I'm a new Inkscape user, having migrated from CorelDraw and SmartDraw. I'm left-handed, and use a Wacom tablet. I'd like to customize 'default.xml', so that a few of my most-used shortcuts, like Group/Ungroup, and Undo, are under my right hand.

I live in the UK, so I have a UK keyboard. The keys I want to customize are the #~ key, which on my keyboard 2 keys to the right of the ;: key, and immediately to the left of Enter; and the '@ key, which is between the ;: key and the #~ key. In other words, the two furthest right of the keys on the row that reads (on both US/UK kbds) 'asdfghjkl;', but has 2 different keys after the semicolon key.

The problem is that I don't know what those two keys are on the US keyboard ; and I can't find them in default.xml; so I can't modify them.

I'd be grateful if someone could let me know what these two keys are identified as in Inkscape. And -- is there a general list that I could look at? There are other keys that are different on the UK keyboard, e.g. the key left of numeral 1 (alphanumeric, not numpad), and the backslash key, left of Z.

Thanks
Mary

launchpad may have the answer you are looking for... looks like you must JOIN the site
https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/96283

https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/93171

vwanweb wrote:launchpad may have the answer you are looking for... looks like you must JOIN the site

No need to register at Launchpad to read questions and their anwsers.

Mary Bernard wrote:The problem is that I don't know what those two keys are on the US keyboard ; and I can't find them in default.xml; so I can't modify them.

The notation of the key names in the keymap file is based on the Gnome header file <gdk/gdkkeysyms.h> which again is based on the X11 header file keysymdef.h.

Mary Bernard wrote:The keys I want to customize are the #~ key, which on my keyboard 2 keys to the right of the ;: key, and immediately to the left of Enter

Some of the keys you want to remap (#, ~), are currently used like this in the default Inkscape keymap file:
so you might consider changing those shortcuts as well to not loose a quick 'Toggle Grid' or 'ZoomNext' feature (unless you are modifying a copy of 'corel-draw-x4.xml').

The # is referenced as numbersign. About the ~ I am not sure: is it a 'dead key' on your keyboard (requiring a second key or <space> to print) or just like the # key? The key name of the non-spacing ~ key is dead_tilde, the other one is asciitilde, but you will need to test yourself which one works for you ;-)

Mary Bernard wrote:and the '@ key, which is between the ;: key and the #~ key.

The ' is apostrophe, @ is at.

Other resources:
Keyboard layouts to compare: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#United_Kingdom
Older forum topic: Previous zoom feature of Grave/Acute Accent

Thanks for your very helpful reply. With it, I've managed to change a few Inkscape keys, and I'm on the track of others.

You asked: "About the ~ I am not sure: is it a 'dead key' on your keyboard (requiring a second key or <space> to print) or just like the # key? The key name of the non-spacing ~ key is dead_tilde, the other one is asciitilde, but you will need to test yourself which one works for you "

It's not a dead key, it's 'asciitilde'.

I found a bit of info about the differences between UK and US keyboards:

>>an AltGr key is added to the right of the space bar
the # symbol is replaced by the £ symbol and a 102nd key is added next to the Enter key to accommodate the displaced #
@ and " are swapped
the ~ is moved to the # key, and is replaced by a ¬ symbol on the backquote (`) key
the \ key is moved to the left of the Z key
the Enter key spans two rows, and is narrower to accommodate the # key<<

That doesn't tell me anything I didn't know from using the UK keyboard, but it's a good succinct description of the differences. I do wonder what anyone wants with the ¬ symbol!

Best wishes

Mary

Mary Bernard wrote:You asked: "About the ~ I am not sure (…) It's not a dead key, it's 'asciitilde'.

Two reasons why I hesitated about the tilde key: I'm working on a Mac laptop with a de_CH keyboard layout, and ~ is a 'dead key' for me. Second - the British layout provided by Apple for Mac OS X (laptop keyboard) differs from the one you describe (and as is depicted on the main Wikipedia page about keyboard layouts), so I found no reliable way to test it myself ;-)

Glad you got it working!