Welcome!

[Vitaly]

We are going to release an application for Mac and Win this or next week and we would like to have your input on how we can improve it and if there are any bugs. Some beta-testers are already working on it, and we would appreciate your input. If you are interested, please send me a PM and I'll send you the beta-version. Thanks!

Here are the installation guidelines:

1. Unzip the archive to /Library/Keyboard Layouts/

2. Go to System Preferences, International, then in Input Menu check the
Layout. If it does not appear there, reboot (possibly old Mac OS X).

3. The layout will start working in each application after restart of
that application.

4. You are done!

Your comments (improvements, bugs etc.) are welcomed in this thread!

[ansiman]

What does the application do?

[phusiongraphics]

Hey guys!

I hate to ask an obvious question, or look like a complete idiot—but there are no installation instructions included with the file I downloaded. There is an .icns file and a .keylayout file, but no application.

I'm not sure if I need to install one of these files in order to use the functionality.

Am I missing something?

Just wanted to convey that bit of information to you. Wouldn't want your end-user to be confused.

PG

[lucsampaio]

i think the first thing you can add to the bundle is a "how to" or readme, explaining where to install the keylayout file.

i'm not used to deal with such files, even though i have an idea on where it should go. and i bet i'm not the only one. (the new post sent while i wrote this reinforces my opinion)

cheers

[Brooke]

yeah, I'm lost. we need instructions

[Crompton]

Me too - Help....

[visualmadness]

Yeah, there weren't exactly any instructions included in the attachments. Nevertheless, I did a bit of Googling, and from there I learned how to install the .keylayout file.

1. After unzipping the files, take the IBT-SMZ.keylayout file and drag it into the /Library/Keyboard Layouts/ directory.

2. Once you've done that, log out, then back in again.

3. Go to System Preferences -> International -> Input Menu

4. Scroll down to the one that says "Ilya Birman Type...." and click the check box next to it.

5. Now you're done! All you have to do is press Command+Space, and that will activate the new layout. If you look in your Apple menu bar, you'll notice the US Flag turn into a keyboard when you do so.

Hope that helped,

-Kev

[Vitaly]

Thanks, visualmadness! The instruction is being written as we speak. My mistake, sorry for inconvenience, guys!

[acwilan]

Very nice. It doesn't conflicts with my current keyboard layout, but it adds functionality to it. Now I can type needed characters with the keyboard instead of looking and searching for its alt code or opening the charmap, specially working in a spanish country, where keys like ¿¡éíñ are a must-have.

One thing I did noticed working on Eclipse PDT under windows with US-International keyboard as default... whenever I pressed Right Alt+/ key (located at the left of the right shift key) I did get a "/¿" character instead of the expected "¿" character.

[visualmadness]

So far so good - the alternate layout seems to work as expected, and some of the functions like option+T being ™ and option+8 being ∞ really do make sense. Just a few things I've noticed:

1. Option+4 gives us the $ sign, which is exactly the same thing as we would get if we pressed Shift+4. Kind of a redundancy there, don't you think?

2. Typing option+9 and option+0 outputs the ← and → symbols respectively. They look fine here, but upon trying it out in Textmate the arrows were horribly misaligned. Any way around this, or is this layout destined never to be used with Textmate?

3. No fault of yours, but I noticed that the keyboard shortcut to switch the input source is Command+Space by default. For many of us Mac users, this is the trigger for Quicksilver, so it can be kind of confusing at first when trying to change the input and having the all-too-familiar Bezel interface pop up instead. Of course, this can be quickly remedied in the Keyboard Shortcuts section of your Keyboard & Mouse prefs.

That's about all I've noticed for now - happy beta testing!

-Kev

[greenrobothaswings]

Is there any chance of making a version for the portuguese layout? I mean, by adding functionality to the portuguese layout instead of replacing it with, I assume, an english layout with added functionality. That way we could use it full time.

[sonaliagrawal]

Wonderful application. This will really be helpful. Was a little confusing to install before you didn't give the instructions. Nice Work!!

[Vitaly]

Is there any chance of making a version for the portuguese layout? I mean, by adding functionality to the portuguese layout instead of replacing it with, I assume, an english layout with added functionality. That way we could use it full time.

Certainly, we can do that! The main idea is to make an app that would be useful across the globe, and of course, there are some regional differences and changes that one would like to have. I think we can figure something out

[lucsampaio]

as greenrobothaswings before me, I too miss glyphs for portuguese and other latin languages. diacritics that used to be easily accessible like ’ ^ and others that i really can't find are sorely missed. since i already used option+(char) to input my diacritics on the mac, this layout really doesn't add much, and actualy takes some away.

[srpsco]

Like the mac folks have said the biggest pain was figuring out how to swap keyboard mappings in win xp. This link helped

http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/inte ... ernational

also note the new keyboard layout will appear as a russian/cyrilic name.

Three quick issues. It is going to take some time to get the muscle memory to remember these keystrokes. I have already printed the .png file.
Second in my case it may be easier to map them to the g keys on my logitech g15 keyboard.Third the use of the right alt key only may make it much harder for lefties, or those like me with arthritis and limited use of my hands.