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    UK colemak variant needed.

    • Started by ethana2
    • 11 Replies:
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 09-May-2007
    • Posts: 79

    Colemak needs to be re-generated against UK-qwerty for proper placement of such things as @ and £.
    This would give us a colemak-us and colemak-uk.

    If you're a colemak user in the UK, let me know what you think.

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    • Registered: 22-Aug-2008
    • Posts: 2

    Hey all, this was prompted by me.  The UK layout normally has @ on the ' key and " on the 2 key.  I also appear to have an extra key for # and ~ and £ is on the 3 key rather than with the 4 key.

    It's just small changes that are far more suited to they uk keyboard layout.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,364

    It's been done several times, actually - for Windows at least. You didn't state your OS so I have no idea what it is you're asking for unfortunately. If you can't find a layout anywhere, you could probably hack your own.

    Myself, I've come to the conclusion that the UK layout is evil. What's with the " tucked away and all the other completely unnecessary changes? But I can see if you don't want to learn "new" placements for rare symbols.

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

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    • Registered: 09-May-2007
    • Posts: 79

    a UK layout that can be pulled into X, gnome, KDE, and whatnot like the US one..

    Last edited by ethana2 (22-Aug-2008 22:18:58)
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    • Registered: 22-Aug-2008
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    For me it was linux, specifically Ubuntu.  Like others, I made one for xp when I first switched (I dual boot) about 2 months ago.  Sadly linux is lacking  a gui custom keyboard layout and which key is which number is a bit cryptic for non-us keyboards.

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    • Registered: 24-Mar-2008
    • Posts: 32

    I made a Windows version of the Colemak layout that I customised to UK keyboards. Here it is: http://danieljacobs.googlepages.com/Colemak-UK.zip
    I made it with Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator.  Included are installers, the "source code", in the form of a .klc file and a registry entry that turns caps lock into backspace.

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    • Registered: 28-Jan-2009
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    Thanks for that installer Dan, I was just about to look into changing the registry myself...

    So far I'm learning really quickly, I've never been very good at touch typing, but I seem to have improved no end already! Much better than Dvorak (that caused some literal headaches when I first tried!

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    • Registered: 03-Oct-2014
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    One thing I don't like is the "wide" part. I've shifted the right hand over one with colemak and just don't use the keys left open; I find them too hard to reach. I guess it's not that bad for z and q since they're not used as frequently, but it's pretty uncomfortable to hit the location for k for me at least.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,364

    Welcome, Scarlett! :)

    Sorry, I don't see how that pertains to the UK variant?

    If you don't like the Wide mod, don't use it by all means. Do you need help to get rid of it, maybe? In that case, please tell us your OS and method of layout switching (e.g., registry, Windows installer, PKL...).

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

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    • From: UK
    • Registered: 14-Apr-2014
    • Posts: 978
    Scarlett said:

    One thing I don't like is the "wide" part. I've shifted the right hand over one with colemak and just don't use the keys left open; I find them too hard to reach. I guess it's not that bad for z and q since they're not used as frequently, but it's pretty uncomfortable to hit the location for k for me at least.

    Are you using the Wide Mod as intended? It shouldn't make any difference to how easy k is to reach.

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    • Registered: 06-Jun-2013
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    i think the uk stuff is already available in ubuntu/debian

    i am using it

    its true that the @ placement is plain wrong for UK and needs to be switched to the eminently more sensible ", but you do need the £ sign..

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,364

    The 'us(intl)' layout has the sterling sign. If it's tucked away too deep for your tastes (on AltGr+Shift) you could switch places in the symbols/us file between 'sterling' and 'currency' for instance:

        key <AE04> { [       4,     dollar,      currency,         sterling ] };
    becomes
        key <AE04> { [       4,     dollar,      sterling,         currency ] };

    The currency symbol ('¤') is funny: It was supposed to be useful for denoting an unknown or generic currency, but you hardly need that! "This costs ten something" is not very useful. Ah well, at least you can make emojis with it...

    Last edited by DreymaR (06-Oct-2014 10:29:01)

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

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