Can I 'unsticky' caps lock?

[Ian Power]

Hi, 

Is it possible to use caps lock as a normal modifier key (ex: without having it "lock")? I want it  to function just like the option and shift buttons. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Ian

[Geke]

Hi Ian,

The CapsLock behavior itself isn’t controlled by Ukelele, only which characters are typed when it is "up" or "down", respectively.

But maybe try the button "Modifier Keys..." in the System Preferences/Keyboard panel. There you can make the CapsLock key behave like the Control key, the Option key, or the Command key – or disable it.
If that isn’t what you want, you’ll have to resort to programs like Karabiner.

[Sorin Paliga]

You mean: beside the combination Option + key and Option + Shift + key, you want to add the possibility Option + Capslock + key in order to enrich or enhance the list of chars you may get? 

Yes, you can to that. Some of my keylayouts do include this possibility just because one may indeed enrich the list. 

http://www.unibuc.ro/e/prof/paliga_v_s/soft-reso/

Download U.S. Academic, as an example, or the Romanian set and install Romanian MacClub, for another example.

In order to achieve this, you must add in UKELELE this possibility if absent. If you start from an existing keylayout, it probably is. 

On 03 Oct 2015, at 23:53, Ian Power <ianp...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, 

Is it possible to use caps lock as a normal modifier key (ex: without having it "lock")? I want it  to function just like the option and shift buttons. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Ian

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[Geke]

Hi Cattus Thraex, when I read the original post’s subject: "Can I ’unsticky’ caps lock?" I don’t think that’s what he wants.

[Sorin Paliga]

I am not sure whether that is what he wished to do, and using caplock combined with Option is rare in keylayouts, in fact I have not seen it outside my keylayouts! I used it in order to expand the range of chars with rare ones. It works.

On 04 Oct 2015, at 12:12, Geke <gevang...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Cattus Thraex, when I read the original post’s subject: "Can I ’unsticky’ caps lock?" I don’t think that’s what he wants.

[Ian Power]

No, that’s not quite what I want. I want to be able to use caps lock normally, but without the ‘locking’. For example, holding down caps lock would show alternate keys, but releasing it shows the default keys again. Essentially I want it to function exactly like shift. 

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[Sorin Paliga]

I do not know why you would wish this, except for the case when your physical keyboard has shift key damaged. Of course you cannot do that with UKELELE, because it cannot change system behavior. 

But you can easily do that going to sys prefs/Keyboard/Modifier Keys.

On 04 Oct 2015, at 16:12, Ian Power <ianp...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Ian Power]

Thanks, as long as I know it can’t be done, I can stop wasting time trying to do it! I’m trying to assign IPA diacritics to function keys to require the least number of keystrokes. I’m trying to avoid three-key combinations. This keyboard layout would be used for Speech Language Pathologists transcribing disordered speech on the fly and needs to be as uncomplicated as possible. 

On Oct 4, 2015, at 1:31 PM, Sorin Paliga <sorin....@gmail.com> wrote:

I do not know why you would wish this, except for the case when your physical keyboard has shift key damaged. Of course you cannot do that with UKELELE, because it cannot change system behavior. 

But you can easily do that going to sys prefs/Keyboard/Modifier Keys.

On 04 Oct 2015, at 16:12, Ian Power <ianp...@gmail.com> wrote:

<Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 20.30.44.png>

[Sorin Paliga]

I do not understand what you wish to do, in fact. IPA diacritics may be obtained by IPA Unicode keyboard layout (google for it, I think you may find it on IPA website) and by other keylayouts like mine. You do not need 3 keystrokes, but it depends on the number of chars you wish to get. IPA may be obtained by precombined chars, if already defined, or by putting above/below any diacritical sign in the set.

You may also create your own keylayout from the scratch or starting from an existing one.

Sorin Paliga

http://www.unibuc.ro/prof/paliga_v_s/

[Ian Power]

I have the unicode layout, but in some cases I use slightly different symbols (ex: for diphthongs), and I find some of the symbol placements to be inconvenient. So I am creating my own template from scratch. I’ve discovered that clinical transcription is a rough and dirty process where speed and clarity are more important than precision. In fact, I’m beginning to understand why almost every SLP uses handwritten transcription. But it still annoys me that we are using pen and paper in 2015. 

