About EkaPad and non-U.S. keyboards
How to use EkaPad worldwide
About an EkaPad Cheat Sheet for a non-US keyboard.
20090810 by GF EkaTetra support refer to: support@ekatetra.com
Our experience
I have been trying out using the EkaPad with keyboards selected other than U.S. keyboard, on the Mac. Several years ago, when we started out, we were just trying to get the EkaPad to work with both Macs and Windows, using what in the USA was the standard keyboard. In Macs, that is the U.S. keyboard. The EkaPad works well and properly here. We solved the initial problems of getting the EkaPad to work with the USA standard keyboards. Then as we started selling the EkaPad to users who selected non-US keyboards, or whose computers worked with a non-English language keyboard, it became apparent that we needed to do something for these users.Using all the characters on the Mac U.S. Extended keyboard.
If you regularly require Unicode characters available with the Macintosh U.S. Extended keyboard, here is a Cheat Sheet (pdf) for that keyboard. The chords for all 1023 characters available using the Arial Unicode M font and the U.S. Extended keyboard are shown on the EkaPed U.S. Extended All Symbols.pdf. Both the chord sequences using the keyboard viewer process and alternate chords are shown.Our plan for future non-US EkaPads
It had always been our plan, once we were selling lots of EkaPads to a given country, to provide an EkaPad with a chord set optimized for that country's language and keyboard. This will still happen. But in the meantime, users scattered thinly in other countries need some advice on how best to use the EkaPad in their own country.Present EkaPad with non-US keyboards
I have been learning about and trying out, on my Mac, how the EkaPad, as presently configured for use with the U.S. keyboard, works when other keyboards are selected.Whichever keyboard you use with the EkaPad, the chords which activate actions unique to the EkaPad will always give the same actions. These chords are command & control, config, prefixes, ShortCuts & Keeps, states. The states will often produce different characters than on the US CheatSheet when used with a non-U.S. keyboard.
EkaPad optimized for American English and U.S. keyboard
The current EkaPad's chords and their placement have been optimized for American English, emphasizing letter frequency (most frequent = easy chords), easy mnemonics (¥ = post + y, & = caps + @), logical placement ( ( ) [ ] { } arranged in a pattern) and numbers in a block. Only a few chords have followed a pattern from the qwerty keyboard (x, c, d) because of their use with computer commands.Western (Roman) and non-western alphabets
From my investigations I think that countries which had their own strong typewriter manufactures developed their own keyboard layouts based on the requirements of their language and office practices. These countries' keyboards do not map conveniently to the EkaPad US chords. France is a good example. For EkaPad users in countries with keyboards significantly different from the US. keyboard, they will probably find it much more convenient to select the U.S. keyboard for their computer and use the standard Cheat Sheet. Almost all, if not all, of the characters for Roman or Western keyboards can be found with the U.S. keyboard selected when used with the EkaPad.For many countries which don't use the 'Western' alphabet, and do have the numerals on the foremost and top row of keys, making a Cheater2 (cheat sheet) is a good way to go. If most of the computers you work with are set to your country's language, then learn the chords for the EkaPad with a cheat sheet made with your country's language keyboard.
In the future, as EkaTetra sells more EkaPads in non-US keyboard countries, we will supply chording systems on the EkaPad optimized for different languages.
