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On page 39 of the Kinesis Advantage keyboard manual it say:

When a non-US keyboard driver is selected, the right Alt key on a traditional keyboard becomes a new kind of modifier, “Alt Gr.” Alt Gr creates a third key action (in addition to unshifted and shifted) for certain keys, including the “International key” for some languages. If you need to use Alt Gr key action with the Advantage MPC USB keyboard, it is advisable to set “Instant Configuration” for PC (non-Windows) so that there is a readily accessible Alt Gr key (located above the Page Up key). If you prefer to use the Windows “Instant Configuration” setting, the Alt Gr key action is the embedded left Alt key (above Home). To use this key easily, remap it to a top level location.

I'm using the Windows instant configuration but I cannot figure out what it means by Alt Gr being embedded in the left Alt key. Does anybody know? I want to remap it so I have access to Alt Gr.

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  • Does pressing the "Alt Option" button above End & Home not work? Or the windows logo / cloverleaf button above PageUp? Just remapping might've been answered here (but 10 years ago) stackoverflow.com/questions/229633/… and on superuser this Q looks very similar (but has no answers & spontaneously resolved) superuser.com/questions/1225911/…
    – Xen2050
    Oct 18, 2018 at 11:05
  • In Windows mode, the keys above Home and End are Ctrl and Let Alt. None are Right Alt (Alt Gr). I am remapping keys so they are where I want them, but the remapping prodecure is to tap the key you want and then where you want it, and in Windows mode I cannot find Alt Gr anywhere in the keyboard to remap it.
    – Pablo Fernandez
    Oct 18, 2018 at 11:45
  • @pupeno, I haven't personally dealt with this, so it's just a guess. On US keyboards that contain duplicate "control" keys (Shift, Ctrl, Alt) on both the left and right side of the "typewriter" block of keys, the Alt key on the right side is the key labeled Alt-Gr on European keyboards. I believe only the keycap identification is different, the key generates the same keycode as Alt-Gr.
    – fixer1234
    Oct 19, 2018 at 21:14
  • @pupeno, just stumbled across an old post and remembered your question. Someone wrote that AltGr is equivalent to Ctrl+Alt, so one more thing to try. Also, rereading the quotation in your question, Kinesis isn't very clear. It almost sounds like they're saying that they made the Left Alt the code-equivalent of the AltGr key. Anyway, don't know if any of that is helpful, but good luck.
    – fixer1234
    Oct 30, 2018 at 5:38
  • The manual is unclear. Maybe you could consider contacting product support to get better explanation. But you can achieve AltGr either by pressing Ctrl+Alt or you can remap International Key (see the manual) to act as AltGr using AutoHotKey.
    – miroxlav
    Nov 18, 2018 at 23:38

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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I had a similar problem: I wanted to remap AltGr to a foot pedal and then have the upper thumb key row as Ctrl, Alt, Alt, Ctrl just like in the US layout. I also encountered the issue that during remapping mode, we're in the default win thumbkey layout and thus the AltGr key's action is Win/Super and not AltGr.

I've contacted the Kinesis support, and the good news is that AltGr ([ralt]) is also bound to F2 in the keypad layer, and there you can easily select the source action from.

I don't know why the Kinesis support gave you a different answer. Possibly, that's a feature only applicable to the current Advantage 2 series.

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  • I think this only applies to Advantage 2. I have an old Advantage (kb500) and F2 is the same, regardless of whether Keypad layer is active or not (verified with xev).
    – Wojciech Gac
    Sep 24, 2021 at 15:47
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I talked to Kinesis support which was amazing, way beyond anything I expected, specially since I bought my three keyboards about 10 years ago and they are now discontinued.

What I've learn though was that Alt-Gr is not available on Windows mode and on non-Windows PC mode it cannot be remapped to another key because it's special. This means that the only way to get access to Alt-Gr is in PC mode and on that key. They also confirmed this is the case for their new Kinesis Advantage 2.

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  • but you can try AutoHotKey key remapping vkE2sc056::RAlt (for International Key) or at least Insert::RAlt and the result can be amazing. :)
    – miroxlav
    Nov 19, 2018 at 9:34
  • @miroxlav: yeah, once you start playing with software, you can pretty much do whatever you want.
    – Pablo Fernandez
    Nov 19, 2018 at 10:07
  • Sure. If you will really start missing AltGr, remind yourself of the above note which brings it back.
    – miroxlav
    Nov 19, 2018 at 10:09
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I've had a similar problem with my old Advantage (KB500) and after some time contacted Kinesis support (everything good that people say about them is true - their level is stellar). The guy from support (Tyler) suggested to keep the keyboard in PC mode and remap the Win key from there. Here's how I did it:

  • I was told that in the Keypad layer the keys that would correspond to F13 and F14 (PrintScr/SysReq and Scroll lock respectively) work as if they were Win.
  • I pressed Progrm+F12 to initiate remapping.
  • I pressed Keypad, then Scroll lock, then Keypad again to specify the "source" key (the second Keypad is important)
  • I pressed Win to specify the "destination" key.
  • I concluded the remapping with Progrm+F12

Lo and behold, it works!

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To access the Alt-Gr key in Windows mode on a Kinesis Advantage keyboard, you need to press the right Windows key along with the desired key. On the Kinesis Advantage keyboard, the right Windows key acts as the Alt-Gr key.

For example, to type the @ symbol, you would press the right Windows key along with the 2 key. To type the € symbol, you would press the right Windows key along with the E key.

If you are having trouble accessing the Alt-Gr key on your Kinesis Advantage keyboard, you may need to check the keyboard configuration and ensure that the right Windows key is properly set up as the Alt-Gr key.

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    Jan 30, 2023 at 16:40
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I had difficulties mapping F2 (function key) associated with ralt (Right Alt) to a thumb key (in my case I wanted to have rCtrl(Right Ctlr) being remapped as rAlt

An alternative simple path was to remap rCtrl manually in the qwerty.txt file that is the default mapping. The process is simple but I provide many details to make it as easy as possible to follow .

a) activate power user mode (PUM): progrm + Shift + Esc
b) open the advantage v-drive:progrm + F1
c) open the qwerty.txt file in the notepad
d) edit the qwerty.txt file mapping ralt key to the rCtrl key
My qwerty.txt file contains one line (See 13.2 Appendix- Dictionary of Action Tokens in Kinesis Advantage User Manual)

[rctrl]>[RALT]

Once the file edited, saved and closed, I followed the manual

"It is also important to always use the “eject” option of your operating system’s file manager, design for removable drives which is how the v-drive is characterized. Normally “eject” is available if you right click on the drive."

e) After the system says “okay to remove drive,” close the v-drive progrm + F1

This worked! My rCtrl key now works as rAlt

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