"Typographic" keyboard layouts
At the request of the workers, we will touch on the topic of “typographic” keyboard layouts. That is, both Windows system tools and third-party programs that allow you to enter various special characters using the keyboard (usually, the right Alt key, also called AltGr).
Most will remember the layout of Ilya Birman , but it is not ideal for the needs of a content manager or designer. Its merit is that Runet was shown the way to create such layouts.
Also at the very beginning I will say that in my opinion and the opinion of some of my colleagues, using the "typographical" keyboard layout with a certain skill (which is acquired in a week or two) is much more effective in terms of the ratio of the cost of power and quality of typed text than the use of "automated typographers" like Lebedevsky and others. The problem is that autotype painters still cannot cope with typing texts ideally. And as our practice shows, it is harder to look for mistakes in typed text than typing text from scratch. Of course, this is less relevant in cases where it is necessary to print long literary texts, where auto-typographers do relatively well, and the costs of manual typography are very high.
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In the article, I will list known solutions for creating and using “typographic” layouts, and at the end I will talk about what we use with colleagues ourselves.
The last reservation to be made: there are no perfect layouts. Everyone needs to solve his own specific tasks: the programmer has a programmer’s, the HTML maker-uper is the maker-up, the content manager has the content-managerial one. I have to solve mostly the last tasks, therefore I can speak about the convenience of various methods or layouts from the point of view of the content manager. Probably, these methods will not be the best for programmers or layout designers.
All keyboard layouts that can be installed into the system are created using the free Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator program.
Advantages:
AutoHotKey is a super powerful scripting program that allows you to redefine any keystrokes and perform all sorts of actions in the system. You can use a ready-made solution for keyboard layouts , or create your own (looking ahead, I will say that in the process of this we are now with our colleagues).
Advantages:
Keyboard Ninja 2.1 - also does not require installation, is configured not by some language, but by using settings in the GUI. It is not known whether it works under Windows Vista.
Advantages:
KbdEdit - a paid program, apparently, has a very user-friendly interface. However, it requires installation in the system, and the layouts created by it cannot be launched separately from the program. That is, even if I create a layout in the Full version, which costs 20 ?, then colleagues will be able to use it only after installing at least the Player version, which costs 8?
Sergey Stolyarov adapted the Birman layout for * nix .
Dmitry Makarov made his layout. I believe that, by analogy, you can make any layouts as desired by the user. The description of the technology is also on Habré, in the Ubuntarium blog (thanks to yoreeq for the tip).
There is also a solution using the Compose key, as in MacOS.
As a result, we gave birth to the Scrype layout (versions for Windows XP and for Windows Vista ). It contains all the characters accepted in Russian typography, the arrow symbols “↑ ← ↓ →”, the symbols of the most common world currencies, as well as the letters of the Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets.
Unfortunately, we have not yet reached out to draw a beautiful picture, but in general, the layout is based on the layout of Artyom Sapegin , but with a lot of changes:
Scrype layout with AltGr + Shift pressed
You can also download a RAR-packaged PDF file with a description of the layout and explanations for it .
The English layout in the additional part differs from the Russian one only in the absence of Ukrainian and Belarusian letters.
This layout option has been tested by time (including, with its help, all my articles on Habré are typed), and satisfies all our needs. The only thing that may be missing in it is the numbers in the upper and lower indices, but in all our projects we use the tags sup and sub for indexing footnotes and a set of large simple fractions.
We have a great desire to further accelerate the work of the prepared content manager, and we see how this can be done. Currently, we are developing a script for AutoHotKey, which, in addition to improved layout, will allow you to switch to HTML text markup mode and automatically frame the selected text with paragraph, list, non-breaking text and so on tags, and also insert HTML substitutions instead of Unicode characters. In addition, it is planned to fasten gestures with the mouse for fast HTML-markup copied text without using the keyboard. Naturally, we are talking about the simplest markup of the text, and not a complex HTML-layout.
So I hope that when the work is completed, the public will take part in testing. :)
Most will remember the layout of Ilya Birman , but it is not ideal for the needs of a content manager or designer. Its merit is that Runet was shown the way to create such layouts.
Also at the very beginning I will say that in my opinion and the opinion of some of my colleagues, using the "typographical" keyboard layout with a certain skill (which is acquired in a week or two) is much more effective in terms of the ratio of the cost of power and quality of typed text than the use of "automated typographers" like Lebedevsky and others. The problem is that autotype painters still cannot cope with typing texts ideally. And as our practice shows, it is harder to look for mistakes in typed text than typing text from scratch. Of course, this is less relevant in cases where it is necessary to print long literary texts, where auto-typographers do relatively well, and the costs of manual typography are very high.
')
In the article, I will list known solutions for creating and using “typographic” layouts, and at the end I will talk about what we use with colleagues ourselves.
The last reservation to be made: there are no perfect layouts. Everyone needs to solve his own specific tasks: the programmer has a programmer’s, the HTML maker-uper is the maker-up, the content manager has the content-managerial one. I have to solve mostly the last tasks, therefore I can speak about the convenience of various methods or layouts from the point of view of the content manager. Probably, these methods will not be the best for programmers or layout designers.
Windows Solutions
System Keyboard Layouts
All keyboard layouts that can be installed into the system are created using the free Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator program.
Advantages:
- to use the layout does not require additional software;
- the program for creating layouts is free;
- The latest version, 1.4, already knows how to make layouts for Windows Vista.
- Layouts cannot be installed in the system in the absence of administrator rights;
- Unfortunately, MSKLC still has a number of bugs and is buggy in some cases of using dead keys (modifier keys);
- if any shortcut in any program is assigned to “Alt + Ctrl + something ”, the corresponding symbol will not work.
