Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator

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Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC)

The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator enables the creation of keyboard

layouts for Windows NT4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP 32-bit systems.
The tool will allow you to:
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Create new keyboard layouts from scratch

Base a new layout on an existing one
Modify an existing layout ".KLC" file and build a new layout from it
Test the new layout without having to build and install it
Compile the new layout into a Windows Installer package for deployment
and installation to your machine or someone else's.

For more information on how to use Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator, see
the

Getting Started section.

About Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator

Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator Version 1.4
Copyright 2002-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Limitations on Various Platforms

There are various limitations on the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator.
These limitations are enumerated here.
Windows 95, 98, Me
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Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator is not supported.

Created keyboards cannot be installed.

Windows NT 3.1, 3.5, 3.51

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Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator is not supported.

Created keyboards cannot be installed.

Windows NT 4.0
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Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator is not supported.

You can install keyboard layouts for languages other than those
supported by the operating system. However, each keyboard layout
must be associated with one of the locales supported by the operating
system.
Complex script support (for e.g., Arabic and Hebrew) will only be
available in most applications on complex-script enabled versions of
Windows NT 4.0.

Windows 2000
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The list of existing keyboards (i.e. those installed as part of the

operating system) is smaller than the list of keyboards installed by
Windows XP/Windows Server 2003.
You can install keyboard layouts for languages other than those
supported by the operating system. However, each keyboard layout
must be associated with one of the locales supported by the operating
system.
Rendering support is limited to the version of Uniscribe that is installed.

Windows XP

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The control panel applet that supports the installation of keyboards is

limited to locales that the system supports. You will still be able to install
keyboard layouts that support other languages, but you will have to list
them under languages that the system supports.
You can install keyboard layouts for languages other than those
supported by the operating system. However, each keyboard layout
must be associated with one of the locales supported by the operating
system.
Rendering support is limited to the version of Uniscribe that is installed.

Windows Server 2003

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You can install keyboard layouts for languages other than those
supported by the operating system. However, each keyboard layout
must be associated with one of the locales supported by the operating
system.
Rendering support is limited to the version of Uniscribe that is installed.

Windows Vista
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You can install keyboard layouts for languages based on custom locales
that have been installed on the authoring Vista system. The install that
MSKLC creates will still support the locale name even if it is not one of
the locales supported by the operating system.
Rendering support is limited to the version of Uniscribe that is installed.

Glossary
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101 key keyboard layout - Keyboards in the US and some other

locations have 101 keys on them. The scan codes for this layout are
slightly different than the 102 key keyboard layout, and a key is missing.

102 key keyboard layout - Keyboards in Europe and some other

locations have 102 keys on them. The scan codes for this layout are
slightly different than the 101 key keyboard layout, and an extra key is
present next to the left shift key.

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Alt - The shift state invoked when an ALT key is pressed simultaneously
with another key. You cannot assign code points to such a keystroke
combination.
ALT - The key on the keyboard located on either side of the space bar.
AltGr - The Alt key on the right side of the keyboard (to the right of the
space bar). The term "AltGr" comes from "Alt Graphic". The behavior of
the AltGr key is always identical to pressing the Control + Alt key
simultaneously.
AltGrCapsLock - This setting is analogous to CapsLock for the AltGr and
AltGr+Shift shift states. It is used to determine whether AltGr+CapsLock
is equal to AltGr+Shift.
AutoCaps - When the AutoCaps setting is enabled, the Microsoft
Keyboard Layout Creator will automatically determine the CapsLock and
AltGrCapsLock values, based on whether the unshifted and shifted
characters are cased variants of each other. The setting is enabled by
default, and can be found in the Options dialog, under View|Options.
base character - A term used with dead keys. The base character is the
key typed after the dead key; the combination of the dead key and the
base character outputs a composite character. A keyboard must
designate which base characters go with a dead key, and what the
output (composite character) should be.
CapsLock - This setting is used to determine whether the unshifted
character+CAPS LOCK key is equal to the shifted character. Often, the
shifted and unshifted characters on a key will be cased variants of each
other, but this is not required. The CapsLock setting can be found in the
Keystroke Information Dialog.
code point - A numerical reference within an encoding. In Windows,
this generally refers to the Unicode numerical value of a character.
Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator can accept Unicode code points as
"U+####" or "\x####" values.
complex scripts - scripts that require special processing to display and
edit because the characters, or glyphs, are not laid out in a simple way.

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Examples of complex scripts include Thai, Arabic, and Tamil.

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composite character - A term used with dead keys. The composite

character is the character which is output from the combination of a
dead key and a base character.
Ctrl - The shift state invoked when a CTRL key is pressed simultaneously
with another key. It is not usually recommended (for more information,
see

Avoiding the Ctrl Shift State).

