THE BIG BAG THEORY

INTRO

My mission is to make your keyboard a lot more comfortable and powerful, even if you don't have an expensive programmable board – or if you do! To this end, I use several ergonomic mods and tools that I and others in the Colemak community have created over the years, on different OS platforms. My many "typing tricks" are what the Big Bag is about.

If you're new to this, there may be a lot of unfamiliar terms and concepts. You may not be sure whether your board or OS layout is ISO or ANSI, row-staggered or ortho – or something else. And what on earth are dead keys, ergo mods or Extend layers?!

Relax and take a deep breath please, because it's all here. I hope you find what you're looking for and then a lot more useful stuff!

If something is too obscure or hard, look up the community on the Colemak Forum and the Colemak Discord, for guidance. We're a right helpful lot! The BigBag is my go-to reply to many questions on the Discord and elsewhere, to the extent that a meme was created in my honor. Be warned...!

The "Do You Have A Moment..." Meme:

Excuse me sir – do you have a moment to talk about the Big Bag?

Created by Poltergeist at the Colemak Discord, in 2020

I would also advise a visit to the colemak.org community site, which answers several layout-related questions.

And so, without further ado, voila, here it is! Rummage around in the Big Bag a bit and you shall find!


DreymaR  ~  ( のvの) c[_]


Tarmak

THE COLEMAK KEYBOARD LAYOUT

Colemak is a great keyboard layout that I and many others use daily with great enthusiasm. It may – and in all likelihood, it will! – make you a faster typist, although you can get very fast with other layouts too. More importantly, it makes typing a lot more comfortable and optimal, and your fingers will thank you for the rest of your life for choosing it!

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Since I started using using Colemak in early 2007 I've been fiddling with it, trying out ideas from the Colemak forum and adding some of my own. Colemak per se is to me only the letter block mappings. I've always ended up with that mostly intact and it has stood the test of time: Even though I add mods like Colemak-DH, better symbol key placements and geometric ergo mods like Angle/Wide, these are still just minor adjustments. The layout itself stays essentially the same.

There are other optimized layouts that may be good for you. And there are other layouts that aren't nearly as good as they claim to be, so beware. Ask around if you're curious, but know that Colemak is a well-tried and solid choice. Either way, many of my mods and tools can be used with different layouts – even with QWERTY should you wish to (ugh!).

DREYMAR'S BIG(!) BAG OF TRICKS?!? HALP, I'M NEW HERE!

Welcome to the BigBag web pages!

Inside this Big Bag there's a lot you can do! Some of it doesn't even require Colemak. So, below is a little beginner's introduction to the wonders of layout modding: What are your main options, and what's good to begin with?

If any of this interests you right away, click the menus or submenus to start exploring the depths of the Big Bag.

FAQ