Topic Trying out Keyman for OS X

Trying out the beta Keyman for OS X.

Congratulations, it works!
One thing I do see, the instructions say I should be able to search for keyboards to download by going to Configuration > Download Keyboard. I don't see this working, the Download Keyboard button opens a blank list with nothing I can do but close it.

Fortunately, keyboards install fine when I download the package from the website and then drag the KMP file to the Installed Keyboard list.

The Mac I am testing on has OS 10.11.2. It is a MacBook Pro 15 inch from mid 2010. 2.4 GHz i5 processor.

Thanks for the feedback; yes, I've heard about the broken Download dialog (this is a new issue for OS X 10.11) and will be investigating once I get some time. I'd be interested to hear how you go with the app and how it works for you in general use.

My general experience is positive, the keyboards do work.

In order to drag and drop a downloaded keyboard onto the keyboard list, I have to have a .KMP package file. It will not install a .KMX file. Is this by design? I think in the Windows world, language technology support people will be used to installing .KMX files from an email or from a flash drive when a user asks for a different keyboard.

Another blank dialog in Keyman is the support tab in the Keyman configuration list.

My Keyman version is 1.0 build 136.

I understand. This is a long answer but I want to explain the background.

The installation of .kmx files is not something I recommend. It works fine for a single isolated installation where the language technology support person can train the end user on how to use the keyboard. But it falls down as soon as the keyboard gets wider distribution, or even if another person later wants to use the computer: the end user may know how to use the keyboard but does not usually have the ability to pass that knowledge on comprehensively.

I no longer accept keyboards for publication on the Tavultesoft website if they don't include documentation in the welcome.htm format which is a part of the .kmp package model.

Some more background. The technical support queries we receive can be roughly broken down into about 6 categories:

• Sales support
  
• Installation and basic usage support
  
• Third party application compatibility
  
• Font support
  
• Lack of keyboard documentation
  
• Keyman bugs and technical issues
  

For most of the history of Keyman, roughly 80% of support cost was (a) font support, and (b) lack of keyboard documentation. We have worked hard to resolve that (and system font improvements has also helped), and these categories would only take roughly 20% of our support time. But these two issues have been a massive drain on our resources over the years.

Both these issues have largely been addressed in our keyboard catalogue by providing keyboard packages that include basic fonts for getting started, and sufficient documentation.

However, keyboards from other sites are also widely used, and we still receive near daily requests for assistance using those keyboards. For example, 10 minutes ago I answered the following question (some details redacted):

"... When it is on I get some characters that look like they could be transliteration but it doesn't tell me if they are Greek or Hebrew. It is visible on the keyboard menu but no keyboards will show onscreen. When I select it, it does add what appears to be Hebrew transliteration but it is a blind hunt-and-peck issue and no way to see a keyboard or what I am really doing. There are no instructions included."

Thus, we deliberately excluded the ability to install .kmx files directly in Keyman for Mac OS X. Support for standalone .kmx files is deprecated in Windows and Mac OS X versions of Keyman, but will remain in the Windows version for compatibility reasons.

Trying out the beta 1.0 Keyman for OS X. I am running 10.11.4 on a MacBook Pro 15 inch (mid-2014); 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7.

My question concerns Right-to-Left (RTL) keyboards on Office 2016 Mac. Microsoft has announced that, as of Build 15.20, Office 2016 Mac supports RTL. It works fine for Apple Keyboards. However, it does not recognise third-party keyboards as RTL, including those we use with Keyman.

I suspect this is a Microsoft issue; Keyman and other RTL keyboards work fine on other word processors running on the Mac (Mellel, LibreOffice and Pages). I have submitted bug reports to Microsoft. From their responses, I don't think a solution is soon in coming.

I wonder, then, if there is a possible workaround from your side to enable Office 2016 Mac to 'see' your keyboards? Is there a 'trigger'? I am a bit mystified how a keyboard communicates to the OS and word processor that it is RTL?

Thanks so much in advance. It's great to have access to Keyman on the Mac.

Keyman for Mac Beta 1.0
I use Keyboard Maestro on the Mac to set the keyboard and font with one keystroke. Unfortunately, given the way you are making this work, Keyboard Maestro cannot locate Keyman or the particular Keyboard with its 'Set Keyboard Layout' instruction. I've been attempting find another path to activate the .kmx file (in Documents) with the keyboard.app (Input files), but it doesn't seem to work. Is there another way to activate the keyboard other than by using Input Sources?

I've noted right-to-left support in Word as an issue to investigate: I don't have an immediate solution.

In terms of your Keyboard Maestro problem, at present, we've been constrained by a bug in OS X that we've reported to Apple which prevents us registering multiple keyboards at runtime. We are investigating possible workarounds but again don't have an immediate solution. Ideally, each Keyman keyboard would show up as a separate input method in the Input Sources, which would resolve the problem. An alternative would be a hotkey that switches to a specific Keyman keyboard. Both of these take time and effort to implement, however.

Thanks Mark. I notice that Japanese does something similar to what you need to do. It has multiple keyboards, which appear as input sources.

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