Something to keep in mind: keys F13 to F24 exist in the standard scan code matrix and aren't used by anything, no keyboard has them. Autohotkey or anything else can use them, also as modifiers. They are not the same as shift+F-key 12 down, they are their own scan codes.
@@doomikusz Having recently seen some 130% keyboards, I'm still surprised and the first time I'm hearing of this. And thanks Siana, that has given me a few new ideas
Dude your so right ,I have a layer on my keybaord that is just F1 to 24 that I have autohotkey scripts on. Then modifier keys their aswell to have a apps activation layer and a website or productivity tool layer.
@@doomikusz and you can add modifiers to them too! If you use a ludicrous number of hotkeys this is super useful! Not all programs universally recognize F13 through F24 though, which is a little annoying.
Your channel should definitely get more attention! I quite enjoy these channels from people that upload videos of different topics there are interested in - no schedule, no monetary motivation (at least not primary), just things that one thinks is worth sharing. This is how it should be, thanks!
This channel is the main reason I took the jump and splurged for the Moonlander. Been using it for just about 2 weeks and I love it. I love using it, tinkering with it, not to mention my posture improved immensely with no more wrist/arm/shoulder pains. Already lubed the keys and added EVA foam to make it thock, it's addicting to use
I really enjoy your videos - I haven't started down the rabbit hole but seeing your journey has made me feel confident when I am ready and have the time to learn a new layout that I would be able to transition to something like a Ferris sweep. It is amazing how productive so few keys can be.
Be aware up front that it is a rabbit hole: You will keep falling forever. But that's okay. You will settle into a routine of tiny improvements that compound.
I enjoy using sway, a tiling window manager for Linux. Everything is separated in workspaces 1-9, and whenever a program is open it will fill the entire screen. The is no minimizing, only moving to another blank workspace. In this environment, alt-tab is nearly useless as if I want to view a certain app, I'll just press Super+(workspace number) and I'll be in that workspace. I believe Windows calls these Desktops.
Correction: I thought I was using the default mod-tap settings - in fact I switched it to the following in ZMK - that is why it isn’t affected by rolling. You do roll over space when typing so apologies I misunderstood what what going on when I thought it wasn’t affected by rolls! In reality it would affect typing in a similar way to home row mods if I’d left it as default. The reason I can still 'roll' from space instantly to a letter and still get the shortcut to fire is actually because I'm letting the space key be held down for the tapping term in total, after I roll onto the letter shortcut key - i.e it doesn't need to be held down before the letter key but it does in total. It's quite clever how it makes it feel like you can roll into the shortcut but you are actually still holding the space key for the timeout. &mt { tapping-term-ms = ; flavor = "tap-preferred"; };
Thanks! Maybe it is worth putting one of those TH-cam overlays up in the video to say to check the comments for clarification? Might be easy to miss this otherwise.
Does ZSA's Oryx support a rule like this? I want to use this workflow but I'm not sure it will work as long as I keep typing messages to people without spaces :D
Keyboard Maestro is great! I personally use Hammerspoon, which is another great option for this sort of shortcut hacking if you fancy writing a config in Lua. Better Touch Tool is another great paid option and has a lot of other neat and unique features. None of these fully overlap with each other so you can use all of them in tandem if you like. Also, Karabiner Elements is a fantastic application that can allow you to turn keys like caps lock on any keyboard (including the built in one on your macbook) into a hyper or meh key. It's not quite as robust as QMK/ZMK and I found that it can be troublesome with rolling keys, but since it is software based it can allow for application specific keybinds or allow for things like swapping semicolon and colon, which I don't think is currently possible with QMK and perhaps not ZMK. Another great video, Ben! I look forward to hearing more on your thoughts about treadmill desking!
You've gone so far down the rabbit hole that I don't understand anymore Ben hahahahahaha, but nice to see your love for keyboard and optimization, amazing video.
I always enjoy your enthusiasm. unfortunately I fried the half of my first custom keyboard so I didn't manage to fully control it. and I decide to create a "desktop" keyboard the ergodash so I didn't have the ability to take it with me when I work outside the house. I probably make corne or something with hotswap for the controller this time. I have learned so many things from your videos keep up the great work.
k I’ve been enjoying your keyboard content on TH-cam. I was curious what strategies you’ve used to memorize the keys in your multi layered keyboard. Is there any software (ideally Mac) that shows, real time, the key mappings post modifier press to help with recall?
man you're such an inspiration.. ideal setup!! stand up desk, typing while walking, vim user, etc.. could you please make a video describing your work env/setup??.. meaning: desk, walking machine, keyboard layout (layout distribution and pressed-keys layouts, shortcuts, layout layers, etc..), vim setup (custom or based on someone else).. maybe it's a lot to ask but I really like your minimalistic and yet complex env
Next thing you should try is to use window manager, which is designed to be operated using keyboard, like AwesomeWM or LeftWM or i3wm (the last one imho is the most newbies friendly). With a single key (super) I can open windows, move them, close, switch between them, change workspaces and so on. Just try it for few days.
Yeah, I would love to see him try a keyboard driven window manager. I use one on Linux and they are fantastic; I can traverse my PC almost entirely with my keyboard.
you don't really need any of that, every major os have basic window management except mac os, and on mac there's dedicated apps for window management like spectacle
@@knoopx I disagree. There is no way to achieve such predictable window management using keyboard without tiling WM. If I press the buttons sequence I really want to know what will happen after that. In different OSs it is impossible to select quickly one of 8 windows opened on the screen, without interpreting visual feedback. Ability to switch between different layouts on a single workspace is also very useful. Unless I'm not aware of many features that windows tried to copy over last few years.
@@RobertKmiec well I was referring to basic window management via super key (maximize/minimize, hide, move to another workspace, move/resize left/right)... and I wasn't strictly referring to Windows but all major Linux DE. you don't need a dedicated titling manager for keyboard-driven navigation... tiling WM are just another way of using computers and they are not for everyone. I wonder for example, why would you ever need to navigate through 8 simultaneously open windows when you can barely fit two vertically split web pages on a 4k display? you must have really good vision, specially if you are not using a large display.
I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but there's the free FancyZones from Windows Powertoys (made by MS), which I believe gives you keyboard control over a custom zoning setup on Windows (I think they incorporated some of the features into Win11, but not all of them, so probably useful even then).
Thanks for the video! Good idea. I use a layer on my Moonlander that is dedicated to show/hide my most frequent used apps. Also, the most frequent used apps has its own layer too :) Nerdy stuff!
::Ben:: I really love these videos of yours. The enthusiasm and the vigor with which you tackle the subject matter of each video is infectious. I just wish I honestly had a use for this kind of thing so that I could get hyped about it as much as you are/do. I more often than not am using my iPad so this sort of functionality isn’t really as important for me and my uses, but when I go to my Mac for things, I rarely use it for more than injecting a hex file onto a board or checking the web for stuffs. Fun video, just the same, and I’m glad to see that you’re still playing with new ideas.