- Ilya Birman ,
- Artyom Sapegin ,
- Alexander Kuklev ,
- Sergey Rublev
- our layout Scrype, which will be discussed below.
Third Party Programs
Autohotkey
AutoHotKey is a super powerful scripting program that allows you to redefine any keystrokes and perform all sorts of actions in the system. You can use a ready-made solution for keyboard layouts , or create your own (looking ahead, I will say that in the process of this we are now with our colleagues).
Advantages:
- the program is distributed under the GNU GPL;
- to use the program does not require administrator rights;
- works in Windows Vista;
- the program is portable - it can be run from a flash drive;
- you can customize the scripts for yourself, the functionality is much more powerful than the usual system layouts (for example, you can display a whole sequence of characters by pressing a key);
- You can set the priority of the layout or shortcut for any application separately;
- low weight (the process takes a maximum of 5-6 MB, and usually no more than 3 MB);
- impressive English-speaking community on the support forum.
- the program must be run manually in the system, or prescribed in the autorun;
- To customize the program for yourself, you need to persistently study its scripting language.
Keyboard Ninja
Keyboard Ninja 2.1 - also does not require installation, is configured not by some language, but by using settings in the GUI. It is not known whether it works under Windows Vista.
Advantages:
- to use the program does not require administrator rights;
- the program is portable - it can be run from a flash drive;
- layout changes are made in the GUI and are activated on the fly;
- has the function of automatically detecting and switching layouts (similar to Punto Switcher);
- corrects typos;
- low weight (the process takes about 2.5 MB).
- the program must be run manually in the system, or recorded in the autorun.
KbdEdit
KbdEdit - a paid program, apparently, has a very user-friendly interface. However, it requires installation in the system, and the layouts created by it cannot be launched separately from the program. That is, even if I create a layout in the Full version, which costs 20 ?, then colleagues will be able to use it only after installing at least the Player version, which costs 8?
Linux solutions
Keyboard layouts
Sergey Stolyarov adapted the Birman layout for * nix .
Dmitry Makarov made his layout. I believe that, by analogy, you can make any layouts as desired by the user. The description of the technology is also on Habré, in the Ubuntarium blog (thanks to yoreeq for the tip).
Compose key
There is also a solution using the Compose key, as in MacOS.
Our solution for Windows
Since we were looking for a solution specifically for content managers, we began with the use of system layouts in Windows. All the layouts described above were inconvenient because they did not contain some of the necessary symbols (for example, fine spacing , minus, and the signs of the minute and second). Also, since we mainly work with financial sites, we needed symbols of various currencies.As a result, we gave birth to the Scrype layout (versions for Windows XP and for Windows Vista ). It contains all the characters accepted in Russian typography, the arrow symbols “↑ ← ↓ →”, the symbols of the most common world currencies, as well as the letters of the Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets.
Unfortunately, we have not yet reached out to draw a beautiful picture, but in general, the layout is based on the layout of Artyom Sapegin , but with a lot of changes:
- “AltGr + -” - long dash, “AltGr + +” - minus, “AltGr + Shift + -” - hyphen, “AltGr + Shift + +” - plus or minus.
- “AltGr + Space” is an unbreakable space, “AltGr + Shift + Space” is a thin slat.
- “AltGr + ” is an accent mark.
- The up, left, right, and down arrows are dialed using AltGr + q, a, s, z.
- “AltGr + 8” is the multiplication symbol ×. However, the “Birman” version of AltGr + x also works.
- “AltGr + m” is a trademark mark.
- Major currencies are on "AltGr":? - “AltGr + e”, ¥ - “AltGr + y”, £ - “AltGr + f”.
- The most common signs of world currencies are typed in “AltGr + Shift”: won - “w”, euro - “e”, yen - “y”, pound sterling - “f” and “p”, rupee - “r”, shekel - “S”, dong - “d”, hryvnia - “g”, baht - “z”, cent - “c”. All of the above combinations work in both Russian and English layouts.
- In the Russian layout, you can type Ukrainian (“AltGr + e”), ґ (“AltGr + g”), ї (“AltGr + j”), i (“AltGr + i”) and Belarusian (“AltGr + v” ), as well as their capital variants Є, Ґ, Ї, І, through AltGr + Shift.
- To type straight lines and curly brackets, you do not need to switch to the English layout, the “AltGr + x, ” combinations for square brackets and “AltGr + Shift + x, ” for curly ones work.
- The simplest fractions are implemented using modifier keys. So, to type the symbol , you must first press "AltGr + 5", release, and then press "8".
Scrype layout with AltGr + Shift pressed
You can also download a RAR-packaged PDF file with a description of the layout and explanations for it .
The English layout in the additional part differs from the Russian one only in the absence of Ukrainian and Belarusian letters.
This layout option has been tested by time (including, with its help, all my articles on Habré are typed), and satisfies all our needs. The only thing that may be missing in it is the numbers in the upper and lower indices, but in all our projects we use the tags sup and sub for indexing footnotes and a set of large simple fractions.
Our plans for the future
We have a great desire to further accelerate the work of the prepared content manager, and we see how this can be done. Currently, we are developing a script for AutoHotKey, which, in addition to improved layout, will allow you to switch to HTML text markup mode and automatically frame the selected text with paragraph, list, non-breaking text and so on tags, and also insert HTML substitutions instead of Unicode characters. In addition, it is planned to fasten gestures with the mouse for fast HTML-markup copied text without using the keyboard. Naturally, we are talking about the simplest markup of the text, and not a complex HTML-layout.
So I hope that when the work is completed, the public will take part in testing. :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/25158/
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