A short post on keyboard mappings!
One thing I find with programming is that the US keyboard layout is the most
common and most widely used, especially when you see all the mechanical keyboards etc.
However, I am from the UK and use a UK keyboard layout.
Over time I’ve wanted to switch to the US, so I have bought an external Apple keyboard
that is US layout, but I still use my MacBook Air a lot and it has a UK layout.
This can be a bit of a pain when switching between the two, especially when it comes
to the § symbol and the backtick symbol (`) .
I’ve managed to find a way to remap the keys on my Mac so that I can use the same layout consistently, it works by flipping them around when required and flipping them back when not. It gets a tad tricky when I’m using the Air keyboard as that’s when I need the map and when I’m using the external keyboard I need to remove the map, as it’s already the correct layout.
Next time I upgrade my Mac (which I’m waiting for the 2026 redesign)
I’ll go straight to US layout, but for now this is a good workaround.
I’ve added the following to my .zshrc file to handle the remapping:
key_map() {
hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x700000035,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x700000064},{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x700000064,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x700000035}]}'
}
key_reset() {
hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[]}'
}What this does is when I’m using the Air keyboard I can run key_map to remap the keys
to my preferred layout, and when I’m using the external keyboard I can run key_reset
to reset the keys back to the default US layout (for that keyboard).
It’s a bit fiddly, but it works for me in a sense that I can use a consistent layout that I prefer and rely on muscle memory to hit the right keys.
A lot of what I find with computers is it’s the little things. This might be a bit much for some people to go through, and I understand that, but for me, it’s worth it. Plus you learn a bit along the way!
Happy coding!