Shortcuts doesn't work on non-English keyboard layouts

[n_shcherbakov]

I use English and Cyrillic keyboard layouts. Unfortunately, AD does not recognize shortcuts when Cyrillic layout is on and it greatly reduces speed, especially when working with text. Judging by the forum, this problem is not new and I'm not the first who writes about it, but little strokes fell great oaks 🙂 

[Dan C]

Hi @n_shcherbakov,

Thanks for your report and our sincerest apologies for the delayed response here. We are exceptionally busy following the release of V2 and we thank you for your continued patience and understanding here.

I can confirm that the keyboard shortcuts in Affinity aren't keyboard layout 'aware', meaning they unfortunately don't automatically change when changing your input language.

However if you are always using a Cyrillic layout, you can simply change the keyboard shortcuts in the Preferences dialog to the keys that you have access to with this layout.

I hope this clears things up.

[n_shcherbakov]

Hi @Dan C,

Thanks for the answer, but reassigning the hotkeys does not solve the problem, because I use both types of layouts at the same time in a workflow. In most programs this problem is not found, for example in all Adobe products. I understand correctly that work in this direction is not planned? 

[n_shcherbakov]

@Dan C
I'm sorry if my suggestion seems dilettantish, but shouldn't the shortcuts be bind to keyboard key codes instead of character codes?

[loukash]

4 hours ago, n_shcherbakov said:

I use both types of layouts at the same time in a workflow

Since I often write in German and Czech at (almost) the same time, many many years ago I have simply programmed a custom keyboard layout based on the standard Swiss German layout, replacing many characters at the "option key" level with Czech diacritics. So when I want to type Czech characters like žščřďťň, I don't need to change the keyboard layout, I type "zscrdtn" while holding the option key. Correspondingly, I have moved some of the originally assigned characters to other keys while dropping some obscure characters and symbols I've never used anyway.

Correspondingly, you may want to take your English layout as a starting point and replace the option-level characters with Cyrillic.

The app of choice to create custom keyboard layouts is freeware: software.sil.org/ukelele

[n_shcherbakov]

5 minutes ago, loukash said:

Correspondingly, you may want to take your English layout as a starting point and replace the option-level characters with Cyrillic.

The app of choice to create custom keyboard layouts is freeware: software.sil.org/ukelele

I too use a custom keyboard layout and did it through Ukulele, but I use it to quickly spell topographic characters such as: §°≈£✓€®©¹²³

The alternative character approach sounds quite logical for German and Czech (s→š, z→ž, etc.), since they are both based on Latin and differ in diacritical characters, but it absolutely breaks down in the pairing of English and Cyrillic: s→ы, z→я? They are completely different language groups, so this solution will not work.

[Dan C]

5 hours ago, n_shcherbakov said:

reassigning the hotkeys does not solve the problem, because I use both types of layouts at the same time in a workflow. In most programs this problem is not found, for example in all Adobe products.

Thanks for confirming that for me and I certainly understand, I believe that other applications may update the shortcuts in use based on the current keyboard language, however unfortunately Affinity doesn't support this feature currently.

5 hours ago, n_shcherbakov said:

I understand correctly that work in this direction is not planned? 
(...)
shouldn't the shortcuts be bind to keyboard key codes instead of character codes?

This is certainly something our devs may look to add in the future, however they do not tend to provide time scales for such features, my apologies.

I will be sure to log this as a requested improvement with our team for you now

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2 hours ago, anto said:

Why for windows version all works correctly?

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by this. As I understand it, the OP is using a keyboard layout that by default doesn't include [ or ] keys, which are the default for resizing a brush. Certain language options will work as expected as these keys are still present, but this is not true for all keyboards and my previous statement remains correct.

2 hours ago, anto said:

@stokerg is some progress in this direction?

Please refrain from tagging other moderators in a thread when they aren't dealing with the issue reported, especially if a moderator has already replied (myself).

