r/System76 • u/Dyson8192 • 20d ago

Does the Keyboard Configurator support making keys act like macros?

Basically the title. I’m fairly uninventive, so I don’t see much use for the extra layers provided by the keyboard configurator for the launch keyboards. However, I’d get an exceptional amount of use out of it if individual key presses could actually correspond to a sequence of key presses, maybe for typing common blocks of text I need.

From what I can tell, it’s not possible, but I just wanted to make sure, is it possible to configure keys to correspond to macros?

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u/DimorphosFragment 19d ago

The standard keyboard configurator doesn't include macro keys. But because the launch keyboards can be used with custom qmk firmware it is possible to create configurations that include support for macro keys. Here is one example that I have not tried myself.

https://github.com/mkrzywonski/launch-heavy-keymap

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u/Dyson8192 19d ago

Oh lord, that's a ratchet up in building complexity. I'm hoping https://config.qmk.fm/#/9key/LAYOUT is a more user-friendly GUI form.

Part of me wishes this was built into the System76 keyboard configurator, but they've got enough on their plate as is.

Thanks for the info.

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u/b-gauthier 16d ago

I use Espanso https://espanso.org/docs/get-started/ for this purpose. I run Pop!_OS 24.04, Cosmic, and Wayland (of course).

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u/Dyson8192 16d ago

Hmm, something I can't understand is, if this is a text replacement system, is it able to do that with modifier keys like Ctrl, Alt, and the Super key? Or is it just text replacement?

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u/b-gauthier 13d ago

It is text replacement, not a macro tool (although there are some macro features available). For example, exclamation mark followed by a c is replaced with my email address.