The Keyboard

Same as @rossic and @Walt_Leipold

As I hate half-height up and down keys very much, I think this is a great solution. Especially when I am using vim or playing some STG games like Touhou Project which requires fine tuning of position using the arrow keys.

12 Likes

@Ted_Lavarias Me too, please replace it with the framework gear logo which would be regardless of OSs.

11 Likes

O formato mais próximo do ABNT2 sem modificar tanto o teclado seria esse esboço que fiz usando o teclado do notebook da Framework com a organização das teclas no padrão ABNT2.
Nesse caso eu fiz com a tecla “Enter” no padrão ANSI, no ABNT2 geralmente a tecla “Enter” tem o padrão ISO, mas isso não é uma regra, se bem que é bem raro encontrar uma ABNT2 com a tecla “Enter” no formato ANSI

@Ray_Kiddy - Take a look at this announcement up top again. They’re launching two special edition keyboards with no language imprint. Is that what you’re looking for?

1 Like

After using the keyboard for a couple of days, I have to say I’m really pleased with it. I find I type both faster and more accurately than I do on either my previous Thinkpad or on my external keyboard. The key spacing and tactile feel hits my sweet spot.

I had two gripes with it, the first, the position of the ctrl and fn keys, after spending most of the last two decades working on machines with them in the opposite space, was proving difficult to get used to, so I was really pleased to find that could be swapped in bios.

Now I’m wondering if there is a workaround to the second gripe, which is the lack of dedicated home and end buttons, which I use a lot. Any way to get one handed home and end functionality without losing the left and right arrows?

1 Like

Maybe map Right Alt + Arrow?

1 Like

@jeshikat Thanks for the idea. I use alt+left arrow to go back and ctrl+left arrow to go to the start of a word when I’m typing. But maybe I can figure out another key mapping that would work and not interfere with any other shortcuts. Thanks for the idea.

1 Like

US vs. UK Keyboards
I found this very interesting and didn’t see this small detail discussed elsewhere, so I thought I’d share. I wondered why there wasn’t any framing in between the \ key and the Enter key on the US keyboard, then I understood why when I happened to spot a UK keyboard and compared the two.
US: us vs. UK: uk
I’m assuming that the framing in this spot has been intentionally left out to make swapping keyboards with different layouts easier and so that only one keyboard frame has to be manufactured. I thought this was very thoughtful & efficient on the part of the Framework team. Awesome!

16 Likes

Will there ever be a keyboard option that’s more of a linear switch experience? (not even sure if that’s possible on a laptop keyboard) I’m not a big fan of tactile switches.

Mechanical switches are probably too thick to fit on this model. You’d end up with a deck too tall and probably hit the screen.

You’d have to wait till a new chassis or model comes out most likely :confused:

If you don’t use CapsLock, it’s a prime candidate for a custom modifier key which can be implemented using AutoHotkey/xbindkeys/xmodmap. Personally I remap Home and End to CapsLock+r and CapsLock+f, respectively, for easy left-hand access. I’ve remapped other navigation keys, arrow keys, function keys, etc. in a similar way.

If you’re on Windows here’s a quick snippet of AutoHotkey to get you started:

*Capslock::return
~Capslock & Tab::return
~Capslock & r::SendInput {blind}{home}
~Capslock & f::SendInput {blind}{end}

Also looking forward to the possibility of implementing this at the firmware level once the EC firmware is open-sourced by the Framework team.

2 Likes

In Windows you can also use Microsoft’s PowerToys Keyboard Manager.

6 Likes

This is one of the best pieces of software Microsoft has put out - FancyZones is an excellent replacement/alternative to Snap, and I use the color picker tool built in more than I’d like to admit.

2 Likes

I rather like kmonad which works on windows, macos and linux and gives you mort of the features that you would expect from a programable keyboard

2 Likes

Hey everyone! Sorry if this has been asked already but is there any way to change the fn key bindings on the keyboard? (I would like to change the f12 key to launch anything other than groove)

1 Like

That’d be a Windows thing. Simplest thing is to open the “Default apps” section of the settings app (you can type “default apps” when the start menu is open to help get to it), and you can select something else under the “Music Player” heading.

1 Like

You can use PowerToys to remap it.

1 Like

Something that I haven’t seen folks talking about on here: trackpads keep getting bigger. The trackpad on the framework seems to follow the MacBook in filling half of the input panel height. I personally use an external mouse a lot of the time and even when I use the trackpad, I don’t need it to be so big.

I would love to have an IO panel with a slightly smaller trackpad, which gives you plenty of room for full size arrow keys and a few other extra keys for fun. It seems like this would give enough room for many of the suggestions I see here while still keeping a trackpad bigger than most laptops of ~3 years ago.

Finally, a question: is the keyboard on the framework fully disassemble-able? It seems like it’s held together a lot more with screws than other machines. If I wanted to just change the layout of the letter keys, could I move them around and reassemble?

5 Likes

The keyboard as a single unit is easily replaceable/swappable. The numerous screws are there in lieu of permanently welding it to the chassis. However the keycaps themselves are not designed to be removed. You would most likely break them trying.

3 Likes

This is getting close to a ThinkPad X301 (2008) with no track point! Twin ddr soDimm slots, one ssd slot and wlan/wwan card changeable, plus a super tight motherboard with 90° short heat pipe. Even the way it disassembles from the top rather than the bottom is identical to how those old ThinkPads do. Old Thinkpad are just representative of modular design… Just PLEASE at least give it a try to track point? To avoid copy right issues maybe you can use Dell/HP’s solution (as they are not using track points anymore) and I’m sure many people (including me) would just cancel the order for X1 carbon / extreme / titanium / nano

3 Likes