I know that this is no customer support but I think my problem surpasses a usual customer issue (at least I hope so).
I received my UHK v2 yesterday and I like it so far. The only thing that I am really struggling with is the mapping between different key maps based on the OS. I am using a German layout on my keyboard and a German mapping on my operating systems (Win+Linux+Mac). I read the article that explains this in more detail https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/blog/2018/06/23/how-can-i-type-accented-characters-with-my-uhk but I don’t get why I am not able to get a backslash as text inside a macro. I need it for a Windows path.
Using the UHK with a German mapping you need to hold AltGr + F11 (actually it is “ß?”). If I want to transfer this to en-US, how would I do this? The key that I’d press on a an en-US layout would be the right key above “Enter” but this does not work. I tried all other key + mod keys but I am not able to get a backslash when using a write text macro.
Just for the sake of completeness. If I want to type in the beginning of an URL using a “Write text” step inside a macro I have to use: “https>&&” which is then being translated to “https://”. I am trying to apply the “ö” to “;” rule here but this does not work out.
Any tips, thoughts or advice? Your help is really appreciated!
Thanks, I understand. Then an easer approach might be to use a simple UHK macro or key binding to trigger text with a program running on the relevant OS, such as a Clipmanager, Autohotkey-Scripts (Win) and the like. A keyboard does not have to do everything IMO, but then the “text input” feature is pretty limited of use to everybody needing more than 7-bit ASCII.
I find relying on third-party, OS-dependent applications cumbersome but feel free to propose concrete ways of implementing this feature because I don’t see a way.
I see this partly exactly opposite. It is great to have everything in the keyboard, independent from the OS, when you can always have your keyboard with you. On the other side I also see the advantage of not relying on the keyboard at all and having as much as possible on the OS and program level, because then you can switch between laptop and external keyboards without loosing something. Both approaches make much sense, but for different scenarios.
Regarding text clips and the like. There are many possible solutions available. I am using Windows and have used Autohotkey for more than 15 years for most of text and keyboard stuff. But for text clips, which the OP seems to look for, a clipmanager might be most convenient.
I have an article called DeutschlandPlus (in German) about an additional layer I have been using for many years which eases the usage of a German keyboard very much (presumption is for touch-typing with both hands). In the article I have listed a few ideas and helpful programs as well explained how to use my custom solution to create own hotstrings.
Thanks for elaborating! I generally think in terms of providing an integrated solution for the UHK, but it surely makes sense to use third-party applications, especially when using multiple different keyboards.
As all of this depends on the OS keymap, the UHK would need to understand what characters will be produced by each scancode. Either there needs to be a bunch of settings that a user would have to configure (host OS, host keymap etc.), or Agent in combination with the UHK firmware would need to do some kind of “auto-scan”.
Basically, Agent would need to ask the UHK firmware to send each scancode and check what the host OS sends to the application for each one. The difficult part here are deadkeys, modifiers etc. There are just so many parameters that influence this. I believe you could make this work for most cases, but only 90%. It might be worth doing this, though, if you can make 90% of your users happy.