CTRL - The abbreviation for the control key. The exact placemenf of thie
key varies, but is usually located to the left of the left ALT key, and to
the right of the right ALT key when two CTRL keys are present.
DDK - The abbreviation for the Microsoft Device Driver Kit, recently
renamed to WDK (Windows Driver Kit). The WDK is available at

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/enus/library/aa972908.aspx.
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deadkey, dead key - A mechanism where two consecutive keystrokes

are mapped to a single UTF-16 code point. It can be useful when you
need to use a diacritic combined with different characters. It is used
traditionally on many European keyboards. The origin of the term "dead"
is based on the fact that when the first keystroke is typed, no glyph is
produced; it is only when the next character is typed that any text is
displayed.
European keyboard - Generally, European style keyboards contain a
slightly different key physical key layout, different scan codes, and a
differently shaped RETURN/ENTER key.
fallback fonts - Fonts that are used by the operating system to obtain
glyphs when the originally chosen font does not contain these glyphs.
The technologies used by Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator to obtain
fallback information are Uniscribe and GDI+.
font linking - Technology used to display correct glyphs for a code
point. Font linking brings together a number of fonts, such that if the
language is not supported in the current font, it will be displayable from

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other fallback fonts. The glyph is displayed seamlessly, without input

from the user. You can sometimes obtain superior visual results by
selecting your own preferred font from the View|Font... menu item. This
feature is used only for display in Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator and
has no effect on the generated keyboard.
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GDI - An acronym for Graphics Device Interface, a set of APIs that allow
for display and rendering.
GDI+ - A managed successor to GDI that is used by Microsoft Keyboard
Layout Creator
Input Language - The term used to identify the language of a
keyboard on Windows.
keyboard layout - defines the mapping between scan codes, virtual
keys, and code points that are produced when a key is typed. The
content of a keyboard layout will often vary depending on language and
region.
keystroke - The event caused by pressing a single key on a keyboard.
LANGID - Short for Language ID. A LANGID is a 16 bit value which is
the combination of a primary and secondary language ID. For more
information, see the

LCID - Short for locale identifier. A locale identifier includes a language

identifier, a sort identifer, and a reserved range. For more information,
see the

MAKELANGID topic in MSDN.

Locale Identifier topic in MSDN.

ligature - In keyboard terms, a combination of more than one UTF-16

code point for a single keystroke. This is generally used when you want
to input multiple code points with a single keystroke. Ligatures are
added to keystrokes in Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator in the same
manner as single code points.
LRM - Left to right marker. Used in bidirectional text to alter the
behavior of the Unicode Bidi Algorithm (described in Unicode's

UAX

#9) by forcing a section of text to be treated as left-to-right when it

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may have been treated as right-to-left.

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MSI - The extension of Windows Installer files. Windows Installer is used

to package keyboards created with Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator so
that they can be installed.
MSKLC - Acronym for Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator
Regional and Language Options - The applet in the Windows Control
Panel through which a user can change their keyboard settings (as well
as many other unrelated settings). In versions of Windows prior to XP,
this applet has had other names, such as "Regional Options" and
"Regional Settings".
RLM - Right to left marker. Used in bidirectional text to alter the
behavior of the Unicode Bidi Algorithm (described in Unicode's

UAX

#9) by forcing a section of text to be treated as right-to-left when it

may have been treated as left-to-right.
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scan code - The numeric value given to each physical key on a

keyboard; the scan code is a hardware-dependent number that identifies
the key. Scan codes have a fixed position on the physical keyboard.
Changing them is not recommended (for more information, see

Changing Scan Codes).

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SGCaps - A mechanism used to extend a keyboard layout by treating

the CAPS LOCK key as if it were a separate shift state. For more
information, see

When to Use SGCaps.

Shift The shift state invoked when a shift key is pressed simultaneously
with another key. When a keyboard layout is designed for a script that
has case, it is common for the Shift state to contain capitalized variants
of the letters found in the unshifted state.
SHIFT - The name of the shift key(s) on a keyboard layout. The shift
keys are usually located on the left and right side of the layout, one row
above the spacebar,
shift state - A means of extending the keyboard beyond the 40+

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physical keys on a keyboard. Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator

supports defining up to seven of these shift states (Shift, AltGr,
Shift+AltGr, Ctrl, Shift+Ctrl, SGCaps, and Shift+SGCaps). It is however
recommended to use as few shift states as possible to minimize user
confusion.
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supplementary characters - A Unicode character not on the Basic

Multilingual Plane. These characters are in the range U+10000 U+10FFFF.
surrogate characters - An inappropiate term intended to mean
supplementary characters.
surrogate codepoints - A Unicode code point in the range U+D800
through U+DFFF. Reserved for use by UTF-16
surrogate pair - a pair of surrogate code units (a high surrogate
followed by a low surrogate) "stands in" for a supplementary code point
in UTF-16.
Unicode - provides a unique number for every character, no matter
what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the
language. For more information, see the Unicode website
(http://unicode.org/).

Uniscribe - A technology that defines is a set of APIs that allow a fine

degree of control for processing complex scripts.
UTF-16 - An abbreviation for Unicode Transformation Format 16 bit
encoding form. This is the encoding form of Unicode primarily used on
Windows. A key on a Windows keyboard layout can maximally contain
four UTF-16 code points.
virtual key - the code that is given by the Windows USER subsystem to
represent a keystroke. It is mapped from a scan code by using the
keyboard layout definition.

VK - An abbreviation for virtual key.

VK_* - Constants in the Platform SDK header files to represent virtual

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keys (e.g., VK_D for the D key, VK_A for the A key, etc.
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VK_MENU - The Platform SDK virtual key constant that represents the
ALT key. The origin of this term is the fact that the ALT key is primarily
used for menu accelerators. For more information, see ALT.
VK_RETURN - The Platform SDK virtual key constant for the return key.

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