Keyboard profiles mapped to IMEs (different language keyboards)

[MasaYan24]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Request for ”Keyboard Manager".

I'm a native Japanese user, so we need to implement switching to English/Japanese mode. By default, Windows assigns this setting a single key.
However, switching between English and Japanese with a single key is not useful, and I would like to assign two keys, such as left alt and right alt, namely left alt to make English mode and right alt to make Japanese mode.

At the same time, I'm a Vim user, so I would like to assign right alt + h to the left arrow, right alt + j to the down arrow, right alt + k to the up arrow, and right alt + l to the right arrow.

I really want the above feature on PowerToys as it is stable, whereas the famous AutoHotKey is not stable at all.

Summary:

• A single push of the left alt will be in English mode.
• A single push of the right alt will be in Japanese mode.
  at the same time,
• right alt + h to be left arrow
• right alt + j to be down arrow
• right alt + k to be up arrow
• right alt + l to be right arrow

Scenario when this would be used?

Always.

Supporting information

In macOS, Karabiner-Elements (https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/) does the feature.

[crutkas]

define "english mode" and japanese mode. Is this just swapping the keyboard layout or more? /needinfo

[MasaYan24]

@crutkas
Thanks for your reply.
"more"
There could be multiple ways to solve this (currently none).

A) To type English, Microsoft IME should be OFF.
B) To type Japanese, Microsoft IME should be ON.

I like to assign left alt to trigger (A), and right alt to trigger (B), where right alt + [h,j,k,l] trigger [left, down, up, right] arrow and do not change to (B).

[crutkas]

So this is KBM profiles mapped to IMEs. Thanks

[crutkas]

Xref #1881

[MasaYan24]

@crutkas
I wonder if this is the same feature as #1881 since what I want is not profile switching but key-remapping w/ and w/o combination...

[crutkas]

I take this as a possible upgrade to that issue. It is needed but if we can detect the IME shift, it would be possible to auto shift

[MasaYan24]

just FYI: what I want to do is exactly the same as follows.
https://www.karakaram.com/alt-ime-on-off/
(please translate it with LLM)

[MasaYan24]

@crutkas
I reviewed the reference issue page again in detail, and it still seems that what I want to achieve is not possible.

The feature for creating multiple profiles and easily switching between them is different from what I want to do here.

Toggling the IME on and off is not the same as changing profiles (sets of key assignments).

I want to toggle the IME on and off by single-tapping specific keys (left Alt and right Alt, located next to the space bar).

Additionally, regardless of whether the IME is on or off, I want to map right Alt + [h, j, k, l] to [left, down, up, right] arrows.

There are two challenges:

• Changing behavior based on single-tapping versus combination tapping of left and right Alt.
• Assigning IME on/off to left Alt and right Alt respectively.

I would appreciate your understanding.

[MasaYan24]

Currently what I tried:

• Remap key: left Alt -> IME Non-Convert, right Alt -> IME Convert # works fine to toggle IME OFF/ON
• right Alt + [h, j, k, l] -> [left, down, up, right] # does NOT work (right Alt now is mapped to IME Convert and IME Convert can NOT be used as modifier).