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Ask HN: What is your favourite keyboard customizations? (qmk,system config)

by nzach on 12/6/24, 2:44 PM with 4 comments

For me the most useful customization I've ever found was to replace CapsLock by Esc. It is so ingrained in my muscle memory by now that I really struggle to use a keyboard when this mapping is not in place.

I've always made this configuration via system options and it works really well. I was pleasantly surprised to discover this was a pretty simple configuration to set up in a mac, much easier than what I had experienced on linux.

Recently I've started to dip my toes in the QMK world and was wondering what are some interesting 'modernization' I could apply to my workflow.

I see a lot o people singing the praises of layered workflows, but my memory is not that great and I struggle a lot with the 'layout memorization' part. Maybe if I could print my own keycaps this would be easier.

Do you have any customization ideas to share ?

  • by hellojpg on 12/6/24, 4:55 PM

    I typically make Caps Lock into a function layer, then have I, J, K, and L be up, left, down, and right respectively. Home and End on U and O, Page Up and Page Down on Y and H. This way during typing, I don't need to move my right hand to move my cursor around.

  • by ljosa on 12/6/24, 5:15 PM

    SpaceFN, so I can hold space and press HJKL for arrow keys.

  • by gjvc on 12/6/24, 3:15 PM

    capslock is control