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KbdEdit Changelog

What's new in KbdEdit 23.5.0

May 15, 2023
  • (bugfix) custom KbdEdit layout DLL's contents were getting corrupted if the same DLL is loaded simultaneously in multiple processes. This was causing crashes in GTK apps, and could also cause crashes of taskhostw.exe when running Metro, VBA or Delphi apps. For this fix to take effect, layouts saved with pre-23.5.0 versions must be opened and saved back using 23.5.0 or later.

New in KbdEdit 22.11.0 (Nov 6, 2022)

  • (feature) Import of Apple Mac .keylayout keyboard layout files.

New in KbdEdit 21.08.0 (Aug 23, 2021)

  • KbdEdit now runs natively on the ARM64 platform.

New in KbdEdit 21.04.0 (Apr 12, 2021)

  • (feature) Sticker map: graphical symbols are now used for special keys like Shift, Win, Tab, Backspace, Media keys etc.
  • (feature) Low level editor now allows the editing of human-friendly key names.
  • New example: Sanskrit keyboard with Vedic extensions (contributed by Dipanshu Aggarwal)
  • Documented the Windows 10 smart screen warnings, and how to work around them.

New in KbdEdit 20.12.0 (Dec 27, 2020)

  • New example Using NLS functions to simulate togglable ROYA/LOYA modifier keys.
  • (feature) Sticker map: it is now possible to turn on/off the display of individual keyboard blocks (main, navigation, nunmeric, function keys etc).
  • (bugfix) keycap display did not properly scale for UI scaling factors higher than 100%. The portion of the keycap cell occupied by the character was inversely proportional to the scaling factor, which made the keycaps almost unreadable on high-DPI displays (reported by Jeffrey Hope).
  • (bugfix) Font substitution was broken, which was causing characters such as 2081 (Subscript One) to be rendered as the "invalid character" glyph under Windows 8.x with the default Tahoma font (regression from 19.8, reported by Francis Leboutte).

New in KbdEdit 20.6.0 (Jun 10, 2020)

  • KbdEdit binaries and the MSI installer are now digitally signed to guarantee authenticity and prevent corruption and malicious tampering.
  • This also eliminates the Corrupt or invalid signature error when downloading MSI installers from the IE and Edge browsers.
  • Significantly increased the maximum payload size limit of layout DLLs. This reduces the incidence of the "Layout saving failed" and "Layout too complex" errors for complex layouts (extremely big dead tables and/or lot of ligatures and active modifier combinations).
  • Unicode character metadata upgraded to Unicode 13.0.0 (affects Unicode Search, character names, upper/lower equivalents, subranges).
  • Dropped support for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

New in KbdEdit 19.11.0 (Dec 1, 2019)

  • (feature) Unicode subrange dialog now supports user-defined named subranges.
  • (feature) Options dialog: new option Auto-reset Unicode palette, to control whether the palette's Unicode coverage is auto-adjusted each time a layout is opened.
  • (feature) current Unicode subrange is preserved on the next invocation (only if Auto-reset Unicode palette is turned off).
  • (bugfix) Save As, Register layout DLL file dialogs: added missing language ids/names to the "Language list" drop-down:
  • 0c00 Custom
  • 0c1a Serbian (Cyrillic, Serbia and Montenegro (Former))
  • 081a Serbian (Latin, Serbia and Montenegro (Former))
  • (performance improvement) High level, Stickers: fixed very slow rendering of Unicode characters in the UI (regression from 19.8.0).
  • (bugfix): High level, Stickers: two-line keycap text (eg long ligatures) not rendered correctly (regression from 19.8.0).
  • (minor bugfix) Unicode palette: when using Locate to reveal a character that is already the current character, but is not currently visible (not on the current page), the scroll position was not being adjusted to make it visible; this also affected the "flashing preview on drag/drop" mode.

