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    Share your favorite Extend tricks!

    • Started by DreymaR
    • 4 Replies:
    • Reputation: 214
    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,360
    Extend Consciousness!

    Extend-ISO-NoMod-Win_96d-Labels.png

    Let's make a list of favorite Extend tricks. Share yours!

    Of course, Extend is described in detail in the Extend Extra Extreme topic, with many of the tricks I use. But that's a long read and maybe some users have tricks that I don't use. Please post your faves below! I'll add more as we go.


    Do You Even Extend?

    Easy yet brillant tricks using the regular Extend layer. These should work both in Windows and Linux.

    Ext+T+O [Ctrl+Back]: Delete the previous word
    Ext+S+(T+)N, Ext+X, Ext+(T+)UNEI/LY/etc, Ext+V [Shift+(Ctrl+)Left, Cut, Move, Paste]: Move word(s) somewhere else
    Ext+S+(T+)Y [Shift+(Ctrl+)End]: Select to the end of the line; with T/Ctrl, to the end of the text

    Ext+W/R [MouseWheel Up/Down]: Scroll web and editor pages, without changing the text cursor position
    Ext+F/P [Browser Back/Forward]: Go back and forth in a browser tab's history
    Ext+Q/Spc [Esc/Enter]: Escape a dialog or confirm a selected option – navigate with Ext-arrows and Tab

    Ext+A+4 [Alt+F4]: Close the active program


    Extend_KeyLogo.png


    Flextending Your Muscles

    Somewhat more advanced tricks.

    RAlt+Ext, keep holding Ext: Access the Extend2 NumPad layer.
    RShift+Ext, keep holding Ext: Access the Extend3 Kaomoji layer. However, I prefer the more powerful Shift+Ext-tap Kaomoji.

    Ext+(T+)5 [F5]: Refresh page; with Ctrl "hard" refresh (also clear the page cache)
    Ext+6, <URL or ? then a search term>, Ext+A+Spc [F6, <URL/?>, Alt+Enter]: Open an URL or search in a new browser tab
    Ext+T+4 [Ctrl+F4]: Close the current browser tab
    Ext+(S+)T+J/M [(Shift+)Ctrl+PageUp/PageDn]: Switch(/move) tabs, both in browsers and text editors

    Ext+2 [F2]: Rename a selected file in the file manager. Naturally, I also use Extend for navigating and selecting files.
    Ext+= [F11]: Full screen mode for several apps (may be another key than = depending on your Wide mod config)

    Ext+A+S+U/E [Alt+Shift+Up/Down]: On Discord, move between unread channels


    Extend_KeyLogo.png


    Sweet Mother Of DKs

    Tricks using Dead Keys, such as ToM-Ext-tap. These are implemented in EPKL for Windows, but sadly not in the BigBag for Linux nor controllers/TMK.

    Spoiler:

    Here are some sample mappings from the EPKL [dk_Ext_Special] DeadKeys table:

    <y>  = α(){Left}                            ; y -> Parentheses, move cursor inside
    <Y>+ = α[]{Left}                            ; Y -> Brackets   , --"--
    <›>  = α{{}{}}{Left}                        ; › -> Braces     , --"--; AltGr mappings are Colemak-eD specific
    <->  = →+
    
    <`>  = α```{Enter 2}```{Enter}{Up 2}        ; ` -> Markdown/Discord Code block
    <f>  = ¶Brc                                 ; f -> Braces function boilerplate, as a PowerString
    <F>+ = ¶C4Loop                              ; F -> C for-loop boilerplate example
    <P>+ = α[img][/img]{Left 6}                 ; P -> BBCode Picture/Image tags
    <B>+ = α[b][/b]{Left 4}                     ; B -> BBCode Bold tags
    <a>  = α^a                                  ; A -> Ctrl+a - Select all
    <s>  = α{Home}+{Down}                       ; s -> Select the current line (Down -> End to exclude the final line break)
    <S>+ = α#+s                                 ; S -> Win+Shift+s - Windows Snipping/Screenshot Tool
    <t>  = α!{Tab}                              ; T -> Alt-Tab tap
    <D>+ = α[code]{Enter 2}[/code]{Enter}{Up 2} ; D -> BBCode Code block
    <U>+ = α[url][/url]{Left 6}                 ; U -> BBCode URL tags
    <'>  = ¶CBS                                 ; ' -> Ctrl+Backspace - delete word. The &BSp PowerString is a normal Backspace.

