Re: A question about Dvorak's original arrangement of numerals - 7531902468

Each non-IME keyboard or IME keyboard is related to one keyboard 
layout dll file. For example, the layout dll of QWERTY 
is "kbdus.dll", the layout dll of Dvorak is "kbddv.dll". All Chinese 
IMEs use "kbdus.dll".


There are two ways to change Chinese IMEs to Dvorak:


1. Remap scan codes to Dvorak.

It's very easy to use scan codes remapping software to remap scan 
codes to Dovrak (like KeyTweak, SharpKeys). After you do this (it 
will take effect after you logoff and logon again), your whole 
keyboard will become Dovark (except in BIOS or DOS). The Chinese IMEs 
will automatically become Dovark-based. And you should use QWERTY 
layout to type English (actually it has become Dovark-based), Dvorak 
layout has become some kind of "Dvorak * Dvorak"-based Layout.

But, this way has its disadvantages. If you only type English and 
Chinese, it's OK. If you also type French or German, etc, then, you 
must use Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator to creat your layout dll 
for French or German to fit Dvorak scan codes. It may be a hard work.


2. Change the layout dlls of Chinese IMEs

You can download a software called IMETool from 
http://www.mympc.org/down/1/2005-7-13_17130159234.html , change the 
KEYBOARD (Jian4 Pan2) property of the Chinese IME from "US" 
to "United States-Dvorak", then press the OK button. If you're lucky, 
your Chinese IME will become Dvorak-based at once, if not, reboot 
your Windows. Note that the UI language of the software is Chinese.

You can also change the layout dll manually in less than 1 minute, 
without IMETool.

Step 1: close the Chinese IME you want change to Dvorak in ALL opened 
programs.

Step 2: remove the Chinese IME form Text Services and Input Languages 
in Control Panel.

Step 3: Open Registy, locate it to My 
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Keyboard 
Layouts, find the Chinese IME "KEY", the KEY names of IME keyboards 
are prefixed by the letter "E", so you'd better find it from the last 
one to the first one. The KEY name of Microsoft Pinyin IME 2007 
is "E0210804", if you use other IME, you can distinguish it by 
the "Layout Text" VALUE. Then, change the "Layout File" of the 
Chinese IME from "kbdus.dll" to "kbddv.dll" or your own customed 
layout name (no quotes needed).

Step 4: Re-add the Chinese IME from Text Services and Input Languages 
in Control Panel.

Then, without restarting your computer, the Chinese IME has become 
Dvorak-based.

NOTE: YOU MUST BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN EDITTING THE REGISTY.

Another note: Remove and re-add a IME may destroy your favorite order 
of IMEs. If you don't want this to happen, just do Step 3, (skip Step 
1, 2 and 4), then restart your computer.



For myself, I use the first way (remap the scan codes), because I 
only type English and Chinese. And there are other concerns, in most 
games, like Counter-Strike, scan codes are used, not virtual keys. So 
if you want to type Dovark in those games, you must have Dovark scan 
codes. And, sometimes, in Microsoft Word, the Microsoft Pinyin IME 
will automatically become QWERTY-based, no matter what layout dll it 
has. 


A note on creating your own layout:
The virtual keys MUST match the characeters produced, that is, for 
example:
Scan Code: Key "S" --> Virtual Key: VK_O --> Character: o
not:
Scan Code: Key "S" --> Viltual Key: VK_S --> Character: o

The reason is, most shortcut keys use virtual keys, not characters. 
For example, "Ctrl + C", "Ctrl + V" and "Ctrl + X" are actually "Ctrl 
+ VK_C", "Ctrl + VK_V" and "Ctrl + VK_X". So if you have QWERTY 
virtual keys and Dovark characters, the positions of "Ctrl + 
C", "Ctrl + V", "Ctrl + X" will not change, it remains the positions 
in QWERTY. Some people may think it's useful, but I think this 
combination (QWERTY virtual keys & Dvorak charaters) will be very 
confusing. The hot keys in window menus use charcters, not virtual 
keys, for example, "&File", if you want to activate it, you should 
press "Alt + F", or Alt then F, the "F" here is character, not 
virtual key VK_F.


BTW, what Chinese IME do you use? Now in China, we prefer use Sogou 
(Sou1 Gou3) Pinyin IME or Google/Guge (Gu3 Ge1) Pinyin IME. I 
personally use Google Pinyin IME.

In my opinon, if use you Double Pinyin (Shuang1 Pin1), you will 
not "enjoy" the benifits of Dvorak. You'd better use Full Pinyin 
(Quan1 Pin1). 

Before I learned Dvorak (I turned to Dvorak 2 years ago), I use 5-
stroke (Wu3 Bi3) Chinese IME, it's very complicated, but much faster 
than Pinyin IMEs. But after I turned to Dvorak, I gave up 5-stroke, 
because 5-stroke is fully relied on QWERTY, it can hardly used on 
Dovark. And compared to Dovark-based Pinyin IME, 5-stroke is very 
uncomfortable (not ergonomic). COMFORT first, SPEED second, that is 
what I realized. 

--- In [email protected], "Patrick Horne" <prl.horne@...> 
wrote:
>
> How do you set the Chinese IMEs to accept another keyboard? I also 
type a
> fair amount in Chinese, but the IMEs use QWERTY, which I despise. I 
ended up
> going with the _shuang1pin1_ input method, which, though still 
QWERTY-based,
> is further removed from letter-by-letter input and therefore 
confuses me
> less as a Dvorak typist. 
>  
> Scott Horne
>  
>  
>  
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>