Yawch. Certianly deeper in than i know i am, or will be in any meaningful measure of the future. A note: a lot of your workflow points here are using your super efficent keyboard tools to better the tools on your system.. On my linux system, i choose a somewhat known method of swiching windows, changing their size, focus, closing behavours and more, adjust it to my comfort, make program exceptions and importany work around some special keybindings i have and boom, perfection and utterly custom. Do you see a benifit to doing it all keyboard level?
I'm still surprised you're not using a tiling window manager (aka, an actual window manager, not just a renderer). I'd be curious to figure out what you would come up with in combination with the custom keyboard.
@@BenVallack I'm probably not the best person to ask here, as I am only using a Mac at work where I am not allowed to install any of the available tiling window managers for MacOS as they interfere at a quite low level of the operation system (imho bad design on Apple's part, but that's nothing new ;)). I've heard good things about yabai, though.
That is basically this one th-cam.com/video/5RN_4PQ0j1A/w-d-xo.html I mention the two additional keys (repeat and direct to caps second alpha layer) which is the only difference with this one compared to that. Cheers!
Thanks! This finally got me to do something I wanted to try for a while now. I use steno and was able to set up a similar thing with that outputting hyper combos that AHK reads. I used a starter syllable of "go" with a * to distinguish it from normal go. Then a syllable to represent the app I want to make active. So something like "go ape" to go to my API project in VSCode, "go mess" for messenger, etc. The AHK script also switches virtual desktops too as needed. Eventually want it to launch the app if it isn't already open. With steno, it's as quick as 2 key presses, but super easy to remember since it's phonetic.
Watching you create these custom keyboards and layouts has inspired me to start my own journey into typing and keyboards. Today I got my cheap ($10) number pads to work as a split ortho linear keyboard, I created a custom layout for each one in my /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ directory and assigned each one to a number pad I have to reassign the layouts if the keyboards are unplugged or if my system updates but I still think it's pretty cool and would make a cool how to video if your interested in making a $20 split keyboard talk about click bait.
Hi Ben, would you consider doing something of a follow-along introduction to writing advanced keyboard functionalities like tap-dance? Sadly I don't know anything about coding but I was inspired by your minimal keyboard journey, so after buying my mechanical keyboard and going to QMK configurator I've realised I can't implement the complex double tap and hold functionalities I want. If you could do a follow along how you write a few different examples in a text file, then I'm sure I'd be able to copy and alter slightly to get ehat I want. There's almost nothing on YT about how to write tapdance functions!
Yeah the tap and hold stuff is complicated - so much so I made the mistake referenced in my pinned comment even in this video. I’d love to try and articulate how it all works in a video.
Yes, I would love to hear his thoughts on this. I believe Ben uses non standard layouts (ie, not QWERTY), which I briefly tried but found the vim experience miserable. Colemak-dh for example puts the J key in a particularly painful location. Is that something you can just power through or are the reduced key counts making that easier? What other tricks or layouts make this not a terrible experience?
Nice! But I´m curious because I use ZMK with an &mt on space, but for my shift, and pretty frequently when I´m typing, I get camel cased expressions likeThis instead of the space it activates the shift. You´ve mentioned that it worked for you with the default behavior of zmk, did you have to change anything else? I´m trying to figure out why it doesn´t work for me
You’re right! I thought I was using the default mod-tap settings - in fact I switched it to the following in ZMK - that is why I don’t get affected by rolling. In reality it would affect typing in a similar way to home row mods if I’d left it as default. I have pinned this note for others too - good catch! &mt { tapping-term-ms = ; flavor = "tap-preferred"; };
I switched to colemak-dh because of your video about it. I read about other keyboard layouts before that but wasn't set on one. Been using it for a year now.
Another thing to up the productivity with keyboard maestro is to check which app is in front with activating and then branch to the appropriate app activation. So lets say you have a hotkey for Finder…You can configure certain apps to use the menu show in Finder, but default to just activating Finder. If my editor is the front app, the hotkey will open Finder to the path of the current file/buffer (Emacs). If my front app is DEVONthink or PDF Expert, the hotkey will use that app’s menu item “Show in Finder”. I also use keyboard maestro to map editor key chords to work in certain apps like going to the top or bottom of the inbox list like I would when viewing a file. It just allow you to use that muscle memory in more applications.
I was hooked with the title of the video, but I got lost super quickly on how to get started with the keyboard I have. Faster way to switch apps. I'm sold. Layers. I get the concept. Now what do I need to next to get started?
For those running Windows 10 and Windows 11, unfortunately Windows steals the hyper key for itself be able to open Office. There do appear to be ways to get around it but I could never get it implemented myself. So use Meh instead.
I was used to a solution like the one Ben explains here when using Linux (using RunOrRaise or Jumpapp) but I was never able to reproduce it on Windows. Would you mind sharing the AHK script you use or point me to some useful resources?
I haven't tried it, but there is an app called OfficeKeyFix that you put in your startup folder. Explorer puts listeners on these key combos when it starts up. So the fix closes explorer, puts its own exclusive listeners on them, restarts explorer (who now can't register them on startup), and closes itself. I needed 18 diff hyper combos for an AHK script (involving mouse warping via chording) and just used 1-9 and a-j (skipping d), so avoided the office ones. There's also F13-F24 as some others mentioned.
Autohotkey is a great tool if you like to completely script it out yourself, but another great option for windows that's a little easier to use would be the keyboard remapping function in powertoys. It's obviously not as powerful as just making a completely custom thing so for super advanced functionality it's not great, but if all you want to do is say have shortcuts launch specific programs and whatnot, it's a great user friendly option for that.
Really nice idea Ben, I've just given it a go on my Moonlander and it works nicely. Only thing I can into was holding space in programs like Figma to drag an artboard around, double tapping and then holding works but it's a bit wonky or getting a trackpad between the Moonlander would solve that issue unless you have any other ideas.
Not used Figma - sounds like a pretty unusual control. Double tap and hold is a legit way of dealing with the issue though, it sounds like the option is up and running by default. I use it all the time my keys that have hold functions when I need them to just repeat they key instead.
Holding space for the hand tool is pretty standard with Adobe apps too. I don't know about Figma, but another option is to hold H. In fact, holding any tool key will temporarily activate that tool and switch back when you release it.
Complete off-topic from the video. Which terminal app are you using? Also, which theme are you using in vim? Now, related to the video. I've been using Raycast lately and it offers all you mention about shortcuts + window management and many more in one single app. Totally worth it.
I have a brother that, due to a car accident, can't use his right hand at the computer. Would love to see you design a left hand only keyboard using this minimalist approach
I’ve thought about one handed boards a bit - in theory it’s pretty straightforward with this technique. I would go for a design that had a lot of thumb keys, you’ll need a good few layers but it should be totally doable.
Interesting you mention most people don’t roll off the spacebar because the frequency with which I roll off it is what stopped me from using MT or LT on spacebar
Hey Ben, just ordered a variation of your 18 key board. Looking forward to the board arriving. I am wondering what your approach to vim has changed since using the 18 key? Did you give up on hjkl and now use the arrow keys? Maybe text editing workflow could be a video idea.
