Kmhmu 2008 (deprecated) Keyboard Help
Kmhmu 2008 Keyboard and Font
Thank you for downloading and installing the Kmhmu 2008 keyboard/font package for Tavultesoft Keyman.
This package includes the Kmhmu 2008 keyboard and the compatible font Kmhmu OT.
Using the Kmhmu OT Font
There is currently no Unicode standard encoding for Kmhmu, and standard Lao Unicode (OpenType) fonts do not permit all character sequences found in Kmhmu to be displayed correctly. The Kmhmu OT font has been developed to work around those limitations, while keeping to the Unicode encoding for Lao characters.
In Microsoft Word and some other Microsoft applications, when selecting the Kmhmu OT font, it is usually necessary to set both the Latin text font and the Complex script font to Kmhmu OT. A simple way to do this in Word is to create a paragraph (or character) style, and set the font for "all scripts" to be Kmhmu OT. If the new style is added to your Normal template, it can be applied whenever entering Kmhmu text.
Keyboard Layout Notes
Keyboard layout (as shown below) follows the Lao standard, with the following minor differences to simplify entry of Kmhmu text:
| Shift | Key | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ● | Y | ກ໌ | |
| ● | U | ຍ໌ | |
| i | ຣ | This follows the pre-2005 Lao typewriter convention, since ຣ is widely used in Kmhmu while ຮ is rarely if ever used. | |
| ● | I | ຮ | |
| space bar (pressed once) | thin space | To allow narrow spacing between words, the space bar inserts a (wrapping) thin-space when pressed once, or normal spaces if pressed more than once. | |
| space bar (twice or more) | normal space | ||
| ● | | | ZWSP | Zero-width (wrapping) space character |
| ● | % | ໌ | This mark used to form modified characters found in Kmhmu (but not in Lao) replaces the "Cancellation mark" (thanthakhat) found in normal Lao fonts, so can be entered using the same keystroke. But in most cases, the Y and U keys would be used instead. |
Keyboard layout - Unshifted
Keyboard layout - with Shift
Keyboard layout - with Right Alt
Further Information
Version 1.0 for Keyman Desktop 7.0. Released 29 August 2008. Created by John Durdin.
This keyboard package may be freely used or distributed in unmodified form.
