How to _____ in VIA?

This post is a work in progress. I will keep on updating this post as soon as I have time. Thanks

VIA is a third party remapping software for QMK powered keyboards - this includes Pabile Keyboards. VIA allows remapping of keys on the fly and save it on the keyboard's memory.

As of writing, Pabile Keyboards are not yet fully supported by VIA. For VIA to detect these keyboards, one (file) needs to be uploaded to the software. Please follow the instruction specific for your kit. This FAQ page might also be of great help: https://pabileonline.blogspot.com/p/faq-for-pabile-keyboards.html.

I use VIA on my personal keyboards so my approach here might differ from some. Please leave a comment should you have/know the proper way to do these things.

LAYERS

Understanding layers: https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_layers?id=layers

For this article, we will just use the commonly used togles:  TG(layer) and LT(layer,kc)

TG(layer)

Assigned key toggles a layer, activating it if it’s inactive and vice versa. Don't forget to set kc_trans (button with triangle pointing down) on the succeeding layers or you may be locked in that layer and won't be able to go back to previous/lower layer.

Example: We placed TG(x) on our P9 to go to layers 1,2,3. It'll look something like this:

Our Layer 1,2,3 will look like this:

Try these and let me know what happens, when you press TG(2) while on layer 1 and TG(3) while on layer 2.

LT(layer, kc)

This momentarily activates a layer when held, and sends kc when tapped. This gives your key dual role. On my P40/P42, you can see that I use this for: Space to access layer 1; Backspace to access layer 2; Dash to access layer 3; and Enter to access layer 4.

It is a bit complicated to use this with VIA for I do not see any dedicated buttons for these. To enable this feature, we will use ANY button that is found under special and type of LT() function:

To further explain, we are telling VIA that the number 1 on our pad have dual function. Once pressed and immediately released, it will register "1". However, when this key is held, it will switch to layer 1 and will immediately return to layer 0 once released. So, to access letter A on layer  1, we need to press and hold 1 then press the key on top of it.

Key combinations

There are a lot of special function keys on VIA that do not work. Once example is the COPY button. As a workaround, we'll use ANY button and type c(kc_c)  or in Macro, we type {KC_LCTRL,KC_C}.

I will try to collect as much combos that I can and post in this google spreadsheet. Please feel free to comment the combinations that you use and I'll be glad to add them.

Update 20210625: QMK Keycodes is our base reference for these: https://beta.docs.qmk.fm/using-qmk/simple-keycodes/keycodes

Lighting

VIA's buttons for lightning is a little off. I would suggest to use this option in configuring your lighting:

Troubleshooting

In an event that you cannot type codes in ANY key, try copying my settings settings:

Specifically, disable 'allow remapping via keyboard'