Hi. I have bought two Unicomp Ultraclassic keyboards in Spanish ISO layout. I like ANSI (it's a clean and well distributed design) but ISO has some advantages for me because Spanish is my native language and we have some complications for writing in this language, such as the accents or the letter Ñ. I also prefer the more comfortable big enter key, and the fact that this is a well know distribution of keys to which I'm used to type on. The short left key is something that I don't care at all, since I never use it. So, to have the best of both worlds, I've decided to take advantage of Autohotkey (which I already use for some keys remapings and combinations) and of the possibilities the buckling spring keycaps offer to freely be relocated across the board. Even better, it seems that Unicomp sells keycaps from several languages layouts. That will allow me to have legends that match the functions of the keys.
My idea is to remove the keys that I don't normally use and place those that I consider important in better, more comfortable and accessible locations, trying also to have them as primary (I mean, not with shift or ralt). The challenge also means not loosing original letters and signs from the standard Spanish layout. I have only sacrificed the ç, which is meant for regional languages and I don't need it at all. I have assigned it to ralt + c. Another thing to consider is not to repeat keys and, more important: no legends that do not correspond to the pressed key or key combination.
The attached image shows the design of my modified layout. The yellow keys would be the keycaps to buy. The green keys are relocated keycaps. Everything is already working with my script. Now I just need to know if Unicomp will accept my request and sell me all the keycaps that I need. As you can see, I've explored many different languages layotus looking for exactly what I need. I've attached also a picture of a default Spanish layout, so that you can compare them.
Now, some explanations about my moves:
I have relocated the question marks one arrow to the front, so that they are easier to reach. This also affects the apostrophe, used in English all the time.
The / and \ keys are important for me and now they are in better locations and with primary press. The \ is in the default location in the UK ISO layout.
You may be shocked that I used the central block, but some time ago I realized I never used those keys (except for del and ins). I use the numpad instead when I need to browse text documents or webpages. It's faster and easier in combination with the numpad cursors.
I use the brackets very often for programming and that's why I didn't wanted them with alt combination. I could have used the US ANSI keycaps but I've found that the Latin American keycaps have the round brackets in primary position instead, which I prefer. Also, they include the accents with ralt, so I'm not loosing them.
The asterisk is also important for me. It's the only key that is repeated (also with shift +), but I wanted it as primary and closer than the one on the numpad. To prevent repetitions, I've changed the slash and asterisk on the numpad to the German versions, which are real multiply and divide signs.
The key with the arrow to the left of the backspace is for deleting whole words (ctrl + backspace). It will be useful once I get used to it.
As you can see, I will order some keycaps just to remove some legends that now would be repeated or unwanted: º without directory slash, 6 without the useless ¬ sign, the acute accent without the bracket...
The scrollock and pause key are totally useless for me. For those I'll use the Media Keyset from Unicomp with the following functions: run / restore / minimize foobar2000 and pause / play music. For the keyboard I will have at work I'll use the F13 and F14 keycaps from the 122 model, with different functions.
Finally, notice that the Spanish layout has the ralt legends printed on the side of the keycaps, not on the top. That is also achieved with my selection of keycaps.
