Hands Down™ Alt

ANSI

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Finger	1	2	3	4	7	8	9	10
Usage	6.10% (P45)	9.38% (P86)	12.84% (P82)	16.10% (P85)	10.61% (P28)	12.76% (P43)	7.20% (P8)	7.78% (P53)

	Same Finger	Full Scissor	Half Scissor	Lat. Stretch
Bigram	1.24% (P75)	0.21% (P80)	1.07% (P23)	1.50% (P85)
Skipgram	5.66% (P82)	0.53% (P93)	2.92% (P77)	0.70% (P14)

	No Thumbs	Left Space	Right Space
Weak-ish Redirs.	0.27% (P15)	0.50% (P20)	0.34% (P3)
Weak Redirects	0.09% (P6)	0.04% (P8)	0.04% (P8)
Other Same Finger	21.84% (P78)	14.51% (P80)	14.51% (P80)
Rolls : Alts	1.19 (P8)	1.75 (P38)	1.31 (P10)
2-Roll In : Out	1.15 (P56)	0.92 (P35)	1.21 (P66)
3-Roll In : Out	0.55 (P17)	0.99 (P38)	0.69 (P33)

Author

R. Alan Reiser

Year

2021

Finger Map

Traditional

Official Website

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Finger	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Usage	5.36% (P32)	9.15% (P82)	10.84% (P42)	11.51% (P24)	7.7%	17.2%	11.12% (P49)	12.18% (P31)	7.28% (P10)	7.61% (P49)

	Same Finger	Full Scissor	Half Scissor	Lat. Stretch
Bigram	1.26% (P76)	0.10% (P49)	1.84% (P64)	1.02% (P71)
Skipgram	3.79% (P9)	0.27% (P45)	1.73% (P10)	1.39% (P72)

	No Thumbs	With Thumbs
Weak-ish Redirs.	0.22% (P10)	0.36% (P5)
Weak Redirects	0.07% (P3)	0.03% (P3)
Other Same Finger	22.56% (P80)	12.76% (P57)
Rolls : Alts	1.08 (P0)	1.32 (P11)
2-Roll In : Out	1.04 (P42)	1.02 (P31)
3-Roll In : Out	0.90 (P36)	0.80 (P42)

Author

R. Alan Reiser

Year

2021

Official Website

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Finger	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Usage	5.36% (P32)	9.15% (P82)	13.15% (P86)	11.51% (P24)	5.4%	17.2%	11.12% (P49)	12.18% (P31)	7.28% (P10)	7.61% (P49)

	Same Finger	Full Scissor	Half Scissor	Lat. Stretch
Bigram	1.32% (P80)	0.10% (P49)	1.04% (P21)	1.08% (P72)
Skipgram	3.89% (P11)	0.27% (P45)	2.16% (P31)	1.68% (P86)

	No Thumbs	With Thumbs
Weak-ish Redirs.	0.21% (P7)	0.30% (P2)
Weak Redirects	0.23% (P36)	0.09% (P30)
Other Same Finger	22.13% (P79)	12.94% (P59)
Rolls : Alts	1.17 (P7)	1.32 (P12)
2-Roll In : Out	1.70 (P67)	1.18 (P62)
3-Roll In : Out	1.43 (P63)	0.71 (P34)

Author

R. Alan Reiser

Year

2021

Official Website

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Finger	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Usage	4.51% (P15)	9.15% (P82)	10.84% (P42)	15.90% (P79)	9.4%	17.2%	13.47% (P74)	7.44% (P4)	6.83% (P6)	5.24% (P15)

	Same Finger	Full Scissor	Half Scissor	Lat. Stretch
Bigram	1.47% (P81)	0.12% (P60)	2.60% (P89)	1.12% (P76)
Skipgram	4.93% (P58)	0.35% (P65)	1.95% (P18)	1.15% (P54)

	No Thumbs	With Thumbs
Weak-ish Redirs.	0.52% (P36)	1.01% (P73)
Weak Redirects	0.07% (P5)	0.02% (P1)
Other Same Finger	23.39% (P89)	14.11% (P76)
Rolls : Alts	1.50 (P40)	1.54 (P43)
2-Roll In : Out	1.94 (P79)	1.22 (P67)
3-Roll In : Out	6.16 (P80)	0.97 (P50)

Author

R. Alan Reiser

Year

2021

Official Website

Install

Kanata

Note

Coming soon…

Windows

Note

Coming soon…

macOS

There are two downloads available for macOS:

Method	Admin Required	Notes
Native	Optional	Does not require 3rd party key remapping software. Admin is required to install for all users and use on first login.
Karabiner-Elements	Yes	Requires 3rd party key remapping software, including the installation of a Driver Extension. Allows for remapping of only specific keyboards.

Native

Note

Only ANSI keyboards are currently supported. If you use ISO or JIS—in other words, if your enter/return key spans two rows—you will need to fill in the blank keys in the .keylayout file using Ukelele before installing.

1. Download the keylayout file for Hands Down™ Alt:

   Hands Down™ Alt (ANSI)

2. Extract the downloaded zip file.

3. Install the .keylayout file:

   Install Script

   Run one of the install scripts from the extracted folder:

   • install-user.sh to install for a single user
   • install-system.sh to install for all users
   • hands-down-alt_X.keylayout the layout to install
   Manual

   To install for a single user: Copy the .keylayout file from the extracted folder to ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts. Create the folder if it doesn’t exist.

   To install for all users: Copy the .keylayout file from the extracted folder to /Library/Keyboard Layouts.

   Note

   By default, macOS hides the “Library” folder. To navigate to it in Finder, open the Go to Folder dialog (Go → Go to Folder… in the menubar, or Command-Shift-G) and type in the path shown above.

4. Restart macOS.

5. Open System Settings.

6. Go to Keyboard → Text Input → Input Sources → Edit… and add your new Hands Down™ Alt layout.

7. Press the “+” button at the bottom left.

8. Search for “Hands Down™ Alt,” select your new layout, and press Add.

Note

If you forget how to type your password on Hands Down™ Alt and get stuck on the Lock Screen, you can switch to your old layout using the Input menu at the top of the screen.

Karabiner-Elements

1. Install Karabiner-Elements:

   Karabiner-Elements

2. Download the Karabiner rule file for Hands Down™ Alt:

   Hands Down™ Alt (ANSI)

3. In Karabiner-Elements Settings, go to “Complex Modifications,” then press “Add predefined rule” at the top.

4. Make sure you know how to type your computer password using Hands Down™ Alt.

   Caution

   Skipping this step will lock you out of your computer. If you forget how to type your password using Hands Down™ Alt, look up Hands Down™ Alt on another device, such as a phone, when unlocking the computer.

5. Scroll down to the “Hands Down™ Alt” section and enable the rule you want.

   “All keyboards” remaps Hands Down™ Alt onto all keyboards while connected to this computer. Select this reason unless you want to exclude some keyboards from remapping.

   “Built-in keyboard only” remaps your device's built-in keyboard, as well as any other keyboard for which “Treat as built-in keyboard” (under the “Devices” section) is enabled. Select this option if you plan to map Hands Down™ Alt onto an external keyboard using custom firmware.

6. To use Hands Down™ Alt on the password entry screen before logging in, follow the official instructions:

   How to enable before login

Linux

Note

Coming soon…