On my Atreus, suppose I have characters on layer #3 and #4 that I want to be able to type. Also, I want to change the default configuration as little as possible, hopefully, not change the default behavior at all. What is the best practice for this sort of thing?
I thought something like:
double tap Fun turns on layer #3, press a key to get the wanted character, then automatically set back to layer #0.
double tap Shift turns on layer #4, press a key to get the wanted character, then automatically set back to layer #0.
This is all very new to me, and I’m sure this kind of thing has been solved a million times.
There are a couple ways to do this, and which one you choose depends on whether you want to chord to a new key (like Shift chords from ‘a’ to ‘A’) to switch to a new layer (like Caps Lock makes ‘a’ into ‘A’ until you undo it).
I do the former. There are a lot of knobs here and I haven’t kept up with all of them, but here’s how I do it:
map a single key on Layer #0 to ‘OneShot #1’. Let’s say it’s the Fun key, that’s kinda what it’s for.
map a single key on Layer #1 to the character you want to enter.
So to get the number 1, I hold down the key on Layer 0 which is highlighted in red, then hit the upper-left-most key. I forget if that’s the original location for the Fun key, but it works for me.
If you look at my Layer 0, I have a key bound to OSL #2 and a key bound to Layer #4/Enter. I forget why I did it that way. I like chording Enter, it’s surprisingly smooth.
I have no idea if there’s a better way to do it. Try it a few different ways and see what you like!
