Meagerfinding's ErgoDox Layout

• Overview
• Credit where credit is due
• Features
  • Tap/Hold Macro Keys
  • TapDance Keys
• Base Layer
  • Things to note:
• Old Base Layer
• Symbols Layer
• Mouse & Media Keys Layer
• Markdown Layer
• Arrow/Movements Layer
• Numpad Layer

Overview

The overall goals of this layout are to:

1. Use the Ergodox thumb clusters to eliminate pinky reach.
2. Place as many useful keys under the home rows as possible.

I first decided to build an ErgoDox as I wanted to use my thumbs for more with the added ergonomic benefits of a split board and ortholinear layout. I knew my hands were hurting from the weird contortions of copying and pasting constantly on my Mac, but I had no idea how strained I really was until I started moving as many modifier keys to the thumb clusters.

Credit where credit is due

The initial layout used created on the ErgoDox EZ Configurator. I went through 26+ iterations within the configurator prior to beginning my journey with QMK itself. Much of the dual function/layer keys are influenced by and adapted from the EZ Configurator.

Many features in this layout are either directly inspired by or are adaptations of Algernon's incredible ErgoDox layout. Specifically: TapDance and its usage, and the brilliant idea of using TapDance to pair down the four keys for parens, brackets, and curly braces into just 2 keys.

Features

Tap/Hold Macro Keys

• Paste/Paste Special key sends Paste on tap and Paste Special when held.
• Screen/Video key sends ||scrn when tapped and ||video when held
  • Typinator expands ||scrn into (Screenshot: <CLIPBOARD CONTENTS>), and ||video into (Video: <CLIPBOARD CONTENTS>), the QMK macro then moves back to before the last paren, inserts a space and removes a space to create a hyperlink for use in Zendesk.
• When tapped, Todoist toggles quick add window for a new Todoist task (CMD + Shift + A) and switches to Todoist when held
• The RubyMine key opens RubyMine by triggering spotlight, typing out Rubymine, and submitting the enter key.
• Zendesk triggers spotlight and then calls Typinator expansion to open my Zendesk Agent dashboard in Chrome.

TapDance Keys

• Copy/Cut key copies on tap, cut's on two taps.
• One tap on Snagit key = sends Ctrl + Shift + C which is Snagit's selector and two taps on Snagit key = Cmd + Shift + Opt + 4, OS X cropping screenshot that is copied to the clipboard only.
• Tapping the [{(/)}] keys once yields [ or { when the shift key is engaged, tapping them twice yields (.

Base Layer

The base layer retains the alphas from the QWERTY layout without any modifications.

Things to note:

• The shift key is a One Shot Modifier key, meaning shift is not submitted when the key is tapped, instead, it only submits when you either tap it again, or on the next key press.
  • There is no CAPSLOCK key designated as it is pretty comfortable to simply hold down shift in this layout and continue typing.
• There is only one layer that you can fully switch to on this layout, the Old Base layer. All other layers require holding a key to reach them. For the most part, the key that toggles a layer, will be on the opposite hand that will be typing with that layer.
  • For example: the symbols layer is reached by holding down the enter key with your right thumb, and most of the symbols are located on the left hand board.

Old Base Layer

I am moving into a new position (software engineering) at work from a Support position. My hope is to use my F keys more often and write fewer emails. This is my old base layer, still easily accessible, as I'm not used to having F key's on my top row quite yet.

Symbols Layer

Holding down the enter key with your right thumb toggles the symbol layer.

I've placed my most used symbols under the homerow. Granted, right now I mainly right emails/support ticket responses, so this home row may need to change as I transition to software engineering.

Mouse & Media Keys Layer

Holding down the : key on with your right pinky toggles the mouse and media layer. Your left hand controls the mouse directions just in a similar fashion to the keys used in the movement layer.

The right hand has a media controls under the homerow for quick muting/pausing.

• XKCD #1319 Key that ironically partially-automates accessing the link to XKCD #1319.

Markdown Layer

This layer places most common markdown symbols under the right hand. You can reach this layer by holding down the F key on your left hand.

Arrow/Movements Layer

Toggled by holding down the space key with the right thumb. This isn't vim like movement, nope, it's WASD but over one column. So I guess it's actually ESDF on the left hand and IJKL on the right hand to better line up with the columns offset/staggered columns on the Dox.

Numpad Layer

My right hand is pretty comfortable with tenkey number input so this is easily accessible by holding down backspace with the left thumb.

Also, on the left hand, there is a tap to copy and hold to cut macro under the D key, and a tap to paste and a hold to paste special macro on the F key. I guess I'm to too lazy to move my fingers when copying/pasting...