Yeah I will do a video on that soon! I have abandoned hjkl positioning and have mapped the letters positionally the same as my arrow key layer. So I can still navigate without using the arrow key layer but using arrow key positions. That is mainly due to not have the inner index column - I'd have kept HJKL position otherwise.
@@BenVallack Cool do you mean you mappped the NEUA keys in your alpha1 layer to be the new hjkl movement keys? Then mapped vim's search-next, word-end, undo, and append to the now free h j k and l keys?
hey ben, its funny to see you try to emulate a tiling window manager. have you considered checking out yabai? Its a tiling window manager for mac os which can do loads of autotiling (and other) magic. In addition to skhd, a hotkey deamon that works really well together with yabai. Advantage being that you get an actual config file and dont have to click around in some gui like in keyboard maestro. I'd highly recommend to check it out, it totally changed my workflow on mac os
What kailh choc switches do you recommend? I notice you use the light blue 25gf but I’m concerned I’ll press accidentally, do you have any recommendations?
Just thought I should add that it is no longer necessary to pay for an app like Keyboard Maestro on Mac to do things like app switching. You can do it with the built in Mac Shortcuts app
Maybe I have missed this if you have mentioned it in a previous video - but I would be interested to know what you do with your computer - I assume you work within IT - just curious to know what applications you are mostly using.
Would you ever consider making a video documenting your VIM workflow using colemak (assuming you still use it) and your ergonomic keyboard? I’m very curious to see how you’ve got it setup as you seem to put a lot of thought into each and every action.
@@BenVallack nice, I’m looking forward to it! Did you switch back to QWERTY or something else entirely? I suppose layout matters less when you use an ergonomic keyboard that’s already designed to minimize finger movement.
Hi Ben, I have used QMK, VIA, VIAL and REMAP but not ZMK and considering a board that only uses ZMK. REMAP is the best I have used by far due the the ease of using the GUI and setting MOD TAP behaviours so quickly. How do you find ZMK to work with? It does not look like there is a GUI like VIAL or REMAP but set me straight if so! Is it more like having to write basic script in QMK?
ZMK is brilliant but I’m only comparing to QMK. Its syntax is much lighter than QMK. More like a config file than scripting. GitHub build actions is amazing too.
ZMK is brilliant but I’m only comparing to QMK. Its syntax is much lighter than QMK. More like a config file than scripting. GitHub build actions is amazing too.
Counterpoint: I use Super Alt Tab on a thumb key and that has the advantage of single tap switching between two apps, without needing to set up a hotkey for each possible application. So changing focus between any two windows is one tap away. But it requires a key to have that as it's tap action, which I guess is undoable with your very restricted key layout.
@@AUS10indeed Yes! But since Windows stacks the applications on a "last-used-first" order, for my use case where I'm mostly switching between two apps, it works well. One tap to switch to, and one tap to switch back. If you want to go to an app far down the stack it can be tedious, but at least coming back to the one you were originally is still one tap only.
These videos have been really inspiring. Do you have this layout in zsa or somewhere else I can see it visually? I have a hard time understanding what's going on in zmk .keymap files but a picture goes a LONG way. :) The pictures you flashed on the screen in your 16-key layout tour were great, is there somewhere I can look at those without having to pause the video? Do similar pictures exist for the piano?
Thanks! The piano is actually the same layout at the 16 key with the addition of repeat key and layer toggle for caps second alpha layer. Here is the keymap github.com/benvallack/zmk-config-piano/blob/main/config/boards/shields/piano/piano.keymap
Wrt to using Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Win as a Hyper modifier, Windows forces that to be a shortcut for Office 365 with no way of turning that off that I know of. I have no idea why Windows thought it would be a good idea to make that be mandatory.
I'm not sure on this particular layout, but in some ways layers can make things easier to remember. Like in the Miryoku layout, there is a lot of symmetry. Holding a thumb key turns the right side into a 3x3 numpad. Then a different layer makes them the F keys in the same positions, using a 4th column for F10-F12. For the nav layer, it is vim-style movement of home row being left, down, up, right. Then row below that follow a similar pattern of home, page down, page up, end. The mouse movement layer is the same, with home row being mouse movement in same directions and row below that being scrolling in the same order. If you're a programmer, you might put all your different brackets on a layer next to each other to be in easy reach. You just need a system that makes sense to you and it won't be too bad. Then eventually it just becomes muscle memory..
Hey that’s not that innovative for someone who uses homerow mods. I think you should give it a try, ZMK tap preffered behavior is really simple to implement compared to QMK.
Agree - I use home row mods too (although on the top row). But putting meh on the space makes it even faster and far less effort to trigger similar shortcuts.
TL;DR I tried something like this app switcher/launcher years ago and landed on a simpler solution (read on for description). And don't forget about the keypad as a source of modifiable keys for use with any chording modifiers (read more below). Edit for Moom at bottom. Launcher/Switcher I tried something like this app-switching myself before I had a programmable keyboard by creating scripts in Automator (macOS) to launch apps and assigning shortcuts to them in System Preferences. It got too complicated dealing with conflicts, memorizing them (I already had hundreds to remember from Mac to Windows to specific apps on each...), and then many apps I use only occasionally I still launched with Spotlight... So, to keep things simple: 1) Use scripts to open SETS of apps instead of one (like one key stroke opens Messages, Mail, Contacts, Chrome, Safari, Notes, and Calendar). Then, using Moom (App Store), I can record their preferred size and locations on my screens. One chord opens the set and the second positions all of them. 2) Use Spotlight to launch individual apps (or for Dark Mode issues with Spotlight, the free version of Alfred lets you change the color of the search box) 3) Use AltTab (download from the internet) for tabbing to specific windows a la Windows but in the macOS. Having multiple methods to do the same thing can be good, but sometimes you just need to KISS. Keypad Chords But one thing a lot people miss for setting up chords that avoid conflicts is the keypad. Before I had a programmable keyboard, I assigned the grid of the keypad to my other window management apps: Magnet and Breeze (Breeze appears to be unsupported at this time, ~~but Moom can take its place~~). Command + keypad-1 resizes a window to take 1/4 of the screen and places it in the lower-left corner; command + keypad-6 resizes to take 1/2 on the right; command + keypad-5 is maximize. Between Magnet and Breeze I was able to set up halves all around, quarter all around, three columns, 2/3 on the left, 2/3 on the right, 2x3 cells, fourth columns for my middle landscape monitor and fourth rows for my two portrait monitors. Using visual cues I can choose small 1/3 columns left and right (command + option + 4 or 6) or 2/3 left and right (command + shift + 4 or 6). Since the shift key or a regular keyboard is larger than the option key, it makes it easy to remember which to use for larger or smaller thirds. FYI, Divvy makes creating custom window positions really easy when setting up Breeze/Moom. Now add my ErgoDox EZ. On the left thumb cluster, holding the inner larger thumb button switches to the window management layer and it includes the command key. So, holding the one key and tapping the position the number 1 takes on my keypad layer does the same as the chord command + keypad-1 on my full size keyboard. For left 1/3, window-management key + option + keypad-4. I might sound complex, but really isn't. It was super easy to adapt to. I use home-row mods so the left hand can hold a thumb cluster key and the fingers can easily hold as many of the modifiers as I need easily. This removes the need to assign a key for Hyper or Meh which means it is also great for the many default chords I use, as well. Accidental chords due to rolling is a bit of an issue, but the longer I use my ErgoDox EZ the better I get. The one that is really driving me crazy right now is control + E or A in text editors. The learning curve is worth it for home-row mods, for me. Edit: I had another issue with Breeze today so I thought I would try to switch from it to Moom for individual window management in addition to sets of windows. Turns out it was easier with Moom than Breeze with one exception so I am not fully free of Breeze just yet. Moom uses a built in grid to assign position and size, where Breeze required you already have the window set to the size you want. Divvy did the grid part for me and then I recorded the position and size with Breeze. This is still useful for odd sizes that don't fit into the grid. Moom's grid is capped at nine columns or rows. I sometimes split my landscape screen into sixths (2 rows x 3 columns) so two apps use 1/3 and the other 2/3 could be one app or two. However, if I use Moom to divide my screen into 4 columns, I need 12 columns to handle both 4 and 3 columns (I still use Magnet for full 1/3 and 2/3 columns). That means Breeze still handles sixths. SSL
Is there some way to switch between fullscreen apps like this on Mac? I like to keep all of my apps in full screen mode on separate desktops, and it would be great to be able to use this same concept to hit "Meh + S" to switch to the Spotify full screen app, for example.
