External keyboard remapper AppleScript for OS X!
DoubleCommand, uControl, fKeys, the Snark.de solution — none have been able to solve a pretty simple Mac hardware usage scenario that’s becoming increasingly relevant: using an external Windows keyboard to control your Apple machine. Me, I use it because I hate the Apple Pro keyboard, and had a perfectly good diNovo I wasn’t about to replace — others may need to swap placement because they use Boot Camp. Either way, Marc’s recommendation of an AppleScript to fix the issue was spot on.
Back in 2005 fellow called UNIXGEEK over at Mac Geekery threw together a very friendly AppleScript to switch between Windows and Mac keyboard configs. It works pretty well, but it’s not automatic, so be prepared to run it whenever you need to switch between. (You can download the script here, the code on Mac Geekery has a few errors.) Someone else on the forums suggested using Peripheral Vision to toggle between modes automagically — which is the ideal scenario — but unfortunately PV doesn’t appear to work entirely well with a MacBook Pro. Still, it’s a start. (And a relieving one at that.) Next up, trying out ControllerMate.
nerd.
Comment by veronica — Thursday, October 12, 2006 @ 7:07 pm
this came in really handy for me. one thing to note: you have to have “Enable Access for Assistive Devices” in the Universal Access sys pref pane, or else you’ll get an error.
Comment by mike — Friday, December 8, 2006 @ 4:16 pm