Windows keyboard layouts made with Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator for macrons, breves, and punctuation that I (Duncan Ritchie) find useful. (These might not work on non-Windows machines.)
I have two layouts: Macra and Brevia. They are the same as the standard Windows English (UK) layout, with extra characters accessed with the Alt Gr key. Despite the Latin plurals of “macron” and “breve” in the names “Macra” and “Brevia”, the language is English (UK).
For the letters aeiou, using Alt Gr adds a macron or a breve to make āēīōū and ăĕĭŏŭ.
On the Macra layout, y with Alt Gr produces ȳ — however, the equivalent does not happen on Brevia because the letter “y” with a breve does not exist as a single character.
For the ` (back-tick) key, using Alt Gr on Macra makes it a macron, the ¯ character. With both Alt Gr and Shift, the macron is combining, meaning it will lie on top of the character. For example, a with combining macron becomes ā, not a¯. (This is visually the same as ā, but encoded with two characters instead of one.)
(Using ` with Alt Gr on Brevia has no effect. Sorry. For what it’s worth, a breve is ˘ and a combining breve is ̆.)
For the digits 1234567890, using Alt Gr makes the digit subscript, as in “H₂O”. With both Alt Gr and Shift, the digit is superscript, as in “E=mc²”.
For any punctuation key (-=[];'#,./), using Alt Gr makes the key a different symbol. With both Alt Gr and Shift, it’s a different symbol again, as shown in the table below.
For digits and punctuation, the Macra and Brevia layouts are identical.
| Key | Macra (without Shift) | Brevia (without Shift) | Macra (with Shift) | Brevia (with Shift) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | ā | ă | Ā | Ă |
| e | ē | ĕ | Ē | Ĕ |
| i | ī | ĭ | Ī | Ĭ |
| o | ō | ŏ | Ō | Ŏ |
| u | ū | ŭ | Ū | Ŭ |
| y | ȳ | Ȳ | ||
| ` | ¯ (macron) | ̄ (combining macron) | ||
| 1 | ₁ (subscript one) | ₁ (subscript one) | ¹ (superscript one) | ¹ (superscript one) |
| 2 | ₂ (subscript two) | ₂ (subscript two) | ² (superscript two) | ² (superscript two) |
| 3 | ₃ (subscript three) | ₃ (subscript three) | ³ (superscript three) | ³ (superscript three) |
| 4 | ₄ (subscript four) | ₄ (subscript four) | ⁴ (superscript four) | ⁴ (superscript four) |
| 5 | ₅ (subscript five) | ₅ (subscript five) | ⁵ (superscript five) | ⁵ (superscript five) |
| 6 | ₆ (subscript six) | ₆ (subscript six) | ⁶ (superscript six) | ⁶ (superscript six) |
| 7 | ₇ (subscript seven) | ₇ (subscript seven) | ⁷ (superscript seven) | ⁷ (superscript seven) |
| 8 | ₈ (subscript eight) | ₈ (subscript eight) | ⁸ (superscript eight) | ⁸ (superscript eight) |
| 9 | ₉ (subscript nine) | ₉ (subscript nine) | ⁹ (superscript nine) | ⁹ (superscript nine) |
| 0 | ₀ (subscript zero) | ₀ (subscript zero) | ⁰ (superscript zero) | ⁰ (superscript zero) |
| - | − (minus sign) | − (minus sign) | ≈ (approximate to) | ≈ (approximate to) |
| = | ± (plus-minus sign) | ± (plus-minus sign) | ≠ (not equal to) | ≠ (not equal to) |
| [ | “ (left double quote) | “ (left double quote) | ¶ (pilcrow) | ¶ (pilcrow) |
| ] | ” (right single quote) | ” (right single quote) | § (section mark) | § (section mark) |
| ; | ‘ (left single quote) | ‘ (left single quote) | ¡ (inverted exclamation mark) | ¡ (inverted exclamation mark) |
| ' | ’ (right double quote) | ’ (right double quote) | ° (degree sign) | ° (degree sign) |
| # | • (bullet) | • (bullet) | · (middle dot) | · (middle dot) |
| \ | … (ellipsis) | … (ellipsis) | ™ (trademark sign) | ™ (trademark sign) |
| , | ‒ (figure dash) | ‒ (figure dash) | « (left guillemet) | « (left guillemet) |
| . | – (en dash) | – (en dash) | » (right guillemet) | » (right guillemet) |
| / | — (em dash) | — (em dash) | ¿ (inverted question mark) | ¿ (inverted question mark) |
Download the .klc files and open them in Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator.
Download the setup.exe files and run them. (Or download the .klc files and export them yourself using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator.)