Interesting, it wasn’t working for me unfortunately. I’ll have to give it another try, but in the meantime, is there any way you could share the macro you created so that I can compare? Thanks in advance!
for me my hold space is shift, but I have a lot of issues in triggering a capital instead of a space sometimes when I type fast, how do you get around that? any specific qmk settings?
It sounds like you do roll more than I do on the space key - you can definitely stop it doing it though - you just need to tweak the parameters. Try these settings - iirc they allowed mod taps to work when I was using a QMK board. #define IGNORE_MOD_TAP_INTERRUPT #define TAPPING_FORCE_HOLD #undef TAPPING_TERM #define TAPPING_TERM 240 #define RETRO_TAPPING
Shift is particularly hard to get working well as a tap hold because when you want to use shift you don’t expect/want to deal with a slightly longer hold. Whereas that is more acceptable with other mode. In other words you want to roll over shift to capitalise letters quite often. That’s why I still have a dedicated one shot shift key (albeit on my second layer, but at least I can roll through it)
This is great tip! I already have a simple window management utility for which I already have finger-contorting shortcuts. I am looking forward to giving this a try!
A brief update: I moved all of my window management shortcuts to use ModTap(Hyper, ;) & I have started moving some other, global shortcuts to this combo. I set up ModTap(Meh, Space) to use with application-specific shortcuts such as my IDE. This new setup is working really well & has reduced a lot of finger gymnastics!
Hey Ben, Been trying to find an active email address or means of communication with you. I've left emails on your setdeed and phototropic ones and reached out via Discord. Hoping to connect to discuss some product-design related avenues.
Well I went to 16 keys in this one th-cam.com/video/5RN_4PQ0j1A/w-d-xo.html and then came back to 18 which I think is good. I guess it also depends a bit on your definition of productivity. I am introducing additional taps to get to some of my letters but at the same time reducing overall finger movement, which I find great at reducing fatigue. In terms of computer interaction I think the way have my mods setup, and the meh key, is just amazing compared to a board where your mods are further away.
Subscribe to my new custom keyboards channel! www.youtube.com/@BenVallacksKeyboards
Something to keep in mind: keys F13 to F24 exist in the standard scan code matrix and aren't used by anything, no keyboard has them. Autohotkey or anything else can use them, also as modifiers. They are not the same as shift+F-key 12 down, they are their own scan codes.
This is true although keyboards with F13 to F24 do exist, they're just rare
@@doomikusz Having recently seen some 130% keyboards, I'm still surprised and the first time I'm hearing of this. And thanks Siana, that has given me a few new ideas
Dude your so right ,I have a layer on my keybaord that is just F1 to 24 that I have autohotkey scripts on. Then modifier keys their aswell to have a apps activation layer and a website or productivity tool layer.
@@doomikusz and you can add modifiers to them too! If you use a ludicrous number of hotkeys this is super useful! Not all programs universally recognize F13 through F24 though, which is a little annoying.
@@BenMilford Yes, more is better especially when you play the VNC/RDP/NX rabbit hole game
Your channel should definitely get more attention! I quite enjoy these channels from people that upload videos of different topics there are interested in - no schedule, no monetary motivation (at least not primary), just things that one thinks is worth sharing. This is how it should be, thanks!
Thanks so much - great to hear that kind of content is useful/enjoyable.
This channel is the main reason I took the jump and splurged for the Moonlander. Been using it for just about 2 weeks and I love it. I love using it, tinkering with it, not to mention my posture improved immensely with no more wrist/arm/shoulder pains. Already lubed the keys and added EVA foam to make it thock, it's addicting to use
I really enjoy your videos - I haven't started down the rabbit hole but seeing your journey has made me feel confident when I am ready and have the time to learn a new layout that I would be able to transition to something like a Ferris sweep. It is amazing how productive so few keys can be.
Be aware up front that it is a rabbit hole: You will keep falling forever.
But that's okay. You will settle into a routine of tiny improvements that compound.
I enjoy using sway, a tiling window manager for Linux. Everything is separated in workspaces 1-9, and whenever a program is open it will fill the entire screen. The is no minimizing, only moving to another blank workspace. In this environment, alt-tab is nearly useless as if I want to view a certain app, I'll just press Super+(workspace number) and I'll be in that workspace. I believe Windows calls these Desktops.
Finally a new video about keyboards ♥️
Correction:
I thought I was using the default mod-tap settings - in fact I switched it to the following in ZMK - that is why it isn’t affected by rolling.
You do roll over space when typing so apologies I misunderstood what what going on when I thought it wasn’t affected by rolls!
In reality it would affect typing in a similar way to home row mods if I’d left it as default.
The reason I can still 'roll' from space instantly to a letter and still get the shortcut to fire is actually because I'm letting the space key be held down for the tapping term in total, after I roll onto the letter shortcut key - i.e it doesn't need to be held down before the letter key but it does in total. It's quite clever how it makes it feel like you can roll into the shortcut but you are actually still holding the space key for the timeout.
&mt {
tapping-term-ms = ;
flavor = "tap-preferred";
};
Thanks! Maybe it is worth putting one of those TH-cam overlays up in the video to say to check the comments for clarification? Might be easy to miss this otherwise.
Thanks! I was wondering why I was having trouble with it. Can you pin your comment or something so others can find it easily?
@@asosa9502 Sorry thought I had pinned it - done
Thanks for the update. I did have to adjust my tapping term in QMK to get this working reliably, but Vial made that a cinch.
