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The Zweihander Layout

NB: the backtick (`) is special in Markdown. If I write ⌘` in this readme, I mean “command-backtick”, not “command-backslash-backtick”.

This layout is tuned for people who…

use OS X

While this layout should work fine in Windows, it’s not tuned for it. No sane person who primarily uses Windows would put this many Windows keys on a keyboard layout.

mouse left-handed while doing other things with the right hand

I tend to have my mouse in my left hand, but I like to use my other hand to make things go faster. I’ve added a bunch of buttons to the media layer to speed up browsing in Safari and Finder:

Close Window (⌘W)
Back (⌘[)
Forward (⌘])
Open and Close Parent Folder (⌥⌘↓)
Go Up and Close Just-Left Folder (⌥⌘↑)
Cycle through open windows in current application (⌘` and ⌘⇧`)

Because moving letter-by-letter is way slower than moving word-by-word, I added Option (⌥) to the bottommost button on the left side. This key can be held easily while holding ; (activate media layer) and pressing J and L to move left and right by word.

I wanted to preserve the feel of a number of shortcuts that involve pressing lots of modifier keys at once; this is why the bottom left of the keyboard has shift, control, option, and command in the usual spaces. Further, some common shortcuts I press have a key on the right side of the keyboard. These shortcuts include:

Empty Trash Without Asking for Confirmation (⇧⌥⌘⌫)

⇧⌥⌘⌫, when you press the backspace on the right half of the keyboard, is much more satisfying than if you curl your left hand into a claw to press all the keys on the left. Try both; you’ll agree.

use Emacs-style shortcuts

I press C-a, C-e, and C-k all the time. It’s difficult to press these key combinations with the control key on the bottom left and I’m too quick on the draw for the control function on the / key to work reliably, so the bottommost thumb button on the right side is another control key.

Having trouble remembering which thumb key is alt and which is ctrl? It’s like on the lower right of a normal keyboard — leftmost is alt, rightmost is ctrl.

use spreadsheets

All the common spreadsheet operations (+-*/=) are now on the right side of the symbol layer. There’s also a colon there for entering times and maybe IPv6 addresses. Not that I expect people to type IPv6 addresses into a spreadsheet, but, y’know.

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