Live Training: Your Layout, in Real Time

Our keyboards are different. That’s probably why you got one. But that also means there is a learning curve: Getting used to your new keyboard takes time and practice.

Live Training is here to help. With Live Training, you get an interactive view of your layout, as you use it:

Live Training shows everything from individual keystrokes, to multiple keys pressed at the same time, to layer changes. You get a complete view of your layout, as you use it.

You can start Live Training and switch to a different window. It’ll keep working, and you can use the interactive keymap as a reference. This is great when just starting out, and for developing muscle memory for layout changes you make over time.

Getting Started with Live Training

Live Training uses the WebHID standard, which is currently supported by Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers like Brave, for example. It works on Windows, macOS, and Linux with a bit of additional configuration. It requires no drivers and no administrative privileges. Live Training does not work on ChromeOS, unfortunately, due to security limitations built into the OS. It will also not work on Windows 7 and other legacy operating systems that are past official EOL (“End of Life”) such as OS/2 Warp, etc.

• Using Google Chrome or another Chromium-based browser (if your browser isn’t working, try Google Chrome), click the Train link on the Oryx navigation bar:

  

• Click Start training, and follow the on-screen prompts.

• That’s all there is to it! You can now choose between the various training modes.

If you’re a new user, it’s a good idea to practice for 10-15 minutes, twice a day. You’ll be up to speed in no time!

More Live Training posts

This was originally written in 2019, and updated in mid-2022 to simplify the connection procedure. This also seemed like a good time to link to several other posts we’ve written about Live Training, as we’ve introduced new features over the years:

• Live Training Improvements
• Become a Numpad Ninja
• Introducing Heat Maps

Frequently Asked Questions

How does this work?

Live Training uses webHID technology, which allows the browser to directly communicate with the keyboard once you initiate the connection.

Is this a keylogger?

No. Live Training does not send any information about the characters being printed. The protocol only sends the physical positions of the keys being pressed.

Is it open-source?

The code that runs on the keyboard is open-source, and available to review and use here.

Will Live Training work with layouts compiled locally, outside of Oryx?

In order for Live Training to display your layout, the layout data must be stored in Oryx. If you compiled your layout locally, Live Training will not work, since Oryx doesn’t actually know what each key on your layout does.

I have another question.

Please email us anytime! contact@zsa.io is where we’re at, and we’d love to hear from you. Thank you for trying out Live Training!