Does ZSA's Oryx support a rule like this? I want to use this workflow but I'm not sure it will work as long as I keep typing messages to people without spaces :D
Keyboard Maestro is great! I personally use Hammerspoon, which is another great option for this sort of shortcut hacking if you fancy writing a config in Lua. Better Touch Tool is another great paid option and has a lot of other neat and unique features. None of these fully overlap with each other so you can use all of them in tandem if you like.
Also, Karabiner Elements is a fantastic application that can allow you to turn keys like caps lock on any keyboard (including the built in one on your macbook) into a hyper or meh key. It's not quite as robust as QMK/ZMK and I found that it can be troublesome with rolling keys, but since it is software based it can allow for application specific keybinds or allow for things like swapping semicolon and colon, which I don't think is currently possible with QMK and perhaps not ZMK.
Another great video, Ben! I look forward to hearing more on your thoughts about treadmill desking!
Phoenix JS is in the same field as Hammerspoon but scripted with Javascript.
For those interested in home row mods, I suggest kmonad over karabiner
You've gone so far down the rabbit hole that I don't understand anymore Ben hahahahahaha, but nice to see your love for keyboard and optimization, amazing video.
Your so passionate about PCB and it makes me envious
I always enjoy your enthusiasm. unfortunately I fried the half of my first custom keyboard so I didn't manage to fully control it. and I decide to create a "desktop" keyboard the ergodash so I didn't have the ability to take it with me when I work outside the house. I probably make corne or something with hotswap for the controller this time. I have learned so many things from your videos keep up the great work.
I was sold on your Moonlander review and that is they keyboard I plan buying in the future.
It's truly a wonderful keyboard and the dev team at ZSA consistently release new features and firmware to make the keyboard even better!
k I’ve been enjoying your keyboard content on TH-cam. I was curious what strategies you’ve used to memorize the keys in your multi layered keyboard. Is there any software (ideally Mac) that shows, real time, the key mappings post modifier press to help with recall?
Great tip as always
man you're such an inspiration.. ideal setup!! stand up desk, typing while walking, vim user, etc.. could you please make a video describing your work env/setup??.. meaning: desk, walking machine, keyboard layout (layout distribution and pressed-keys layouts, shortcuts, layout layers, etc..), vim setup (custom or based on someone else).. maybe it's a lot to ask but I really like your minimalistic and yet complex env
You’ve done a wonderful job of summing up the things I value in my setup! But yes I’m currently working out some ideas for videos on all this.
thanks for the tip, setting up on my moonlander now
Next thing you should try is to use window manager, which is designed to be operated using keyboard, like AwesomeWM or LeftWM or i3wm (the last one imho is the most newbies friendly). With a single key (super) I can open windows, move them, close, switch between them, change workspaces and so on. Just try it for few days.
Yeah, I would love to see him try a keyboard driven window manager. I use one on Linux and they are fantastic; I can traverse my PC almost entirely with my keyboard.
you don't really need any of that, every major os have basic window management except mac os, and on mac there's dedicated apps for window management like spectacle
@@knoopx I disagree. There is no way to achieve such predictable window management using keyboard without tiling WM. If I press the buttons sequence I really want to know what will happen after that. In different OSs it is impossible to select quickly one of 8 windows opened on the screen, without interpreting visual feedback. Ability to switch between different layouts on a single workspace is also very useful. Unless I'm not aware of many features that windows tried to copy over last few years.
@@RobertKmiec well I was referring to basic window management via super key (maximize/minimize, hide, move to another workspace, move/resize left/right)... and I wasn't strictly referring to Windows but all major Linux DE. you don't need a dedicated titling manager for keyboard-driven navigation... tiling WM are just another way of using computers and they are not for everyone. I wonder for example, why would you ever need to navigate through 8 simultaneously open windows when you can barely fit two vertically split web pages on a 4k display? you must have really good vision, specially if you are not using a large display.
I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but there's the free FancyZones from Windows Powertoys (made by MS), which I believe gives you keyboard control over a custom zoning setup on Windows (I think they incorporated some of the features into Win11, but not all of them, so probably useful even then).
Thanks for the video! Good idea.
I use a layer on my Moonlander that is dedicated to show/hide my most frequent used apps. Also, the most frequent used apps has its own layer too :)
Nerdy stuff!
::Ben:: I really love these videos of yours. The enthusiasm and the vigor with which you tackle the subject matter of each video is infectious. I just wish I honestly had a use for this kind of thing so that I could get hyped about it as much as you are/do. I more often than not am using my iPad so this sort of functionality isn’t really as important for me and my uses, but when I go to my Mac for things, I rarely use it for more than injecting a hex file onto a board or checking the web for stuffs. Fun video, just the same, and I’m glad to see that you’re still playing with new ideas.
Someone, please, show this man an Arch/Manjaro/Garuda Linux - there's a huge pottential for a humankind work efficiency breakthrough
Huge fan of macros for switching tabs and different apps/desktops
Nice vid
Just wait until he gets into tiling window managers. He is gonna go wild! There is yabai for macOS!! Awesome content, keep it up!
Yawch. Certianly deeper in than i know i am, or will be in any meaningful measure of the future.
A note: a lot of your workflow points here are using your super efficent keyboard tools to better the tools on your system..
On my linux system, i choose a somewhat known method of swiching windows, changing their size, focus, closing behavours and more, adjust it to my comfort, make program exceptions and importany work around some special keybindings i have and boom, perfection and utterly custom.
Do you see a benifit to doing it all keyboard level?
The " somewhat known " method would be AwesomeWM... It uses hjkl for arrow keys, for exapmle. And super key + enter to open a terminal
I'm still surprised you're not using a tiling window manager (aka, an actual window manager, not just a renderer). I'd be curious to figure out what you would come up with in combination with the custom keyboard.
Are there any other options on mac? Doesn't everything just get rendered by macOS?
@@BenVallack I'm probably not the best person to ask here, as I am only using a Mac at work where I am not allowed to install any of the available tiling window managers for MacOS as they interfere at a quite low level of the operation system (imho bad design on Apple's part, but that's nothing new ;)).
I've heard good things about yabai, though.
Still waiting for the day Ben would use Linux and Tiling Window Managers instead of trying to shoe horn complex window management onto MacOS
Heh - too far in with the apple eco system now!
Would love to see a detailed layout of your keyboard - almost like a how-to for typing on your layout.
That is basically this one th-cam.com/video/5RN_4PQ0j1A/w-d-xo.html I mention the two additional keys (repeat and direct to caps second alpha layer) which is the only difference with this one compared to that. Cheers!
Thanks! This finally got me to do something I wanted to try for a while now. I use steno and was able to set up a similar thing with that outputting hyper combos that AHK reads. I used a starter syllable of "go" with a * to distinguish it from normal go. Then a syllable to represent the app I want to make active. So something like "go ape" to go to my API project in VSCode, "go mess" for messenger, etc. The AHK script also switches virtual desktops too as needed. Eventually want it to launch the app if it isn't already open. With steno, it's as quick as 2 key presses, but super easy to remember since it's phonetic.
