Creating Keyboards
Introduction
If you have never created a keyboard before, you might want to work through the Keyman Developer Tutorial. The tutorial takes you through the process of creating a keyboard using the Keyman Keyboard Language.
There are two ways to create a keyboard from scratch:
- Using the Keyboard Wizard
- Using the Keyman Keyboard Language
Using the Keyboard Wizard
The Keyboard Wizard gives you a simple interface to quickly create a
keyboard using a visual representation of a computer keyboard. You can
drag and drop characters from a character map, and create ANSI and Unicode
keyboard layouts. You cannot access most of Keyman's more powerful features
from the Keyboard Wizard, but it will be useful to get you started on your
design. You can convert keyboards created in the Keyboard Wizard to standard
Keyman source files in TIKE.
Using the Keyman Keyboard Language
The Keyman Keyboard Language (.kmn files) is what provides the flexibility that
is needed to write keyboards with complex character management, including constraints,
dead keys, post-entry parsing, virtual key management (accessing any key on the keyboard),
and other Keyman features. You can learn more about the Keyman Keyboard Language in the
Programmer's Guide
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