Mac Air Keyboard Layout

Posted by Andrew Premdas Fri, 02 May 2008 16:43:21 GMT

The keyboard layout on the MacAir is a bit of a pain in the arse, mainly because of the absence of a convenient hash key. So I need to put together a custom keyboard layout to sort this out.

This is actually really easy to do ... once you know how to do it!

  • download Ukelele
  • mount/open the disk image (double click the .dmg file)
  • open the british keyboard layout in the folder "System Keyboards/Roman" in the disk image
  • system preferences|international
  • choose Input Menu and select character palette (the first entry)
  • in your menu bar click on the country flag and select show character palette.
  • select punctuation and drag the # key over the § key on the keyboard
  • save the layout as 'british-with-hash.layout' in "/Library/Keyboard\ Layouts"
  • go back to "system preferences|international|input menu" and select your new "british-with-hash" layout
  • use the menu bar to select your new layout

n.b. after saving the layout you may have to logout and in for the new layout to be recognised

Mac Air

Posted by Andrew Premdas Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:54:00 GMT

After much tribulation my Mac Air is only a couple of weeks away. Checked out the machine in Trafford Centre yesterday. I was going to buy a budget Mac Book, but the Air is just so much nicer, and a much better fit for me.

  1. Much better keyboard. It has the best laptop keyboard I've ever used. Its much more precise than the Mac Book keyboard

  2. Much better screen. The LED backlit screen can be significantly brighter than the MacBook screen. It also seems to be less glossy and more vibrant. The screen alone is a £100+ upgrade

  3. The Air is amazingly light, yet also feels very strong and well built. Much better built than my Dell or a MacBook. The quality of both design and construction is first rate - just so long as I don't get one that wobbles!!

  4. The thinness really is a plus. Apple have hit something on the head here. They've created something you can easily transport, and which when you use (as a portable) has no real compromises on the most important things - screen and keyboard.

  5. Better DVD drive!! I'd much rather not have one, than have the MacBook's stupid combo drive. Apple are slightly ahead of the game here in not having a drive, and bizarrely, there general stupidity over charging a premium for a .sic superdrive makes no drive at all even more attractive

Whilst my Dell (640M) is pretty compact, I always felt it was a pain to carry around - quite heavy and also filled up my laptop bag. The Air gives that extra bit of space for whatever

So for me its a good fit. The price is also reasonable, because of the quality and OSX . Hackbooks are much more painful Hack desktops. Linux on laptops is never straightforward and Vista/XP doesn't have the console support I want (Cygwin is good but a real pain in the arse as well). The only real concern is battery life, my Dell being utterly amazing for that, but I've never really needed it.