    Ext-tap,### for special strings and shortcuts – best for single-shot effects and text snippets
    Ext-tap,a to select all (Ctrl+a)
    Ext-tap,s to select the current line – X to cut it instead
    Ext-tap,t [Alt+Tab] to switch back and forth between programs
    Ext-tap,y/Y/› for parentheses/brackets/braces – the cursor is placed between them
    Ext-tap,(Shift+)z for Undo/Redo without Ctrl key chording
    Ext-tap,Shift+V [Win+v] to use the Windows Paste panel with your previous clips
    Ext-tap,Shift+S [Win+Shift+s] to use the Windows Screenshot Snipping tool
    Ext-tap,comma [type 'next', Enter] for "next page" on many web sites

    RAlt+Ext-tap,### for special commands – nice for avoiding awkward chords with the Ctrl keys etc
    RAlt+Ext-tap, t [Ctrl+Shift+Esc] – Windows Task Manager
    RAlt+Ext-tap, e [Win+Period] – Windows Emoji Picker
    RAlt+Ext-tap, b to open a browser tab with my bank's URL – see [dk_Ext_Cmd] in the EPKL _eD_deadkeys.ini file

    Shift+Ext-tap,### for Kaomoji of all sorts. I even made some blurbs they can blurt out, like this:

    The Kaomoji Layer said:

    ( のvの) c[_]  ~(  Try DreymaR's "BigBag" on Windows with **EPKL**  )
    https://github.com/DreymaR/BigBagKbdTrixPKL


    Extend_KeyLogo.png

    Last edited by DreymaR (08-Jan-2021 13:40:40)

    *** 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

    You've listed pretty much all the good ones, including many I don't even use.

    For me the most common by far are the navigation ones (in combination with shift and control), backspace, enter, and obviously the cut/copy/paste. I rarely use anything with Alt, or the function/media keys even though they are set up.

    My mappings are a bit different from yours in one or two places. I think Backspace is better on strong finger, so mine is on H, which means Delete is promoted to O.

    My back and forward are on W and P which I find more satisfying are they are analogous to left and right arrows. I don't have a need for the mouse items, so F is mapped to Control-F for find. R is mapped to TAB, which also makes it easy to shift-tab (reverse tab) using Ext-S-R. Other than that we're pretty similar.

    I've stopped using the XKB BrowserBack/BrowserForward mappings as I found these are inconsistently recognized by different programs. Instead W is Alt-Left, and P is Alt-Right, which does the same function but is better recognised (or at least is readily remappable).

    Needless to say, however you configure it, Extend gives you keyboard super powers!

    Last edited by stevep99 (06-Jan-2021 14:56:03)

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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    You know, the main reason the MouseWheel keys are on W/R is that R doesn't chord well on most keyboard diode matrices (or something?) so it didn't really work as an Extend-modifier key as I had originally planned. My first hunch was to have Alt/Win/Shift/Ctrl on A/R/S/T. It isn't a big loss though, as apart from Win+arrows you don't need the Win modifier for many of the Extend-mapped keys: Most useful Win shortcuts are with letters.

    I use the mousewheel keys quite a lot when reading web pages! They also provide a nifty way to read above and below without changing the cursor position in text editors. They could even be used with T to zoom in and out ... except for the mentioned fact that R doesn't chord well so I'm able to zoom in with Ext+T+W but not out with Ext+T+R. Bummer...

    For most shortcuts like Ctrl+F and Win+S, I prefer tap-dances over chording. The Ext-tap layers are perfect for these.

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

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    • Reputation: 117
    • From: UK
    • Registered: 14-Apr-2014
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    The Ext-tap layers are EPKL only I assume? I'd be interested in alternative ideas for common control combos, as currently my only solution is using up an Extend mapping. Perhaps I should consider trying out mod-tap style configuration, I have resisted that up until now.

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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    If you can write custom dead keys for Linux, you can use Ext-tap (and other tap dance) layers. I haven't got it to work but Ghen did so it's definitely doable. Colemak-eD is only partially implemented for Linux XKB since I wasn't able to add all my fancy dead key mappings but had to settle for referring to the standard Compose table ones.

    For microcontrollers you'd need more memory than my current 32k Hasu USB-2-USB device's chip provides. There are microcontrollers with several megabytes of memory and they could do it. But it's very clunky as microcontrollers have to cheat in an OS-specific way to produce Unicode points and it's not very robust.

    So yes, for now the tap dance layers are EPKL only.

    Last edited by DreymaR (06-Jan-2021 19:55:48)

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

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