Unexpected-Keyboard/doc/Possible-key-values.md

Key values

This is an exhaustive list of special values accepted for the key0 through key8 or nw through se attributes on a key.

Any string that does not exactly match these will be printed verbatim. A key can output multiple characters, but cannot combine multiple built-in key values.

Escape codes

Value	Escape code for
\?	?
\#	#
\@	@
\n	Literal newline character. This is different from enter and action in certain apps.
\t	Literal tab character. This is different from tab in certain apps.
\\	\

XML escape codes also work, including:

Value	Escape code for
&	&
&lt;	<
&gt;	>
&quot;	"

Modifiers

System modifiers are sent to the app, which is free to do whatever they want in response. The other modifiers only exist within the keyboard.

Value	Meaning
shift	System modifier.
ctrl	System modifier.
alt	System modifier.
meta	System modifier. Equivalent to the Windows key.
fn	Activates Fn mode, which assigns letters and symbols to special characters. e.g. fn ! = ¡
compose	Compose key. Enables composing characters using Linux-like shortcuts; e.g. Compose A single quote types Á (A with acute accent).
capslock	Actives and locks Shift

Special keys

These keys are sent to apps, which are free to ignore them. The keyboard does not perform editing in response to these keys.

esc, enter, up, right, down, left, page_up, page_down, home, end, backspace, delete, insert, f1-f12, tab, copy, paste, cut, selectAll, pasteAsPlainText, undo, redo

Whitespace

Value	Meaning
space	Space bar.
nbsp	Non-breaking space.
nnbsp	Narrow non-breaking space.
zwj	Zero-width joiner.
zwnj	Zero-width non-joiner.

Keyboard editing actions

These keys perform editing on the text without sending keys that the app can interpret differently or ignore.

Value	Meaning
cursor_left	Moves the cursor position to the left directly, without sending a left key event.
cursor_right	Moves the cursor position to the right directly, without sending a right key event.

Other modifiers and diacritics

Value	Meaning
accent_aigu	Acute accent. á
accent_caron	Háček. č
accent_cedille	Cedilla. ç
accent_circonflexe	Circumflex. â
accent_grave	Grave accent. à
accent_macron	Macron. ā
accent_ring	Ring accent. å
accent_tilde	Tilde. ã
accent_trema	Dieresis/umlaut. ä
accent_ogonek	Ogonek. ą
accent_dot_above	Dot accent. ż If applied to the lowercase i, removes the dot instead for Turkish. ı
accent_double_aigu	Double acute accent. ő
accent_slash	Slash through. ø
accent_arrow_right	Right arrow above, used to denote a vector. a⃗
accent_breve	Breve. ă
accent_bar	Bar/strikethrough. ɨ
accent_dot_below	Dot below. ạ
accent_horn	Horn accent. ơ
accent_hook_above	Hook accent. ả
superscript	Superscript. ᵃ
subscript	Subscript. ₐ
ordinal	Turns a and o into ª and º.
arrows	Turns 1-4 and 6-9 into arrows.
box	Turns 1-9, 0, and . into single-line, thin box-drawing characters.

Bidirectional

Value	Meaning
lrm	Left-to-right mark.
rlm	Right-to-left mark.
b(, b), b[, b], b{, b}, blt, bgt	Sends the bracket characters, but with mirrored key legends for right-to-left languages. (blt and bgt print < and > respectively.)

Hebrew

Keys ending in _placeholder are normally hidden unless the Fn key is pressed.

qamats, patah, sheva, dagesh, hiriq, segol, tsere, holam, qubuts, hataf_patah, hataf_qamats, hataf_segol, shindot, shindot_placeholder, sindot, sindot_placeholder, geresh, gershayim, maqaf, rafe, ole, ole_placeholder, meteg, meteg_placeholder

Keyboard behavior keys

Value	Meaning
config	Gear icon; opens Unexpected Keyboard settings.
switch_text	Switch to the text layer (main layer).
switch_numeric	Switch to the numeric layer.
switch_emoji	Switch to the emoji layer.
switch_back_emoji	Switch to the text layer from the emoji layer.
switch_forward	Change the keyboard layout, as long as Unexpected Keyboard has multiple keyboard layouts enabled in the settings.
switch_backward	Change the keyboard layout to the previous one in the list.
switch_greekmath	Switch to the Greek & Math Symbols layer.
switch_clipboard	Switch to the clipboard pane.
change_method	Open the input method picker dialog.
change_method_prev	Switch to the previously used input method.
action	Performs a special context-sensitive operation related to the Enter key. For example, in the Twitter (X) app, enter adds a new line, while action posts.
voice_typing	Begin voice typing.
voice_typing_chooser	Shows a menu where you can choose which voice typing provider to use, then begins voice typing when you make a selection.
shareText	Emit a share Intent for the selected text. Oddity: This is in CamelCase.

Unused

These keys are known to do nothing.

replaceText, textAssist, autofill, removed

Placeholders

These keys are normally hidden unless the Fn modifier is activated.

f11_placeholder | f12_placeholder

Complex keys

More complex keys are of this form:

:<kind> <attributes>:<payload>

Where <kind> is one of the kinds documented below and <attributes> is a space separated list of attributes. <payload> depends on the <kind>.

Attributes are:

• symbol='Sym' specifies the symbol to be shown on the keyboard.
• flags='<flags>' changes the behavior of the key. <flags> is a coma separated list of:
  • dim: Make the symbol dimmer.
  • small: Make the symbol smaller.

Kind str

Defines a key that outputs an arbitrary string. <payload> is a string wrapped in single-quotes ('), escaping of other single quotes is allowed with \'.

For example:

• :str:'Arbitrary string with a \' inside'
• :str symbol='Symbol':'Output string'

Kind char

Defines a key that outputs a single character. <payload> is the character to output, unquoted. This kind of key can be used to define a character key with a different symbol on it. char keys can be modified by ctrl and other modifiers, unlike str keys.

For example:

• :char symbol='q':љ, which is used to implement ctrl shortcuts in cyrillic layouts.