geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Chrontius on Sat, 30 August 2014, 20:15:32
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My grandfather wears an iPatch - er, sorry, eyepatch - and just switched to the dark side. As such, I want to murder his keyboard. It's an Azio large-print, low-profile, backlit keyboard. He never learned to touch-type, so he needs to be able to see the keycaps in a fairly dark office. Thus, backlit and large-print.
I do all his computer support. Remembering three different sets of muscle-memory for keyboard shortcuts I need to use routinely is going to drive me batty. I want the command key where it belongs. Anyone know if I can use a keypuller to address this? (I can do the rest in software easily enough, but the keycaps MUST match!) If not, anybody know where I can find a keyboard meeting my accessibility requirements? Mechanical is purely optional, but falls into a "nice if…" sort of category. Backlit, large print, and Mac layout are non-negotiable, though I'm willing to assemble parts from multiple sources if necessary. (Monoprice backlit mechanical board, large-print partially-transparent doubleshot keycaps for example?)
Edit: What I have (http://www.aziocorp.com/en/keyboards/14-large-print-3-color-backlit-keyboard.html) and the closest I've come so far. (http://www.aziocorp.com/en/keyboards/13-backlit-bluetooth-tablet-keyboard.html)
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I don't think you're going to find a backlit mechanical keyboard with large print. I have not seen any, nor any replacement keycaps that match that description. MX is generally the most common backlit keyboard, and those LEDs tend to be oriented to the top or bottom of the switch, and thus can only illuminate legends at the top of bottom of the keycaps.
In System Preferences - Keyboard you can click the Modifier Keys... button, and then change the position of Command and Option.
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Rowdy, that was the plan if I had to hack something together out of parts. Mechanical is a "nice if…" feature; he'd never wear out a rubber dome board at the rate he uses this thing. He is emphatically not a touch-typist, so the keys have to do what the labels say.
I emphatically am a touch-typist, so the keys have to be where I expect them to be if I'm going to support his computer without carrying around a second keyboard.
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So basically you can swap the key positions using System Preferences, but you want the "Cmmand" and "Option" legends for the modifiers?
On non-mechanical keyboards there are so many different stems on keycaps that you would be lucky to find replacement keycaps anyway, never mind backlit-friendly ones with large legends.
If you just treat "Alt" as "Command" and "Win" as "Option", you should get by.
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go for the Deck Legend. The letters are large and bright, ugly font notwithstanding.
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go for the Deck Legend. The letters are large and bright, ugly font notwithstanding.
Was just going to say this. They really are rather large and hideous.
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It should be possible to pull the keys off of the rubber dome and swap them, should it not? Most rubber domes I've worked with haven't been too resistant to having caps pulled, and generally the stems all over an individual board would be the same....
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It should be possible to pull the keys off of the rubber dome and swap them, should it not? Most rubber domes I've worked with haven't been too resistant to having caps pulled, and generally the stems all over an individual board would be the same....
Not always, on many RDs the stems can differ. For example I had an old logitech (that I hated) where I wanted to change the layout to dvorak. The stems were rectangular and they were randomly horizontal or vertical. It can sometimes work but not always.
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So basically you can swap the key positions using System Preferences, but you want the "Cmmand" and "Option" legends for the modifiers?
On non-mechanical keyboards there are so many different stems on keycaps that you would be lucky to find replacement keycaps anyway, never mind backlit-friendly ones with large legends.
If you just treat "Alt" as "Command" and "Win" as "Option", you should get by.
I should get by. But I'm trying to train up a centenarian-in-the-making, and what I want, he needs. He is not a touch-typist, so simply having the keys in the right position isn't adequate. They have to be labeled for a hunt-and-peck user with memory trouble to get things done.