Interesting!
Watching you create these custom keyboards and layouts has inspired me to start my own journey into typing and keyboards. Today I got my cheap ($10) number pads to work as a split ortho linear keyboard, I created a custom layout for each one in my /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ directory and assigned each one to a number pad I have to reassign the layouts if the keyboards are unplugged or if my system updates but I still think it's pretty cool and would make a cool how to video if your interested in making a $20 split keyboard talk about click bait.
Hi Ben, would you consider doing something of a follow-along introduction to writing advanced keyboard functionalities like tap-dance?
Sadly I don't know anything about coding but I was inspired by your minimal keyboard journey, so after buying my mechanical keyboard and going to QMK configurator I've realised I can't implement the complex double tap and hold functionalities I want.
If you could do a follow along how you write a few different examples in a text file, then I'm sure I'd be able to copy and alter slightly to get ehat I want. There's almost nothing on YT about how to write tapdance functions!
Yeah the tap and hold stuff is complicated - so much so I made the mistake referenced in my pinned comment even in this video. I’d love to try and articulate how it all works in a video.
@@BenVallack Ah that's great! I'll keep my eyes peeled, then :)
I'd love to see a video about using Vim with tiny keyboards!
Yes, I would love to hear his thoughts on this. I believe Ben uses non standard layouts (ie, not QWERTY), which I briefly tried but found the vim experience miserable. Colemak-dh for example puts the J key in a particularly painful location. Is that something you can just power through or are the reduced key counts making that easier? What other tricks or layouts make this not a terrible experience?
@@JackRHyde so far on my colmak dh layout I have been just mapping the arrow keys to mnei in vim instead of hjkl and calling it a day, if that helps.
@@IWorkInPixels how do you insert etc?
@@KxKuK just by pressing i or a or whatever. The arrow keys are the only ones I care about keeping the spatial arrangement with.
I'm still waiting for the Kinesis 360 to hit production. I can't wait to try these shortcut methods using the extra keys it'll have.
Let's hope they get that blank keycap set out! Would love to review it when they do that.
@@BenVallack They'll take cherry MX caps, so you could always make your own if they don't ;)
Nice! But I´m curious because I use ZMK with an &mt on space, but for my shift, and pretty frequently when I´m typing, I get camel cased expressions likeThis instead of the space it activates the shift. You´ve mentioned that it worked for you with the default behavior of zmk, did you have to change anything else? I´m trying to figure out why it doesn´t work for me
You’re right! I thought I was using the default mod-tap settings - in fact I switched it to the following in ZMK - that is why I don’t get affected by rolling. In reality it would affect typing in a similar way to home row mods if I’d left it as default.
I have pinned this note for others too - good catch!
&mt {
tapping-term-ms = ;
flavor = "tap-preferred";
};
why do I love these videos so much, something is wrong with me
I switched to colemak-dh because of your video about it. I read about other keyboard layouts before that but wasn't set on one. Been using it for a year now.
Nice! It's a good layout - if want to keep going checkout notgate.github.io/layout/
Another thing to up the productivity with keyboard maestro is to check which app is in front with activating and then branch to the appropriate app activation. So lets say you have a hotkey for Finder…You can configure certain apps to use the menu show in Finder, but default to just activating Finder. If my editor is the front app, the hotkey will open Finder to the path of the current file/buffer (Emacs). If my front app is DEVONthink or PDF Expert, the hotkey will use that app’s menu item “Show in Finder”. I also use keyboard maestro to map editor key chords to work in certain apps like going to the top or bottom of the inbox list like I would when viewing a file. It just allow you to use that muscle memory in more applications.
Awesome tips!
Are you using this new keyboard design with the bands around the legs? I'm trying to see where you would run the band through
Next level stuff
I was hooked with the title of the video, but I got lost super quickly on how to get started with the keyboard I have.
Faster way to switch apps. I'm sold.
Layers. I get the concept.
Now what do I need to next to get started?
Have you got a custom keyboard?
@@BenVallack no, is the why I am confused, maybe?
God damn love these videos
For those running Windows 10 and Windows 11, unfortunately Windows steals the hyper key for itself be able to open Office. There do appear to be ways to get around it but I could never get it implemented myself. So use Meh instead.
Thanks for sharing - yeah I've been fine using meh on the Mac too.
I was used to a solution like the one Ben explains here when using Linux (using RunOrRaise or Jumpapp) but I was never able to reproduce it on Windows. Would you mind sharing the AHK script you use or point me to some useful resources?
I haven't tried it, but there is an app called OfficeKeyFix that you put in your startup folder. Explorer puts listeners on these key combos when it starts up. So the fix closes explorer, puts its own exclusive listeners on them, restarts explorer (who now can't register them on startup), and closes itself. I needed 18 diff hyper combos for an AHK script (involving mouse warping via chording) and just used 1-9 and a-j (skipping d), so avoided the office ones. There's also F13-F24 as some others mentioned.
Autohotkey is a great tool if you like to completely script it out yourself, but another great option for windows that's a little easier to use would be the keyboard remapping function in powertoys. It's obviously not as powerful as just making a completely custom thing so for super advanced functionality it's not great, but if all you want to do is say have shortcuts launch specific programs and whatnot, it's a great user friendly option for that.
Really nice idea Ben, I've just given it a go on my Moonlander and it works nicely. Only thing I can into was holding space in programs like Figma to drag an artboard around, double tapping and then holding works but it's a bit wonky or getting a trackpad between the Moonlander would solve that issue unless you have any other ideas.
Not used Figma - sounds like a pretty unusual control. Double tap and hold is a legit way of dealing with the issue though, it sounds like the option is up and running by default. I use it all the time my keys that have hold functions when I need them to just repeat they key instead.
Holding space for the hand tool is pretty standard with Adobe apps too. I don't know about Figma, but another option is to hold H. In fact, holding any tool key will temporarily activate that tool and switch back when you release it.
Complete off-topic from the video. Which terminal app are you using? Also, which theme are you using in vim?
Now, related to the video. I've been using Raycast lately and it offers all you mention about shortcuts + window management and many more in one single app. Totally worth it.
iTerm - great app. Cheers for sharing your recommendation
I have a brother that, due to a car accident, can't use his right hand at the computer. Would love to see you design a left hand only keyboard using this minimalist approach
I’ve thought about one handed boards a bit - in theory it’s pretty straightforward with this technique. I would go for a design that had a lot of thumb keys, you’ll need a good few layers but it should be totally doable.
Interesting you mention most people don’t roll off the spacebar because the frequency with which I roll off it is what stopped me from using MT or LT on spacebar
Yeah I think I underestimated it here actually
Hey Ben, just ordered a variation of your 18 key board. Looking forward to the board arriving. I am wondering what your approach to vim has changed since using the 18 key? Did you give up on hjkl and now use the arrow keys? Maybe text editing workflow could be a video idea.
