¶TL;DR

1. A normal keyboard sends the scancodes of the keystrokes, and the operating system transforms them into the actual characters according to the keyboard layout settings on it. That’s how a normal keyboard can support the input languages supported by the operating system.

2. CC1, CC2 and M4G can also support those languages because their way of sending keystrokes is the same as that a normal keyboard does.

3. When you want CC1, CC2 or M4G to output a symbol on an OS layout other than QWERTY - US, you should set the corresponding symbol (at the same position) on the QWERTY - US layout to the key or the chord output.

4. Some features only work under QWERTY OS layout or English.

• Default Chord Library
  • English-only
  • It only works under the QWERTY OS layout.
• Startup Text, Generative Text Menu (GTM) and Impulse Chord Menu
  • Text interface would be garbled when under a non-QWERTY OS layout.
• [Partial Support] Device Manager (layout display and chord output)
  • Some keys (ex: shift layer keys) on the layout and chord output show the output under the QWERTY - US OS layout but not the current OS layout.
• Chord Modifier
  • Modification rules are mainly for English.
  • It only works under the QWERTY OS layout.

5. If your language is supported by the QWERTY - US-intl OS layout, it’s an easier solution that prevents you from doing much manual remapping as mentioned in 3. and facing some problems mentioned in 4..

¶1. How can one type different languages on a keyboard?

First, before talking about the language support on CC1, CC2 and M4G, we need to know how one can type different languages on a normal keyboard.

When you hit a key on a keyboard, it doesn’t send the symbol on the key to the computer, but an identifier of the key called scancode^[1]. Then, it is the operating system on the computer that converts that scancode to the actual symbol, according to the keyboard layout setting on the OS. (I would call it OS layout^[2] in the following.) In this way, we don’t need one keyboard per language we want to type, but just switch the OS layout to change to different languages.

Taking the second column (the column contains the 1 number) of a normal keyboard with QWERTY OS layout for example, the following GIF shows the scancode that a keyboard sends, the corresponding symbol on the OS layout and the output.

And when one switches the OS layout to QWERTZ, as shown in the following GIF, the scan code of that column on the keyboard is unchanged, but the output character of the 1D scancode becomes y instead of z, due to the change of OS layout.

Similar things would happen when using other OS layouts, such as JCUKEN.

And so do the OS layouts that need to be used with IME, such as Standard Bopomofo.

¶2. How can one type different languages on CC1, CC2 and M4G?

On CC1, CC2 and M4G (and other CC devices), you can assign characters or actions to any key or any chord output with the Device Manager. This only decides the corresponding scancode (on the QWERTY - US OS layout) that will be sent when the corresponding key or chord is triggered.

For example, if we assign the characters 1, q, a, and z to the four directions of a switch on CC1, CC2 or M4G with the Device Manager, similar to the QWERTY example of a normal keyboard, the corresponding scancode will be 1E, 14, 04 and 1D. The process after this is the same as the normal keyboard. The following GIF shows a side-by-side comparison of the process between a normal keyboard and CC1 / CC2 / M4G.

As you can expect, when one uses other OS layouts, the scancodes will be converted to the output characters in the same way as a normal keyboard. The following GIFs show the process on other OS layouts.

So similar to a normal keyboard, you are able to type different languages on CC1, CC2 or M4G by using different OS layouts.

¶3. How can one configure their CC1, CC2 or M4G for other OS layouts?

Due to the limitation of the web browser, the Device Manager website cannot get the whole OS layout from the browser^[3]. So some keys (ex: shift layer keys) showing on the layout and the chord output at the Device Manager are the expected output when the OS layout is QWERTY - US.

So when you want CC1, CC2 or M4G to output a symbol on an OS layout other than QWERTY - US, you should set the corresponding symbol (at the same position) on the QWERTY - US layout to the key or the chord output.

For example, assuming that we want a key to output z on the QWERTZ - Germany OS layout, then we should set y to that key on the Device Manager. Because z on the QWERTZ - Germany and y on the QWERTY - US are at the same position.

It also works for the symbols on the Shift layer. Assuming that we want a key to output " on the QWERTZ - Germany OS layout, then we should set @ to that key on the Device Manager.

That’s how to configure CC1 / CC2 / M4G with existing OS layouts. If you want to further customize the OS layout, you have to use some additional software. You can find some options on Layout page on official CC document and Keyboard layout page on Wikipedia.

¶Non-US additional keys

Some OS layouts have some additional keys than QWERTY - US.

¶Non-US # and ~

The corresponding action code on CC device of this key is KSC_32 - Keyboard Non-US # and ~.

The corresponding symbols on this key under typical language OS layouts are listed below^[4].

• US: |
• Belg: µ`£
• French Canadian: <}>
• Danish: ’*
• Dutch: <>
• French: *µ
• German: # ’
• Italian: ù§
• LatinAmerica: }`]
• Norwegian: , *
• Spain: }Ç
• Swedish: , *
• Swiss: $£
• UK: #~

¶Non-US \ and |

The corresponding action code on CC device of this key is KSC_64 - Keyboard Non-US \ and |.

The corresponding symbols on this key under typical language OS layouts are listed below^[5].

• Belg: <\>
• French Canadian: <°>
• Danish: <\>
• Dutch: ]|[
• French: <>
• German: <|>
• Italian: <>
• Latin America: <>
• Norwegian: <>
• Spain: <>
• Swedish: <|>
• Swiss: <>
• UK: \|
• Brazil: \|

¶4. Which features on CC1, CC2 and M4G only work with QWERTY OS layout and/or English?

Though one can type other languages on CC1, CC2 or M4G using other OS layouts, some additional features provided with CC1, CC2 and M4G only work with QWERTY OS layout and/or English.

¶Default Chord Library

The default chord library is based on the QWERTY layout and English. So if you use a different layout than QWERTY, the output of the chords in the default chord library will not make any sense.

A solution is to make your own chord library on those other languages or layouts.

¶Startup Message, Generative Text Menu (GTM) and Impulse Chord Menu

The startup message and the text interfaces of Generative Text Menu (GTM) and Impulse Chord Menu are generated by keystrokes (i.e. scancodes) from CC or Forge devices. The actual output characters would be affected by OS layout, so the content of the text interface would not make any sense under a non-QWERTY layout.

A solution is to switch the OS layout back to QWERTY before you connect the device, open the GTM or the impulse chord menu.

¶Device Manager (layout display and chord output)

Some keys (ex. keys on shift layer) on The layout and chord output at the Device Manager will show the key on the device layout, in other words, the output of a key or a chord when it is used under QWERTY - US layout is shown. It doesn’t show the output under other OS layouts. So you would need to transform it to figure out the output under other OS layouts.

¶Chord Modifier

The built-in chord modifier changes the suffix, capitalization, and conjugation of a chord.

The rules of those changes are for English, so it may not work with other languages that have different rules from English. It’s not compatible with non-QWERTY layouts either.

¶5. Is there any other solution?

“QWERTY - US Intl” is a OS layout that support multiple languages. Since it’s still QWERTY, you might not need much manual remapping mentioned at 3. and can prevent some compatible problems mentioned at 4..

It’s recommended to use “QWERTY - US Intl” if it supports your language.

¶References

• Keyboard layout - Wikipedia
• Layout - CharaChorder Docs
• “10 Keyboard/Keypad Page” section (page 83~89) on HID Usage Tables FOR Universal Serial Bus (USB)