geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: oneproduct on Sat, 16 March 2013, 12:40:42
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I notice that the Matias Quiet Pro has both a PC and Mac version whereas the Tactile Pro 4 only has a Mac version. Though it doesn't say it on the page, the Tactile Pro 3 page, which you can still find your way to, mentions that it has support for PC and that they have a custom driver so that the keys would behave as you'd expect on PC, i.e. Control key at the bottom left corner.
I tried a Mac aluminum keyboard, one of the scissor ones, briefly one time and it seemed that the modifiers behaved as expected on PC. Does anyone know how the Tactile Pro 4 behaves on PC?
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I think Matias has a driver that sets the keys appropriately if Windows doesn't automatically pick them up that way. Now if they offered a Windows modifier keycap set...
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It should behave just fine on a PC. If their software remaps the keys appropriately, you shouldn't notice a difference. I seem to recall at some point the Matias rep mention that they were going to do a PC version of the Tactile Pro (no idea on the color scheme) with clicky keys.
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Good thing you asked !!!
I was gonna write a review comparing the Quiet Pro vs the Tactile Pro but lately I've been swarmed with work so I didn't have time to do it yet. I will attempt to do it tomorrow hopefully. In the case of Tactile Pro on PC (since I use a PC). To my surprise that I actually didn't have to modify too many keys. It's actually plug and play and you can use it right away without too much headache.
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Keys that you thought wouldn't work but works like a charm:
F13 = Print Screen
F14 = Scroll Lock
F15 = Pause/Break
Clear = Number Lock
Delete Forward = Delete
F1 ~ F12 = Works properly in window without the need to press the FN button.
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Keys that you need to remap:
Command/Apple = Window
Option/Alt = Alt
While those two work properly but the location is swapped, so you have to swap their position with autohotkey.
Use this command in autohotkey:
LAlt::LWin
RAlt::RWin
LWin::LAlt
RWin::RAlt
Another one there nothing you can do is FN key. It's in the same location where Insert used to be. To my understanding that FN key doesn't generate any code to the computer. So you can't really map it to anything. Though I haven't personally test this yet so if anyone has tried it can give me some input.
After that there's F16, F17, F18, and Eject buttons on the Tactile Pro that I didn't try yet so I don't know what it would do.
So moral of the story is, if you use a PC and want to try Tactile Pro. Go ahead it's actually super super simple to get it to work. Hope this helps :)
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EDIT: Yes daerid is correct they are planning to release the PC Tactile Pro. But it won't be released till end of this year. Also they started selling the switches from the Matias website now. So you can either get the Mact Tactile Pro or get the PC Quiet Pro and buy the clicky switches and swap yourself. It's pretty simple and I will also write an instruction later.