On Oct 4, 2015, at 1:53 PM, Sorin Paliga <sorin....@gmail.com> wrote:

 IPA Unicode keyboard layout

[Geke]

I can confirm that it’s not possible:
– Even Karabiner+Seil can’t change the CapsLock key in the way you wanted; I checked. They can change it into a key that works like the letter keys, but not into a modifier key.
– Your best approximation would be to change CapsLock into Control (with the System Preferences setting) and create a layout for Control+... in Ukelele.
But I have the feeling that would not work everywhere, as some programs probably use certain Control-key combinations for commands.
What you really wanted to do might be to make CapsLock work as if Option+Shift were both pressed, but System Preferences doesn’t offer that possibility.

But there may be something that is almost as good: Dead Keys.
Maybe you know about them, but anyway: most keyboard layouts have some dead-keys on the Option layer. But they can also be on the standard Unshift layer, like e.g. the Swedish layout has.
This means that you would be pressing two keys in sequence to get a result character. In my own layout, I’ve assigned a dead key to the extra key available on ISO-type keyboards, so that I can type German special letters without switching to a German keyboard layout: I press § then s and the result is ß.

Except that it costs you a key on the standard (Unshifted) layer, I think this solution is basically the same as what you wanted to do with that non-sticking CapsLock key, am I right?

[Ian Power]

Ok, thanks. I may give dead keys a try if my current strategy doesn’t work.

For the moment, I’ve assigned diacritics to the function keys on the top of the keyboard (and disabled the volume/brightness etc.). I have a superscript ‘w’ assigned to F12 and a syllabic diacritic (‘ underneath) assigned to SHIFT + F12. Neither of these ever works.

For example, I get a lovely additive nasals ~ above the preceding letter when I hit F1. But when I hit F12 I get no output whatsoever. I can see the symbols on the Ukulele keyboard. What could cause this? I’m stumped. 

[John Brownie]

On 5/10/2015 7:12, Ian Power wrote:
> For the moment, I’ve assigned diacritics to the function keys on the
> top of the keyboard (and disabled the volume/brightness etc.). I have
> a superscript ‘w’ assigned to F12 and a syllabic diacritic (‘
> underneath) assigned to SHIFT + F12. Neither of these ever works.
>
> For example, I get a lovely additive nasals ~ above the preceding
> letter when I hit F1. But when I hit F12 I get no output whatsoever. I
> can see the symbols on the Ukulele keyboard. What could cause this?
> I’m stumped.
>

Does your keyboard have hardware control on the F-keys, like my MacBook
Pro has volume up on F12? That might have an effect, and you might have
to have the fn key involved to see it. However, if other F-keys are
working, that's likely not to be your problem.

A second possibility is that F12 is assigned somewhere in hot keys. On
Yosemite, it's under Keyboard, Shortcuts tab. I don't see a way of
searching for it, but have a poke around there and see if there's something.

Finally, another thought is whether you actually get a key code in
Ukelele when you press F12 with the inspector panel open. If you don't,
then something is consuming the key press before it gets to the keyboard
layout.

John
--
John Brownie, john_b...@sil.org or j.br...@sil.org.pg
Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa, Eastern Highlands Province,
Papua New Guinea
Mussau-Emira language, Mussau Island, New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea

[Ian Power]

Thanks John, I ended up abandoning the F12 key altogether after checking all three of the things you mentioned. Inspector is not registering any unicode symbols, so I take it some other program/process is in control of it. I may try on a different macbook in the future.

[Geke]

You really need every possible key, looks like :)

From what I’ve seen, Karabiner isn’t able to change function keys into character keys either.

But another of its features might interest you:
"Makes Fn key behave as Shift+Control+Option+Command key, but only when pressed in combination with a letter, number, symbol or escape, space, tab. Fn behaves as a normal Fn key otherwise."
That could work like an extra modifier key, if you create a "modifier set" in Ukelele for it.

Another idea is to use the CapsLock key to add several more sets to your keyboard layout. Usually, CapsLock is just a fixed Shift key, but it can be used to switch to a completely different layout, e.g. with CapsLock up one types Latin script abcde and with CapsLock down that changes to Cyrillic: фисву. (It is a lot like changing to a different keyboard layout, and in practice it may be handier to really have two layouts.)