Keymap wizardry: Typing out the Harry Potter saga
Typing out all the Harry Potter books would be crazy, right? What would be the point? Seems like a weird flex even by keyboard enthusiast standards. Yep, that's right. Typing it out once makes no sense. That's why I'm going to type out the books a few million times! For the benefit of humanity and especially of you, fellow keymap wizards. This is a demonstration of the power of alternative/custom layouts. Given the huge extent of this topic, we can barely scratch the surface here so consider this write-up a mere teaser. Imagine you are an aspiring writer with a brilliant idea, just about to start typing out your magnum opus, staring at a yet empty document on your screen. Cursor blinking, annoying orphan relatives locked up in the cupboard under the stairs. Your story, about a young boy who ends up saving the world, is quite complete. You "just" have to type out heaps of your manuscripts and notes: about 6.5 million keystrokes. Everything is prepared for the...
Jun 4, 2024
Layer 0 - Default Layer
Toggle Keys
Keymapping The is pretty much a default keyboard layout except for the layer toggles. Layer 1 - LED / Fn Layer
Colors
Keymapping
Layer 2 - VIM / Word / Outlook Layer
Toggle Keys
Colors The yellow and orange are kind of hard to distinguish in the photos.
Keymapping
Navigation
Vim
Word Helpers
- U = ctrl + page up (Beginning of paragraph)
- M = ctrl + page down (End of paragraph)
- W = ctrl + right arrow (Navigates to next word)
- B = ctrl + left arrow (Navigates to previous word)
- 4$ = ctrl + home (Navigates to end of line)
- 0) = ctrl + end (Navigates to start of line)
I tried to figure out a way to navigate sentences but I didn’t want to write VB macros. Excel HelperShortcuts
Outlook
Word
Layer 3 - Excel Layer
Toggle Keys The Drop configurator has an option to toggle a layer for one keypress. I use this to toggle this layer from the Default layer and the Vim layer. After I press a shortcut, the keyboard reverts back to the previous layer. Colors
Keymapping
Formatting
Excel Commands
Excel Navigation
Conclusion This set up as worked out really well so far. I will probably make a couple tweaks here and there but I’ve gotten used to the layout after a full day’s use. It’s worked out so well I’m considering buying another one for home to replace my dev keyboard, an Apple Magic Keyboard. At $200 shipped, the Alt Keyboard isn’t cheap but what would you pay to finally learn all the Vim keybindings?