Yeah I will do a video on that soon! I have abandoned hjkl positioning and have mapped the letters positionally the same as my arrow key layer. So I can still navigate without using the arrow key layer but using arrow key positions. That is mainly due to not have the inner index column - I'd have kept HJKL position otherwise.
@@BenVallack Cool do you mean you mappped the NEUA keys in your alpha1 layer to be the new hjkl movement keys?
Then mapped vim's search-next, word-end, undo, and append to the now free h j k and l keys?
You should check out yabai for tiling window management!
hey ben, its funny to see you try to emulate a tiling window manager. have you considered checking out yabai? Its a tiling window manager for mac os which can do loads of autotiling (and other) magic. In addition to skhd, a hotkey deamon that works really well together with yabai. Advantage being that you get an actual config file and dont have to click around in some gui like in keyboard maestro.
I'd highly recommend to check it out, it totally changed my workflow on mac os
Sounds very interesting - will definitely check it out thanks!
i hope to god your are turning this into a finalised product we can buy, (with RGB) :)
Every day mainstream OS window mgmt comes closer to becoming tiling window manager. ;P
What kailh choc switches do you recommend? I notice you use the light blue 25gf but I’m concerned I’ll press accidentally, do you have any recommendations?
Yeah my preference is to go as light as possible. You get used to it, I don’t find accidental hits an issue.
Just thought I should add that it is no longer necessary to pay for an app like Keyboard Maestro on Mac to do things like app switching. You can do it with the built in Mac Shortcuts app
Ah that is interesting cheers!
Maybe I have missed this if you have mentioned it in a previous video - but I would be interested to know what you do with your computer - I assume you work within IT - just curious to know what applications you are mostly using.
Web design - and I work on a CMS www.setseed.com - so it's iTerm/vim and safari mostly. Then the TH-cam stuff, Final Cut Pro etc.
I wonder why you don't use a Tiling Window Manager.
You should make a video teaching all of your tips and tricks with Keyboard Maestro.
Actually I only really use it for what is in this vid! It does way more though! I’m pretty minimal with settings up ‘tools’.
Would you ever consider making a video documenting your VIM workflow using colemak (assuming you still use it) and your ergonomic keyboard? I’m very curious to see how you’ve got it setup as you seem to put a lot of thought into each and every action.
Yeah I’ll sort that soon! Not using Colemak DH any more but I’m keen to show how vim works just fine with non standard keyboard layouts.
@@BenVallack nice, I’m looking forward to it! Did you switch back to QWERTY or something else entirely? I suppose layout matters less when you use an ergonomic keyboard that’s already designed to minimize finger movement.
@@branpod onto ISRT notgate.github.io/layout/
Hi Ben, I have used QMK, VIA, VIAL and REMAP but not ZMK and considering a board that only uses ZMK. REMAP is the best I have used by far due the the ease of using the GUI and setting MOD TAP behaviours so quickly. How do you find ZMK to work with? It does not look like there is a GUI like VIAL or REMAP but set me straight if so! Is it more like having to write basic script in QMK?
ZMK is brilliant but I’m only comparing to QMK. Its syntax is much lighter than QMK. More like a config file than scripting. GitHub build actions is amazing too.
ZMK is brilliant but I’m only comparing to QMK. Its syntax is much lighter than QMK. More like a config file than scripting. GitHub build actions is amazing too.
Counterpoint: I use Super Alt Tab on a thumb key and that has the advantage of single tap switching between two apps, without needing to set up a hotkey for each possible application. So changing focus between any two windows is one tap away.
But it requires a key to have that as it's tap action, which I guess is undoable with your very restricted key layout.
What if you have 10 applications open? Wouldn't you have to hit your hotkey multiple times?
@@AUS10indeed Yes! But since Windows stacks the applications on a "last-used-first" order, for my use case where I'm mostly switching between two apps, it works well. One tap to switch to, and one tap to switch back.
If you want to go to an app far down the stack it can be tedious, but at least coming back to the one you were originally is still one tap only.
I just bought a redragon dragonborn and would love to make layers for it, I can't flash a firmware, is there any software to simulate these layers?
Do you have a video where you talk about touchpad vs mouse?
Not yet - on the radar though
These videos have been really inspiring. Do you have this layout in zsa or somewhere else I can see it visually? I have a hard time understanding what's going on in zmk .keymap files but a picture goes a LONG way. :) The pictures you flashed on the screen in your 16-key layout tour were great, is there somewhere I can look at those without having to pause the video? Do similar pictures exist for the piano?
Thanks! The piano is actually the same layout at the 16 key with the addition of repeat key and layer toggle for caps second alpha layer. Here is the keymap github.com/benvallack/zmk-config-piano/blob/main/config/boards/shields/piano/piano.keymap
@@BenVallack Thank you!
@@BenVallack What do you use to generate the cool layout overlay pictures?
Good video.
When are you going to do some solutions for a mouse
waiting for it!
Stay tuned
Hey Ben, I saw on Discord that you were messing with a dedicated ZMK dongle. Did that go well, and if yes, are you planning on making a video on it?
Yep, it’s brilliant, yes I will do that at some stage.
@@BenVallack Sweet! Looking forward to it!
Wrt to using Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Win as a Hyper modifier, Windows forces that to be a shortcut for Office 365 with no way of turning that off that I know of. I have no idea why Windows thought it would be a good idea to make that be mandatory.
Yeah that’s lame!
Your memory must be super power level to remember all those layers and unlabelled keys.
Funnily enough I am known for having a pretty bad memory!
I'm not sure on this particular layout, but in some ways layers can make things easier to remember. Like in the Miryoku layout, there is a lot of symmetry. Holding a thumb key turns the right side into a 3x3 numpad. Then a different layer makes them the F keys in the same positions, using a 4th column for F10-F12. For the nav layer, it is vim-style movement of home row being left, down, up, right. Then row below that follow a similar pattern of home, page down, page up, end. The mouse movement layer is the same, with home row being mouse movement in same directions and row below that being scrolling in the same order. If you're a programmer, you might put all your different brackets on a layer next to each other to be in easy reach. You just need a system that makes sense to you and it won't be too bad. Then eventually it just becomes muscle memory..
Hey that’s not that innovative for someone who uses homerow mods. I think you should give it a try, ZMK tap preffered behavior is really simple to implement compared to QMK.
Agree - I use home row mods too (although on the top row). But putting meh on the space makes it even faster and far less effort to trigger similar shortcuts.
have you ever considered using a linux distro with a tiling window manager? seems like it would streamline a lot of your configuration
I’m pretty embedded in Mac - not sure where I’d start really!
Amethyst or yabai might be a good place to start
okay it appears that my replies are in some sort of verification thing
@@BenVallack seems my previous comments didn't send, so i'll make the recommendation of the fedora i3 spin and having a read through the i3 docs
Ben, I really appreciate and watch all your videos! would you by any chance sell/ship one of these final keyboards?
Yeah I’m working towards that. I have so many pcbs it seems a shame not to do something with them!
