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Leveraging Layers

Sep 17, 202491 VIEWS

Making your keyboard work for you! When shopping for a new keyboard you may have heard that you want to have a keyboard that is compatible with QMK, VIA, or VIAL. These are three different programs that allow you to modify the assigned keys on a keyboard. This is one of the major advantages of using a custom mechanical keyboard and one that I feel is criminally underused. Making small adjustments to your layers can allow you to tune your keyboard to your exact specifications. For example, I always swap the position of left control and caps lock. I’ve always felt that caps lock was a waste of such a valuable space. For those of you that read some of my earlier articles, you’ll know that my first mechanical keyboard was a Happy Hacking Keyboard. As you’ll see later on, my personal layouts are heavily inspired by this keyboard, even going so far as to mapping my backspace to the pipe key on nearly every single physical layout, yes including tenkeyless. Today, I hope you can take away some cool tips and tricks in modifying your layouts to improve your keyboard experience. We’ll primarily be looking at VIA as the interface. For those that choose to use smaller form factors, having multiple layers allows our keyboards to interface as much larger boards. Let’s start where my journey did, the HHKB, specifically the Pro 2.

As you can see with this layout, it gives near full 108-key functionality if you don’t mind swapping the ten key numbers out for the standard number row. You can also see the swap to control on caps as well as moving the backspace down to the pipe key. This layout is my bread and butter. I used a HHKB Pro 2 daily for many years. These keybinds are so ingrained in my muscle memory that every keyboard I use has this as a base layout. I do make some alterations, but there is a clear influence from Happy Hacking Keyboards. When I initially configure a keyboard, outside of my standard layout, I immediately configure a couple of macros. Macros, for the uninitiated, is a way to initiate multiple keypresses or a series of keypress to a single input. My most useful macro that I use on every keyboard is {KC_LCTL,KC_LALT,KC_DEL} which I bind to Fn+Esc. This let’s me Control-Alt-Delete in a single keystroke which is incredibly valuable when often times delete is in a separate layer than control and alt for me. Small, simple macros like this can make frequent or semi frequent tasks easier to do and ultimately help save time when doing repetitive tasks. In the past, when scripting, I have created macros to automatically type common lines and phrases to speed up my process.

In VIA, this is the macro programming tab. There are two primary ways to program a macro. You can use text input as you see above, or you can have via record your keystrokes and essentially play them back. In this text entry screen there are two main fields to know about. The text box, and the memory bar. The memory bar is directly above the entry box, and shows you how much memory your macro is taking up on your keyboard. You do have a limited amount of on PCB storage to use with your macros. Again, I'll leave my chorded press for control-alt-delete for you to try on one of your builds if you are a Windows user. As a Windows power user myself, I don't need as many macros as the default Windows shortcuts for opening powershell, windows run, and control panel are muscle memory. Don't be afraid to make macros that will improve your day to day work! Here's an example of my standard 60% layout. This is the PCB in my Mekanisk Fjell, which is a go to 60 on my shelf due to it's great sound and hefty feel.

With my base layer, you'll see that I nearly duplicate the HHKB layout. This is my preferred layout on any keyboard, even TKLs. I like split backspace and split right shift. My muscle memory pretty much removes the ability to use a full backspace keyboard entirely. Looking closely you'll see that my left shift and right shift are unique. When using VIA to map your keys, there is a section called Special. These special keys have unique functions that aren't standard to normal off the shelf keyboards. LS ( and RS ) act as left shift and right shift when they are held down. This is typically the only way that you would use these two keys, so nothing changes. However with LS ( and RS ) selected, when you tap left shift, you'll output a (, and when you tap right shift, you'll output a ). As someone who use parenthesis a lot, in both my professional work and in my normal writing, this is just a quality of life improvement that makes writing more enjoyable and fluid.

