May 15, 2026
Keychron Q8 -- my customizations
I use my keyboard on Linux with the switch set to Mac.
First change: Make the CAPS lock key do nothing (March 25, 2026)
I click on that key on the keyboard image, then click on the "empty" key below.
The label that was originally caps lock is now blank (and blinking).
And it is done! Unbelievable. And easier than I thought. No explicit flashing.
Apparently as soon as you change a key, it is done!!
Second change: Make CAPS lock key be ESC .. and more! (May 15, 2026)
I decided to make that handy CAPS lock key be my ESC.
This frees up the actual ESC key.
I was going to leave both as ESC, but I didn't.
I turned the old ESC key into what it should be -- backtick and tilde.
I find myself especially looking for the tilde (missing on the Q8)
when I do C programming. It is available on layer 2 or 3 via the
mode keys (fn1 or fn2), but it is nice having this key be like a
regular keyboard.
What is going to take some time is changing my muscle memory to hit ESC at
the old location, which I do all the time when using Vim.
This is one of those "one step back, two steps forward" things.
Third change: put a numeric pad on layer 4 (May 15, 2026)
We get to layer 4 (which has the Fn keys) by using the fn2 key as
a sort of shift key (that key is configured MO(4)). As shipped, that
layer is empty on the right side, so I put a numpad there, making
JKL to be 456, and putting 7890 above that (so P becomes 0).
VIA moves the "upper case" symbols that go with the number keys along
with them, so you can get a % (on top of 5) by typing an awkward
3 finger "chord" of fn2-shift-K.
VIA offers these special symbols in the "special" tab all by themselves,
so it is possible to set up ways to get to the symbols without requiring
the shift key.
Have any comments? Questions?
Drop me a line!
Adventures in Computing / tom@mmto.org