@@BenVallack I'm ready when you are! :)
Ben here is making way more progress on the brain-computer interface than neuralink. All he has to do now is put those 18 keys inside his fingers.
TL;DR I tried something like this app switcher/launcher years ago and landed on a simpler solution (read on for description). And don't forget about the keypad as a source of modifiable keys for use with any chording modifiers (read more below). Edit for Moom at bottom.
Launcher/Switcher
I tried something like this app-switching myself before I had a programmable keyboard by creating scripts in Automator (macOS) to launch apps and assigning shortcuts to them in System Preferences. It got too complicated dealing with conflicts, memorizing them (I already had hundreds to remember from Mac to Windows to specific apps on each...), and then many apps I use only occasionally I still launched with Spotlight... So, to keep things simple:
1) Use scripts to open SETS of apps instead of one (like one key stroke opens Messages, Mail, Contacts, Chrome, Safari, Notes, and Calendar). Then, using Moom (App Store), I can record their preferred size and locations on my screens. One chord opens the set and the second positions all of them.
2) Use Spotlight to launch individual apps (or for Dark Mode issues with Spotlight, the free version of Alfred lets you change the color of the search box)
3) Use AltTab (download from the internet) for tabbing to specific windows a la Windows but in the macOS.
Having multiple methods to do the same thing can be good, but sometimes you just need to KISS.
Keypad Chords
But one thing a lot people miss for setting up chords that avoid conflicts is the keypad. Before I had a programmable keyboard, I assigned the grid of the keypad to my other window management apps: Magnet and Breeze (Breeze appears to be unsupported at this time, ~~but Moom can take its place~~). Command + keypad-1 resizes a window to take 1/4 of the screen and places it in the lower-left corner; command + keypad-6 resizes to take 1/2 on the right; command + keypad-5 is maximize. Between Magnet and Breeze I was able to set up halves all around, quarter all around, three columns, 2/3 on the left, 2/3 on the right, 2x3 cells, fourth columns for my middle landscape monitor and fourth rows for my two portrait monitors. Using visual cues I can choose small 1/3 columns left and right (command + option + 4 or 6) or 2/3 left and right (command + shift + 4 or 6). Since the shift key or a regular keyboard is larger than the option key, it makes it easy to remember which to use for larger or smaller thirds. FYI, Divvy makes creating custom window positions really easy when setting up Breeze/Moom.
Now add my ErgoDox EZ. On the left thumb cluster, holding the inner larger thumb button switches to the window management layer and it includes the command key. So, holding the one key and tapping the position the number 1 takes on my keypad layer does the same as the chord command + keypad-1 on my full size keyboard. For left 1/3, window-management key + option + keypad-4. I might sound complex, but really isn't. It was super easy to adapt to. I use home-row mods so the left hand can hold a thumb cluster key and the fingers can easily hold as many of the modifiers as I need easily. This removes the need to assign a key for Hyper or Meh which means it is also great for the many default chords I use, as well. Accidental chords due to rolling is a bit of an issue, but the longer I use my ErgoDox EZ the better I get. The one that is really driving me crazy right now is control + E or A in text editors. The learning curve is worth it for home-row mods, for me.
Edit: I had another issue with Breeze today so I thought I would try to switch from it to Moom for individual window management in addition to sets of windows. Turns out it was easier with Moom than Breeze with one exception so I am not fully free of Breeze just yet. Moom uses a built in grid to assign position and size, where Breeze required you already have the window set to the size you want. Divvy did the grid part for me and then I recorded the position and size with Breeze. This is still useful for odd sizes that don't fit into the grid. Moom's grid is capped at nine columns or rows. I sometimes split my landscape screen into sixths (2 rows x 3 columns) so two apps use 1/3 and the other 2/3 could be one app or two. However, if I use Moom to divide my screen into 4 columns, I need 12 columns to handle both 4 and 3 columns (I still use Magnet for full 1/3 and 2/3 columns). That means Breeze still handles sixths.
SSL
Thanks for taking the time to share this!
Can I setup the same thing in windows 10?
Anyone ever told you about amethyst window manager?
Is there some way to switch between fullscreen apps like this on Mac? I like to keep all of my apps in full screen mode on separate desktops, and it would be great to be able to use this same concept to hit "Meh + S" to switch to the Spotify full screen app, for example.
This works exactly the same way if the apps are already in full screen.
Interesting, it wasn’t working for me unfortunately. I’ll have to give it another try, but in the meantime, is there any way you could share the macro you created so that I can compare? Thanks in advance!
Alternative name: "one simple hack to increase your productivity!"
I’ll give it a go!
for me my hold space is shift, but I have a lot of issues in triggering a capital instead of a space sometimes when I type fast, how do you get around that? any specific qmk settings?
It sounds like you do roll more than I do on the space key - you can definitely stop it doing it though - you just need to tweak the parameters. Try these settings - iirc they allowed mod taps to work when I was using a QMK board.
#define IGNORE_MOD_TAP_INTERRUPT
#define TAPPING_FORCE_HOLD
#undef TAPPING_TERM
#define TAPPING_TERM 240
#define RETRO_TAPPING
Shift is particularly hard to get working well as a tap hold because when you want to use shift you don’t expect/want to deal with a slightly longer hold. Whereas that is more acceptable with other mode. In other words you want to roll over shift to capitalise letters quite often. That’s why I still have a dedicated one shot shift key (albeit on my second layer, but at least I can roll through it)
what trackpad are you using?
Apple Magic Trackpad
please, where is the link for this pcb ?
forget. :)
now show us your treadmill setup
Soon for sure!
This is great tip! I already have a simple window management utility for which I already have finger-contorting shortcuts. I am looking forward to giving this a try!
A brief update: I moved all of my window management shortcuts to use ModTap(Hyper, ;) & I have started moving some other, global shortcuts to this combo. I set up ModTap(Meh, Space) to use with application-specific shortcuts such as my IDE. This new setup is working really well & has reduced a lot of finger gymnastics!
Is this steno typing then?
Nope! See this vid th-cam.com/video/5RN_4PQ0j1A/w-d-xo.html
@@BenVallack wow finished watching and have to say I need to try this. Thank you!
I am in the process of switching from a regular keyboard to a HHKB right now. I think I would give the Moonlander a try before going all in ❤️
Hey Ben, Been trying to find an active email address or means of communication with you. I've left emails on your setdeed and phototropic ones and reached out via Discord. Hoping to connect to discuss some product-design related avenues.
Now that you have constandly redused your keyboard keys I would be interessted in knowing "how few keys before productivety suffers"?
Well I went to 16 keys in this one th-cam.com/video/5RN_4PQ0j1A/w-d-xo.html and then came back to 18 which I think is good. I guess it also depends a bit on your definition of productivity. I am introducing additional taps to get to some of my letters but at the same time reducing overall finger movement, which I find great at reducing fatigue. In terms of computer interaction I think the way have my mods setup, and the meh key, is just amazing compared to a board where your mods are further away.
I would say 42 is the sweet spot, 36 the bare minimum
I owe you a wrist
IMO Solution already exists and its much simpler - dmenu