New in KbdEdit 19.8.0 (Aug 26, 2019)

  • (Win10 compatibility) KbdEdit can now detect and restore custom layouts that have been lost after a major Windows 10 update.
  • (Win10 compatibility) fix for error message "Cannot open file KdEdit_<name>.dll for writing" when saving changes to an existing layout. More details at this FAQ entry.
  • Win10 compatibility) improved reliability of the Manage Language Bar dialog; the system language bar list is now being synced more accurately with the changes made in the dialog, reducing inconsistencies such as leftover layouts in the language bar after the user has chosen to remove them.
  • (improvement) When saving an existing layout, a new warning is being shown, informing the user that the changes may not become active until the next log off / log on.
  • (improvement) KLC and KLD file import now supports files in UTF8 and UTF16 BE encodings; previously, only UTF16 LE was supported.
  • (improvement) New standard dead char Turned (contributed by John Wilkes).
  • (bugfix) High level, Sticker map editor: UTF16 surrogate pair boundaries were not being respected when splitting a long ligature in two lines
  • (bugfix) some zero-width characters, like 1CE1, 1CF2 and 1CF3 from the Vedic Extensions Unicode block, were shown as a blank square in the UI even if supported by the current font.
  • Thanks to Kevin Brown for reporting this issue, and helping with validating the fix.
  • (improvement): better horizontal centering of zero-width characters in the UI.
  • (Improvement) improved visibility of non-BMP (>0xFFFF) characters in the virtual keyboard UI - now using a bigger font.
  • (minor bugfix) In the High level view, Unicode palette no longer accepts the dropping of an "empty" high level mapping

New in KbdEdit 18.9.0 (May 19, 2019)

  • (feature) Low-level editor now supports editing of special NLS functions, including alternative VK codes.
  • New examples:
  • Using NLS functions to simulate the "Context menu" key
  • Using NLS functions to make Caps Lock and Alt Gr share the same key
  • (update) Unicode character metadata upgraded to Unicode 12.1.0 (affects Unicode Search, character names, upper/lower equivalents, subranges).
  • (improvement) Dead key editor now allows the NUL character in dead transformations' "from" and "to" fields.
  • (bugfix) Google "Noto" fonts (and probably others) are now rendered correctly, previously display was falling back on the generic "Arial" font.
  • (bugfix) Instability and potential crash when pasting text from clipboard ("incorrect argument" popup).
  • (bugfix) Preview view not refreshing when entering keys via the "Param VK" NLS function type (eg Shift+Caps, Ctrl+Caps in Japanese keyboards, or alternative VK code mappings).
  • (bugfix) Dead key editor layout bug: "Transformation pairs" label was becoming mis-aligned (creeping to the right) when increasing the main window's horizontal size.

New in KbdEdit 18.9.0 (Sep 25, 2018)

  • Feature:
  • Improved Far-Eastern (FE) support: KbdEdit now preserves any special NLS functions and mouse key customisations found in the original layout.
  • Thanks to this, the user is now able to customise FE layouts like Japanese KBDJPN.DLL and Korean KBDKOR.DLL, without losing special FE functions from the original layout, such as using Ctrl+Shift+CapsLock to switch between the Kana-ON and Kana-OFF modes.
  • Update:
  • Unicode character metadata upgraded to Unicode 11.0.0 (affects Unicode Search, character names, upper/lower equivalents, subranges).
  • Bugfix:
  • Options dialog: when exiting with "Esc", the original keyboard type was not being restored if the "Abnt" or "Typematrix 2030" combo had the keyboard focus.

New in KbdEdit 18.3.0 (Mar 12, 2018)

  • - (feature) Support for Typematrix 2030 keyboard type through a new option in the Options dialog.
  • - (feature) High level view: colour-coded markers showing the state of CapsLock, CAPLOKALTGR and KANALOK for each mappable key.
  • - (feature) High level view: the KANALOK and CAPLOCKALTGR flags can now be cleared/set/auto-set in one go for all mappable VKs
  • - (feature) non-BMP character entry via keyboard now works properly: UTF32 codepoints above FFFF are correcly reconstructed from consecutive surrogate pairs. Previously, each surrogate character was being treated as an individual character.
  • The fix applies to all UI elements that accept character entry via keyboard: Unicode Palette, mappings for current key, current mapping mini popup, ligature editor, and dead character from/transforms/to fields.

New in KbdEdit 18.1.0 (Jan 29, 2018)

  • (Win10 compatibility) Preview mode:
  • (bugfix) no longer triggering bogus error message "Falling back to US English".
  • (bugfix) temporary files KbdXYZ.tmp were not being cleaned up from C:Windowssystem32 system directory due to interferrence from system process ctfmon.exe. Fixed by implementing a more robust "delayed retry" cleanup mechanism.
  • (features, improvements) Unicode palette general:
  • The palette now responds to text entry by navigating directly to any character(s) entered via keyboard, clipboard Paste, or drag/drop.
  • Drag-drop visual feedback: the dragged character is temporarily selected and shown as flashing.
  • Added row/column headers showing hex Unicode codes.
  • Subset boundaries now highlighted by a red divider line, alternating row header colours.
  • Palette window is now easier to activate via a mouse click (no longer necessary to hold the mouse perfectly still before releasing the left button).
  • bugfix: when switching between High level and Dead char views, palette's current char was not being restored in certain cases (eg no dead characters defined).
  • (features, bugfixes) Unicode palette context menu:
  • The menu now contains Web links to the character's page on unicode.org, compart.com, fileformat.info and unicode-table.com.
  • New item "Search" for opening the Unicode Search dialog.
  • bugfix: "mapped to" popup menu showing duplicate entries if the character appears more than once in the same ligature.
  • bugfix: "mapped to" popup menu not showing the ampersand "&" character properly.
  • (features, improvements) Unicode palette navigation:
  • When dragging the scroll bar, currently visible subset is now shown in a tooltip.
  • Scroll position no longer being reset to the top row if current character's subset has been deactivated; moving to the nearest active subset instead.
  • Active character now retains its "on screen" position on palette reload; previously it could randomly scroll to the top/bottom of the palette.
  • New buttons for moving to the previous / next mapped character.
  • New button go to subset, showing a popup menu for quickly locating a specific subset.
  • Next/previous subset buttons moved to the right of the palette, next to the scroll bar, now in a more logical vertical layout.
  • The "Filter" button renamed to "Manage Palette", moved to the right of the palette.
  • New keyboard shortcuts for navigation, Unicode search etc (Ctrl+ left/right, Ctrl+ up/down, Ctrl+ space, Ctrl+ F).
  • (features, improvements) Unicode search:
  • In addition to characters' names, the search string now matches verbatim characters and hex Unicode values.
  • Right-click popup menu has new options to copy the character's Hex code, character name and subset name.
  • Ensuring the results list always has a current selection; this keeps the "OK" button enabled, allowing a quick exit using Enter, without having to explicitly select a character first.
  • (improvements) Unicode subrange dialog:
  • Initially selecting the subset that is active in the Unicode palette when the dialog was launched.
  • Better preservation of the lists' scroll position when moving subsets between active/inactive lists.
  • Improved performance, especially when multiple subsets are being (de)activated at once.
  • Avoiding redundant reload of the Unicode palette if the dialog is exited with no change to the current subrange.
  • (layout cleanup) Options dialog: the three "ABNT" keyboard subtypes now represented by a single radio button, with the subtype chosen via a new combo drop-down.

New in KbdEdit 17.11.0 (Nov 27, 2017)

  • (bugfix) Loss of ligatures mapped to the BASE modifier position when adding/removing a modifier combination in the Low-level editor.
  • (bugfix) Unicode palette instability and potential crash when deactivating a subset containing the currently active character.
  • (bugfix) Key mapping editor popup dialog: character entry via keyboard is now suspended when a UI button has focus. This enables normal use of the "space bar" UI keyboard shortcut for pressing the button, without misinterpreting it as entering the "space" character.
  • (bugfix) error message "No apps are installed to open this type of link (file)" when attempting to bring up online help.
  • (Win10 compatibility) If layout file Save or Save As fails due to sharing violation, the error message now includes a list of process(es) (EXE path and PID) that are keeping the target DLL file locked. This feature addresses a Windows 10-specific issue with certain system process(es), such as taskhostw.exe, interfering with layout file saving.
  • (improvement) an "are you sure?" prompt with a detailed explanation is now shown when Save needs to fall back to Save As. This can happen eg due to existing file having the read-only flag set, or attempting to overwrite a built-in system file.

New in KbdEdit 17.9.0 (Oct 2, 2017)

  • Unicode search by character name, reachable from Unicode Palette and the Key mapping editor popup.
  • New version numbering scheme <year>.<month>.<minor>

New in KbdEdit 1.5.2 (Aug 7, 2017)

  • (update) Unicode character metadata upgraded to Unicode 10.0.0 (affects character names, upper/lower equivalents, subranges).
  • These dialogs now have resizable layout: Open, Save As, Delete Keyboard Layout, Manage Language Bar List, Ligature editor, Add standard dead chars,
  • Import dead char table from layout, Unicode Subrange.
  • Dead char editor: the right-click context menu for "Current", "Transforms" and "Into" fields is now accessible via the keyboard (VK_APPS ie "popup menu" key).
  • Bugfix: Dead char editor crashing if the "Dead characters" or "Transformation pairs" list has no selection.
  • (bugfix, Win10-only) Preview mode occasionally triggering bogus error message "Falling back to US English"

New in KbdEdit 1.5.1 (May 2, 2017)

  • (bugfix) High-level editor: dropping / pasting strings from Word 2016 could create ligatures with invalid trailing NUL character, which resulted in an unreadable damaged layout DLL file.
  • (improvement) High-level editor: "Shift" positions are now editable for numpad keys when "Caps Lock same as shift" and/or CAPLOKALTGR is used. This functionality is documented on the new Numeric keypad manual page.
  • (improvement) High-level editor: KANALOK checkbox now hidden if there are no active modifier positions involving Kana (eg if Roya/Loya positions are used, but not Kana)
  • (bugfix) Ligature editor text edit fields did not allow the entry of 6-digit characters codes ("Supplementary Private Use Area-B" Unicode subrange)
  • (improvement) Low-level editor: a modifier combination can now be (de)activated by double-clicking it in one of the modifier combination lists (either active or inactive).
  • (improvement) Preview now correctly reflects the CAPLOKALTGR effect on all positions including AltGr and Shift (eg AltGr+Shift+Kana, AltGr+Shift+Loya+Roya);. previously was limitted to only AltGr and AltGr+Shift.
  • (bugfix) Preview: if togglable KANA is enabled, but there are no active modifier combinations involving Kana, the preview incorrectly shows all keys as empty when Kana is toggled.
  • (bugfix) Preview crashing when resolving Kanalok / AltGr / CapsLock positions.
  • (bugfix) Unicode Palette: Copy to clipboard not working properly for the NUL (0000) character
  • (improvement) More detailed error message on Save when an existing layout DLL file cannot be opened for writing.

New in KbdEdit 1.5.0 (Feb 27, 2017)

  • (feature) Main window's layout is now resizable, with the keyboard display and other UI elements dynamically adjusting their layout to utilise the available screen space.
  • (bugfix) Preview screen failing with error "KbdEdit Preview dll relocation address differs from 0x5fff0000".
  • (improvement) reduced visual flicker when reloading contents of list controls on various views (list of keyboard layouts, Unicode subranges, dead key / transformation pair lists, Standard dead chars )

New in KbdEdit 1.4.0 (Aug 29, 2016)

  • (update) Unicode character metadata upgraded to Unicode 9.0.0 (affects character names, upper/lower equivalents, subranges).
  • (feature) High/low-level editors now support up to 15 modifier positions (old limit was 10).
  • (feature) High level: drag/drop of all VKs' mappings between modifier positions as a single operation.
  • (feature) clipboard Cut/Copy/Paste support added in a number of places:
  • High level editor, including the "Mappings for current key" popup and the Ligature editor
  • Low level editor
  • Dead char editor
  • Preview mode, in the test edit box
  • Unicode palette
  • Character magnifier widget
  • (feature) added keyboard shortcuts for common File/Edit/Clipboard operations:
  • File New/Open/Save: Ctrl+N, Ctrl+O, Ctrl+S
  • Clipboard Copy/Cut/Paste: Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+Insert, Shift+Del, Shift+Insert
  • Undo/Redo: Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y, Alt-Bksp, Alt-Shift-Bksp
  • (bugfix) Dead char editor: "Import dead table from another layout" failing with "Attempted an unsupported operation."
  • (bugfix) Generate Layout Install Package failing with "Cannot generate installation package - keyboard layout too complex." for otherwise valid layouts.
  • (bugfix) "Save As" dialog: incorrect default values for fields "Layout text", "Register as" and "Layout file" if "Show only custom layouts" is checked, .
  • (bugfix) High level editor: it was possible to enter mappings via keyboard for shifted numpad keys, even though they should be non-editable.
  • (bugfix) High level editor: string drop popup menu no longer treating ampersand (&) as an escape for underlining the next character.
  • (bugfix) Preview: unmapped keys (VK__none_) can sometimes be erroneously drawn as pressed.
  • (improvement) Low-level editor: right click popup now being shown for non-editable keys as well.
  • (layout fix) Low level editor: increased size of the Active/disabled modifier combination lists, to prevent truncation of very long modifier combinations (eg SHIFT+ALT+CTRL+KANA+ROYA+LOYA)

New in KbdEdit 1.3.9 (Aug 29, 2016)

  • (bugfix, Win10-only) fix for recent Windows 10 update breaking the Manage Language Bar dialog, causing it to fail with "Error: cannot retrieve Language Bar list".

New in KbdEdit 1.3.8 (Feb 17, 2016)

  • (feature) High-level editor, Key mapping editor popup, Ligature editor, Dead char editor : Unicode character mappings can now be entered via keyboard when the corresponding UI field has keyboard focus.
  • (the old methods of drag/drop and entering Unicode numerical values are still supported).
  • (feature) Key mapping editor popup dialog: when switching between Normal/Ligature/Dead mapping types, the old character mapping is now retained intelligently; previously, the new mapping always defaulted to the '?' character (normal, ligature) or the first dead char list entry (dead key).
  • (feature) Key mapping editor popup dialog: when choosing the "Dead key" mapping type, a new dead key can now be created "on the fly", instead of being restricted to the list of pre-existing dead keys.
  • (feature) Dead char editor: when changing the current transformation type from "Final character" to "Chained dead char", the editor now offers to automatically create a new dead char for the old "Final character" char if one does not already exist; previously one could only choose from the list of pre-existing dead keys.
  • (improvement) Dead char editor: when creating a new dead transformation pair by dropping a new char to the "Trans. pairs" list, the editor now chooses intelligently whether to map the dropped char as the "From" or "To" char, or both; previously the dropped char always defaulted to "From".
  • (thanks to Mike Grant for this and several other usability suggestions)
  • (improvement) Ligature editor, character magnifier: non-BMP (>FFFF) characters are now consistently shown as a single 5-digit Unicode entry; the underlying surrogate pairs are completely hidden from user's view.
  • (improvement) Ligature editor: ligatures can now contain up to 9 non-BMP (UTF32) characters; the old limit was 9 UTF16 characters, which couldn't accomodate more than 4 non-BMPs.
  • (Improvement) About box now reports the supported Unicode version.
  • (layout fix) Dead char editor: "transformed character" controls (edit box, static label) no longer overlap with the "Chained dead char" radio-box on some Windows versions.
  • (bugfix) Crash when switching from Dead char editor view to another view after last dead char has been deleted.
  • (bugfix) Preview: chained dead key preview incorrectly showed the "from" character instead of the chained "to" dead char.
  • (bugfix) Low-level editor: Kana modifier reverting from "normal" to "togglable" when enabling/disabling the Roya/Loya modifiers.
  • (thanks to Anton Vyatkin for reporting this bug)
  • (bugfix) High-level editor and Klc file import no longer allow the mapping of special-purpose codepoints F000, F001, F002; these characters are used internally as placeholders for empty, dead and ligature mapping, and cannot be used for other purposes.

New in KbdEdit 1.3.6 (Nov 4, 2015)

  • feature: Support for ROYA and LOYA modifier keys.
  • update: KbdEdit now uses Unicode 8.0.0 for its character metadata (character names, upper/lower equivalents, subranges).
  • feature: Improved handling of layouts with inconsistent dead key tables and ligatures: instead of generic "ligatures and/or dead chars are not consistent", a detailed error message is now being reported, naming specific bad dead keys / ligatures. This is helpful in troubleshooting issues with custom layouts produced by tools with less rigorous consistency checking.
  • feature: Improved robustness against inconsistent layouts: KbdEdit no longer crashes when encountering layouts with mappings to undefined dead keys.

New in KbdEdit 1.3.5 (Sep 24, 2015)

  • feature: Checkbox Show only custom layouts added to Open, Save As, Delete keyboard layout and Manage language bar list dialogs
  • Windows 8/8.1/10 compatibility: Workaround for buggy system keyboard Tamil KBDINTAM.DLL 00000449. In Windows 8 and later, this layout contains a bad ligature entry, which caused KbdEdit to fail with an "inconsistent ligature mapping" error when attempting to open it. The layout now opens successfully - the bad entry is recognised and silently fixed "on the fly".
  • bugfix: KLC file import crashing when encountering a NUL (0000) character mapping.

New in KbdEdit 1.3.4 (May 11, 2015)

  • (update) Character metadata (character names, upper/lower equivalents, subranges) upgraded to Unicode 7.0.0.
  • (Windows 8/8.1 compatibility) Windows 8 language list now kept in sync with the language bar list changes.
  • (Windows 8/8.1 bugfix): Preview mode not reflecting the layout's current state, activates an older obsolete version instead.
  • (bugfix) High-level editor: drag-drop not working correctly for the NUL (0) character, misinterpreted as empty mapping.
  • (improvement) when using Register layout DLL file under x64, a warning is now shown if a matching 32-bit DLL is not found under C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ .
  • (UI improvement) Delete keyboard layout dialog now no longer disappears after a layout was deleted, making it easier to delete multiple layouts.
  • (UI layout improvement) Delete keyboard layout dialog: checkbox "also delete DLL" made bigger so it can fit longer filenames.

New in KbdEdit 1.3.3 (Sep 1, 2014)

  • (Improved 64-bit compatibility) under 64-bit Windows systems, a special "Wow64" 32-bit layout DLL version is saved under the c:\Windows\SysWOW64\ system directory (in addition to saving proper 64-bit version under c:\Windows\System32\)
  • (thanks to Anton Vyatkin for help with troubleshooting various 64-bit specific issues)
  • (Improved stability) layout DLL files now correctly handling relocation when loaded to an address different from the preferred load address. This improves compatibility with certain 3rd party tools that tend to keep layout DLL files open for extended periods of time.
  • For the fixes from this release to take effect, layouts saved with pre-1.3.3 versions must be opened and saved back using 1.3.3.

New in KbdEdit 1.3.2 (Oct 21, 2013)

  • (bugfix) Under Windows 8, custom layouts created with KbdEdit Personal, Lite or Player edition causing long delays followed by "KbdEditServer not running" error message. For this fix to effect, layouts saved with pre-1.3.2 versions must be opened and saved back using 1.3.2.

New in KbdEdit 1.3.1 (Mar 19, 2013)

  • (new feature) Unicode palette's display is now color-coded to visually distinguish mapped and unmapped code points. For mapped code points, a distinct marker is shown for each role the code point appears in (normal mapping / dead mapping / part of ligature / transformed by dead key / produced by dead key).
  • (new feature) Unicode palette now supports a right-click popup menu outlining all mappings the clicked-on code point appears in (key combinations, dead chars).
  • (bugfix) Low-level editor crashes when attempting to activate a key (i.e. scan code) that is not accessible through the GUI by pressing it on the physical keyboard.
  • (bugfix) Ligature editor: locating a code point in the Unicode palette through middle click / right click popup does not work correctly if "Right to left Reading order" is active.

New in KbdEdit 1.3.0 (Sep 1, 2012)

  • (new feature) new edition KbdEdit Premium supporting new feature Generate Layout Install Package.
  • (improvement) all examples are now published as stand-alone installer EXE files, making them fully usable on computers without KbdEdit installed..
  • KbdEdit edition previously known as "KbdEdit Full" renamed to KbdEdit Personal.
  • (bugfix) importing a KLC file was triggering unwanted auto-complete operations, i.e. KbdEdit was filling empty mappings with lower/uppercase equivalents of any letters mapped to (un)shifted positions of the same key

New in KbdEdit 1.2.4 (Jul 4, 2012)

  • (Improvement) preview screen now offers improved dead key assistance: if a dead key is pressed, the view changes to show combined characters produced by the affected keys.
  • (feature) support for Japanese 106/109 key keyboards - new option "Japanese 109" in the Options dialog.

New in KbdEdit 1.2.3 (Jul 4, 2012)

  • (Improvement) KbdEdit now supports chained dead keys.
  • (Improvement) dead keys shown in a distinct grey-blue shade in high level, preview and sticker screens.
  • (Improvement) preview screen: tooltips for dead keys show a detailed list of transformation pairs.
  • (Improvement) high-level editor: keyboard button tooltips now show the mapping summary, including mapping type (normal/dead key/ligature/empty), mapped character numerical value and Unicode name.
  • (Improvement) Layout of the key mapping editor popup changed to make dead char combo box bigger; the combo is now sorted on dead char name.
  • (bugfix) Key mapping editor popup crashes if exited by clicking on a tab other than "High level editor".
  • New example: Emulating Compose key using chained dead keys.
  • New example: US English keyboard with all Latin accents using chained dead keys.

New in KbdEdit 1.2.2 (Apr 4, 2012)

  • (feature) KbdEdit now supports non-BMP Unicode characters (i.e. those with numerical value >0xFFFF).
  • (feature) support for new ABNT keyboard type - new option "ABNT Small Return Big Backspace" in the Options dialog.
  • (update) internal support for character names and upper/lower equivalents upgraded to Unicode 6.1.

New in KbdEdit 1.2.1 (Jan 19, 2012)

  • (bugfix) Sticker Map screen freezes if "Big Return small Backspace" keyboard type is chosen.

New in KbdEdit 1.2.00 (Jan 19, 2012)

  • New feature: Sticker map generator.
  • bugfix: KLC import now correctly handles non-BMP (>0xFFFF) characters, i.e. they are converted to a ligature of surrogate pair characters.
  • bugfix: Column headings "Name" and "Language" were swapped in "Open", "Save As", "Delete Layout", "Import Dead Char Table From Layout" and "Manage Language Bar" dialogs

New in KbdEdit 1.1.11 (May 26, 2011)

  • Dead key editor: list of standard dead characters expanded to encompass nearly 100 diacritics defined by Unicode 6.0
  • Dead key editor: UI improvements - dead character lists can be sorted on any column, adjustable column widths.
  • Add standadd dead char dialog: UI improvements - filtering by dead character name, showing preview of a current dead characters.
  • (bugfix) KbdEdit hangs when changing font in the Options dialog.
  • (improvement) Glyphs (NBSP, LRM etc) are drawn using the system font, ensuring their consistent appearance regardless of the current font chosen.

New in KbdEdit 1.1.10 (Nov 29, 2010)

  • (update) internal support for character names and upper/lower equivalents upgraded to Unicode standard version 6.0

New in KbdEdit 1.1.9 (Jan 31, 2010)

  • (feature) support for BigKeys keyboard model BigKeys LX - new option "Big keys" in the Options dialog.
  • (update) internal support for character names and upper/lower equivalents upgraded to Unicode standard version 5.20.
  • (improvement) special white and non-printable characters are now displayed as glyphs instead of whatever representation they have in the current font (e.g. 0020 (Space) is displayed as SP, 00A0 (No-Break Space) as NBSP, etc).
  • (update) "Standard dead char" list of common dead characters was refreshed. It now includes dead characters from keyboard layouts that appeared in recent Windows versions (Vista, Windows 7).

New in KbdEdit 1.1.8 (Jul 20, 2009)

  • (bugfix) crash when assigning "empty" to all modifier positions of a key in a layout that contains a Shift+AltGr position, or a KANA position mapped to VK_KANA.

New in KbdEdit 1.1.7 (Mar 30, 2009)

  • (improvement) eliminated long delays at Windows safe mode startup if the Language Bar list contains a KbdEdit custom layout. For this change to take effect, custom layouts created with pre-1.1.7 versions must be opened and saved back using 1.1.7.
  • (bugfix) when using multiple monitor setup, certain pop-ups (e.g. Key mapping, Options) are shown on a wrong monitor.
  • (improvement) Character names no longer shown in ALL CAPS, resulting in improved readability and better use of screen real estate.
  • (Website/help) new example: French multilingual (contributed by Gilbert Galeron).

New in KbdEdit 1.1.6 (Sep 29, 2008)

  • (feature) KbdEdit now implements its own Unicode 5.1 support for character names and upper/lower equivalents. Previously, the Unicode version supported was dependent on the Windows version.
  • (improvement) Unicode subsets in the Unicode Subrange dialog can be sorted on either numeric value or name.
  • (improvement) Various file Open/Save dialogs are now resizable (KBE import/export, KLC import, dead char table import/export).
  • new example: Multi-lingual Hebrew / US English keyboard.
  • updated example French improved keyboard - added sticker map Excel document.

New in KbdEdit 1.1.5 (Jun 13, 2008)

  • Eliminated long delays at XP startup if KbdEdit custom layout is added to the Language Bar list.
  • Better support for Brazilian ABNT keyboards: new layout type "ABNT - big Backspace" added to the Options dialog; support for extra numpad key ABNT_C2 (thanks to Henrique Peron and Joaquim Pedro for help with Brazilian keyboards).
  • New subsets added to the Unicode Subrange dialog