I want to swap keys around – but not change their values. How?

[cillin.f...@gmail.com]

Hi, I discovered Ukelele over on the Colemak forum, and I thought I'd give it a try.

I use a MacBook Pro 15" (2016+) running macOS High Sierra, and my main input source is 'ABC - extended', because it allows me type more special charachters, and even displays a pop-up window when I hold on a key, to select diacritic marks (which is very helpful).

So, what I want to do is rearrange the input source to suit me. But, I just want to swap keys around, because I don't want to lose their other values (special charachters and diacritics). I tried doing this myself without swapping keys, and I lost the feature where I could hold down to choose a symbol.

Any advice? 

My starting point will always be ABC - Extended as I'm most comfortable with the Alt, Shift, Ctrl sequences etc.

There seems to be no way to just drag and drop the keys around while maintaining all there values (so e.g. not just E, but èéêëēėę etc. and keep the pop up feature). My request is a bit awkward so I understand if not possible.

[cillin.f...@gmail.com]

The keys will be arranged to a modded version of Colemak,  but I want the keys to maintain their values for when Alt, Shift, Control, Fn etc are pressed. Thanks

[John Brownie]

Two things:

1. You can swap keys and keep all the associations with various modifier combinations by using the Swap Keys command. It only allows two keys to swap, but any rearrangement can be done as a series of pairwise swaps (finally, studying group theory pays off in practice!).

2. The press and hold mechanism is not currently user-configurable, as far as I know. If you look at the last pages of the manual, you'll see what has to be changed. Since Apple has not made this publicly documented, it's not easy to make a change to the behaviour. Some people have had success, but it's not guaranteed at all.

John

cillin.f...@gmail.com

16 March 2018 at 11:25

The keys will be arranged to a modded version of Colemak,  but I want the keys to maintain their values for when Alt, Shift, Control, Fn etc are pressed. Thanks

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cillin.f...@gmail.com

16 March 2018 at 11:23

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John Brownie
SIL-PNG, Ukarumpa, Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea
Mussau-Emira language, New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea

[cillin.f...@gmail.com]

Thank you for your swift reply. I only noticed the swap key function now.

I looked at the resources on the manual and I can see it's very hard to change the press and hold mechanisms. I'm sure I could try though :)

Cillín