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Installing a Keyman keyboard on macOS

Nico Spalinger, 2017-11-14

Note:

This page is more up-to-date: Installing Keyman for Mac OS X

These are instructions for installing and using Keyman on macOS.

First install Keyman itself:

Download the dmg (disk image) from http://keyman.com/macosx/.
Double click the DMG file to open it.
Drag and drop the Keyman app into the ‘Input Methods’ folder shortcut.
Go to top-left Apple menu -> "System Preferences", then click on "Keyboard" and select the "Input Sources" tab.
Click on "+" on the bottom-left, then find Keyman under "Multi-Language" and double click that entry to add as an input method.
Click the tickbox "Show Input menu in menu bar" so you can more easily switch between keyboards.

Then install the desired keyboard

Click on the input menu icon on your top-right menu bar (usually a little icon representing your keyboard locale) and select the Keyman icon to switch to it.
- (The menu will expand with Keyman-specific entries).
- -
Open the keyboard list by going to Keyman -> Configuration... then Keyboard Layouts tab
Drag and drop the kmp (Keyman package file) that you have downloaded into the Keyboards Layout tab.
- (you should see a green plus on your mouse pointer indicating that it's ready to be installed)
Click the tickbox to activate the desired keyboard(s) in the list.
- Dragging and dropping a new keyboard into the Keyboard Layout tab will automatically add the KMX, the INF and any HTML or PDF documentation under its own folder in your user directory in ˜ / Documents/Keyman-Keyboards/. (~ is the shorthand notation for your home folder: the full path is /Users/nameofuser/Documents/Keyman-Keyboards/). You can go to this folder, and into the keyboard-specific subfolders, to learn how to use the keyboard. WARNING: Do not delete the whole folder as it would uninstall the keyboards.
You can select your keyboard by going to the top-right menu bar dropdown and choosing Keyman, then selecting the one you want under Keyman -> Keyboards.
By default, the shortcut to change between to change between Keyman keyboards and other keyboards is Space (Control Space).
- (To change the shortcuts go to System Preferences, Keyboard, Shortcuts, Input Methods.)
Now you can start typing with the selected keyboard in any text editor or application that uses standard macOS input methods.
- And you can turn your keyboard on and off as needed.

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