A Numpad Under Your Right Hand

Entering numbers means reaching for the number row — awkward at best, or stretching to a physical numpad that most keyboards don’t even have. The Numpad layer turns your right hand into a numpad and your left hand into operators. All from the home row.

What You Get

Enable the Numpad pack and you gain a full numpad layer:

Right hand — numbers: | U | I | O | |—|—|—| | 7 | 8 | 9 |

J K L
4 5 6
M , .
1 2 3
N /
0 .

Left hand — operators: | Key | Output | |—–|——–| | F | + | | D | − | | S | × | | A | ÷ | | G | Enter ⏎ |

Enabling It

  1. Open KeyPath and click the gear icon to open the inspector panel
  2. Go to the Rules tab
  3. Find Numpad in the Layers section
  4. Toggle it on

Requires Vim Navigation (or another Leader pack) to be enabled — the numpad layer is accessed through the Leader key.

How to Activate

The numpad uses two-step activation:

  1. Hold your Leader key (Space by default) — enters the navigation layer
  2. While holding Leader, press ; (semicolon) — enters the numpad layer
  3. Press number/operator keys — types digits and operators
  4. Release Leader — back to normal typing

The overlay shows the numpad layout highlighted when you’re in the layer.

Use Cases

  • Spreadsheets — Enter columns of numbers without leaving the home row
  • CSS/code — