016
    • Posts: 11

    Hello everybody,

    I have been using colemak for a few days now and have decided that I want to redo my whole keyboard. I designed my board to fit in 4 German characters and remap rarely used characters ($§) to AltGr positions. All in all, my current design is this for a Pok3r.

    So far so good, but the Keyboard Layout Creator is driving me crazy. I can't map ß to the first row (numbers). If I map it to something like AltGr+s it sometimes works and then three tries later when I have mapped a few more keys it starts giving me errors. Same thing with normal keys like z, but only sometimes.

    The Error I am getting is the following:

    Error 2020 \tmpgercoleman.txt, line 42): VK_'Z' (5a) found at scancode 15 and 2c.

    I have looked into the klc file in that specific line and it is the KEYNAME line. I am suspecting some names are missing, but when I try to manually add those lines it the program can't load the file.
    I have updated the ascii list, that can't be it.

    If anybody can help me, it would be awesome!

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 24-May-2016
    • Posts: 11

    So after having some tests, I narrowed the faulty keys to be VK_OEM_0x and VK_OEM_MINUS which are the following keys on qwerty: -=[]\;'/.

    I can't bind anything on them without getting the error code from my initial post.

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 117
    • From: UK
    • Registered: 14-Apr-2014
    • Posts: 975

    KLC is not particularly great, there are certain things that you can't change using the program, and they get written to the output file anyway. I don't know if that's the cause of your particular problem or not.  What I would do is save the layout in a file, edit the file manually in a text editor, and then re-import it in order to generate the installer. That way you can read exactly what all the mappings are and change them to your preference.

    BTW why switch the Y and Z?

    Last edited by stevep99 (24-May-2016 10:31:26)

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 24-May-2016
    • Posts: 11

    Do you know a tutorial for editing the file in a text editor? I am not sure I can get the syntax right.

    Also switching Y and Z is the standard for German keyboards.

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 24-May-2016
    • Posts: 11

    I did it! I took the colemak template from "Load Existing keyboards" and edited what I wanted. Everything is fine now, even the dead keys work. However, changing the description now is impossible because then I get error  warnings and can't build the DLL.

    Oh god, this program needs a serious overhaul.

    edit: nope, some keys are simply vanished :(

    Last edited by assassassin (24-May-2016 12:36:31)
    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 210
    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,343

    Don't blame MSKLC, but know what it is you're doing. You're apparently trying to put two values into a C variable (VK_Z). Obviously, that won't work. The error is because MSKLC actually helped you see that you messed up. ;-)

    Solution: Make sure no more than one key in your layout is marked as VirtualKey Z.

    I don't remember which scan codes those keys represent (15 and 2c), but if you don't know what you did wrong yourself you could always look them up. Switching Y and Z was mentioned, so maybe you just forgot to change the Z key to VirtualKey Y?

    Last edited by DreymaR (25-May-2016 05:58:43)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 24-May-2016
    • Posts: 11

    I got it to work, but you can't tell me the program is flawless. If I started a completely new layout and only tried to bind ß to something like the key above Enter it wouldn't work. Also binding the same character multiple times to different keys gives a warning but not an error.

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 210
    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,343

    I can't tell you that anything concerning computers is flawless. This program is free and worth every penny, sure.

    But instead of blaming the program for your beginner mistakes, try to educate yourself. Sorry, but layout editing for the populace isn't something Microsoft chose to put a lot of money in so Michael Kaplan has had to provide what support he could pretty much alone. For the money, it's an amazing tool!

    Your problems seem to stem from not understanding the underlying mechanisms of layout programming. Consider someone firing up Photoshop without any knowledge of image processing, and blaming the program for being complex and confusing...

    Sure, binding a VK_ to two keys is in fact an error while binding a character to multiple keys isn't (but the program chooses to warn you nevertheless, in case you didn't intend to – isn't that nice?).

    I don't know which key is above Enter on your board. Do you mean the Backspace key? If so, sure, that isn't a key that normal layouts remap to glyphs (you can still do it using MSKLC but it'll take editing of temp files and manual compiling from there). If you mean the ANSI backslash key, that's entirely doable if you know what you're doing (such as selecting an ANSI physical layout).

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 26-Feb-2019
    • Posts: 1

    It *is* Keyboard Layout Creator that causes the issue.

    For example; when I hit semi-colon position on a QWERTY; the TILDE-button, top left is highlighted in KLC. Basically, the physical buttons do not represent the virtual layout by default and requires the user to tap several keys in order to highlight the one he wants and enable assignment of symbols to it.

    Its not broken, but confusing.

    Last edited by addeps3 (26-Feb-2019 15:45:43)
    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 210
    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,343

    If you don't want help, that's fine. Best of luck to you! But if that's the case, you shouldn't have used other people's time with your blazing guns. Just find out things yourself, that's what I had to do for the most part.

    I know the answer to your latest comment, but I don't like your complete lack of politeness and humility so I'm inviting you to stop complaining now. Yes, it can be confusing if you don't know the answers and some things in the Microsoft world (and other places) are still far too QWERTY-centric. But I repeat: This program is free. If you don't like it, you've already gotten your money back. So behave please.

    Last edited by DreymaR (27-Feb-2019 09:25:02)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

    Offline
    • 0
      • Index
      • Technical
      • Problems with keymappings in Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4