[loukash]

46 minutes ago, n_shcherbakov said:

it absolutely breaks down in the pairing of English and Cyrillic: s→ы, z→я

It depends if you want to match the original language layout.
My MacBook keyboard is Swiss German, so this is the starting point because those are the characters I see on the keyboard.
But the standard Czech layout is slightly different, the diacritical characters being in place of 1234567890 while the numbers require the shift key then.
So I don't need to reproduce the Czech layout at all, I only need the special characters in a place that is logical to me. Hence š = option-s, č = option-c, etc.

So if your hardware keyboard is English, you could simply map the Cyrillic characters to their Latin counterparts:
с = option-s, з = option-z, ы = option-y, etc.
If the hardware is Cyrillic, then the other way around.

[n_shcherbakov]

14 minutes ago, loukash said:

So if your hardware keyboard is English, you could simply map the Cyrillic characters to their Latin counterparts:
с = option-s, з = option-z, ы = option-y, etc.
If the hardware is Cyrillic, then the other way around.

Which of the Latin letters do you propose to remap for Ш Щ Ц Ж Э Ю?

I'm not even talking about the fact that the Cyrillic layout is so familiar to me that 400+ characters per minute is not a point you want to retrain from, if you know what I mean. 

On the other hand, it is possible to try to hang the entire Cyrillic layout on alternate characters as it is. I'll think about it.

 

54 minutes ago, Dan C said:

This is certainly something our devs may look to add in the future, however they do not tend to provide time scales for such features, my apologies.

I will be sure to log this as a requested improvement with our team for you now

Thank you for the ray of hope ;-)

[loukash]

Just now, n_shcherbakov said:

Which of the Latin letters do you propose to remap for Ш Щ Ц Ж Э Ю?

That would be up to you.
I can still somewhat read Cyrillic – after all we were forced to learn Russian in school back in the 1970s – but that's about it. The assignment will have to follow your own logic.

An additional option might be Karabiner: karabiner-elements.pqrs.org
You could remap your keyboard layout via complex modifications to yet another modifier level e.g. via Caps Lock key: without caps lock Cyrillic, with caps lock Latin.
Not sure exactly how to do that, but perhaps you will find some useful examples here: ke-complex-modifications.pqrs.org

3 minutes ago, n_shcherbakov said:

the Cyrillic layout is so familiar to me that 400+ characters per minute is not a point you want to retrain from, if you know what I mean. 

Fair enough.  

[n_shcherbakov]

2 minutes ago, loukash said:

That would be up to you.
I can still somewhat read Cyrillic – after all we were forced to learn Russian in school back in the 1970s – but that's about it. The assignment will have to follow your own logic.

An additional option might be Karabiner: karabiner-elements.pqrs.org
You could remap your keyboard layout via complex modifications to yet another modifier level e.g. via Caps Lock key: without caps lock Cyrillic, with caps lock Latin.
Not sure exactly how to do that, but perhaps you will find some useful examples here: ke-complex-modifications.pqrs.org

Fair enough.  

I customise and automate everything I can, right now the stack is: BTT with custom apple scripts (I use it to customise the wheel on my Logitech Kraft keyboard and for some complex actions, that are triggered by a sequence of keystrokes), Karabiner for remapping some functions, custom keyboard layouts by Ukulele and SteerMouse for mouse fine-tuning, but thanks anyway for the tips. 

[Dan C]

21 hours ago, anto said:

@stokerg is some progress in this direction?

17 hours ago, anto said:

i think @stokerg is dealing with issue reported

I understand, but if you are looking for an update to an issue you originally reported, please post in your original thread, tagging the moderator there if necessary, rather than 'cross referencing' threads and multiple moderators.

[Dan C]

5 hours ago, anto said:

System with bug reports does not work as should. No words ...

As I've confirmed above, the issue reported in this thread is not a bug, but rather a current limitation of the Affinity app.

If you have a bug elsewhere you wish to discuss with a moderator, the original moderator who replied to the thread and dealt with your report will be able to assist further, within that thread.