In my function layer, you can see that my layout is that of a HHKB. The function layer is something that I've used for quite a while, and it's easiest for me to not try and change it. As I eluded to earlier, you'll see M0 on the escape key, this is my macro for control-alt-delete. The only keys that I've omitted from the original HHKB layout is the math symbols. I don't do work in calculators at all in my day to day, so they weren't something that I needed to move over. I used to use a third layer on my 60% that contained a full ten-key to use for a calculator, but that layer went untouched, so I've stopped programming it. However, the fact stands that if you wanted to, you could have a full 108-key experience on a 60% keyboard if you use layers. While I'm not an expert in all the possibilities of QMK, VIA, VIAL, I encourage you to explore what possibilities there are to improve your typing experience. I value staying on the home row for as much of my work as possible, which is why I've moved backspace and control to be much closer, as well as integrated the open and close parenthesis onto my left and right shift. This makes it so the majority of my time typing is spent not having to move from home row. As you can see in the special keys section, there are keybinds for moving your mouse, using different mouse buttons, single button copy and paste, using left and right control or alt as tap parenthesis, and many more. When you are purchasing a keyboard specifically for having the ability to use QMK, VIA, or VIAL, you should be trying to use these tools to make your keyboard as efficient for your use case as possible. Layers for PC and Mac I work as a system administrator in a company that uses both Macs and PCs. I grew up in Windows and Linux environments and use those in my personal computers. However, for work, I daily a Mac. I work from home and use the same desk setup for both work and play. Because of this, I swap my daily keyboard between Mac and PC quite frequently, especially since I support both types of users. Because of the differences in Mac and PC shortcuts it’s great to be able to have base layers for two operating systems. One notable part of my current layout is that on Mac, command operates in the same way that control does on Windows, so it’s important for me to move that to where the caps lock key normally is. Let's take a look at the keymap for my AKB Caerdroia, the keyboard I've been using lately for work and play.

As you can see, my initial layer looks very similar to the previously mentioned HHKB layout. As I previously mentioned, I use LS ( and RS ) which function as shifts when hold and parenthesis when tapped. While nonstandard by default, my keyboards are built for my use, not anybody else. It's important to remember this when configuring your own keyboard. Do what works for you, not what works for others.

Compared to my 60% boards, my function layer is pretty scarce. I've got media controls in the navigation cluster, my trusty control-alt-delete macro on escape, caps lock on tab, and two toggle layer keys on F1 an F2. These are set toggle my layers between Windows on Layer 0 is activated by TO(0) and Mac is on Layer 2 and activated by TO(2). As you can see in the Windows function layer, I'm using the triangles keys to drill down to the base layer. The majority of keys are pass through. This is crucial for easily creating multiple layer layouts without remapping every single key for every single layer.

With my Mac Base Layer it doesn't look like hardly anything has changed. You'll notice that Left Win has moved to where Caps Lock normally is. This is because in VIA Left Win is technically Left GUI, which in Windows is the start menu/windows key and on Mac it is Command. You'll also see that we need to 'cover' all the function keys of the layer below it (in this instance layer 1 or my Windows Function Layer. Covering them instead of using the drill down triangle allows for those keys to act normally and not act as the function keys.

Finally we get to my Mac function layer which mirrors my Windows function layer, except we don't need the control-alt-delete function in a Mac OS environment. This layer leverages my muscle memory of how I normally set up a TKL and allows me to control my music as I normally would using function layers. One thing to note, if you want your keycaps to match your layout, it's important to take the time to look through what keycaps are included in your kit to ensure that you will have compatibility. I've had really good luck in that my layout is fairly typical. Most keysets cover my standard use, including GMK, DCX, KAT and SA. To further improve compatibility, you could look for a single height set, like DSA, XDA, or KAM as they do not have specific rows for each keycap. Sometimes these take a little getting used to as there is no height difference between the rows, but they do offer the best compatibility. Wrapping up, it's important to know, that even though today's examples were done in VIA which is probably the most beginner friendly keymapping software, both QMK and VIAL offer even more functionality. They are less user friendly in that there isn't the easy to use web app that offers live editing, but both are well documented and have thriving communities available as a resource to those that need a little assistance. There are other keymapping software to keep it mind such as ZMK. ZMK is really cool because it's optimized for wireless use. The most popular board using ZMK now in my opinion is Cannonkey's Bakeneko Go PCB which gets great battery life of over a month because of ZMK while using only a 200mah battery. Today's article was written on my Mekanisk Fjell. This is one of my favorite 60s as it is truly a premium traymount keyboard. While many have moved on to gasket boards, I think there is something nostalgic about this typing experience, especially removing the middle two stand offs. I've built it with Outemnu Milk Teas switches. This board honestly gets all my tester switches to see if I like them enough to solder them into a keyboard. I'm pleasantly surprised by these tactile budget switches. Right now I'm typing on GMK Monkei Material and have these switches installed on a FR4 plate. Let me know what are some of your favorite features in QMK, VIA, VIAL, or ZMK! I'm always looking for helpful tools to improve my typing experience!

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Sep 18, 2024

Thanks for the write up! I've always found it an interesting conversation starter regarding smaller than full size keebs when someone asks "what do you do if you need (insert part of board)!?", especially since I love 60s like you.

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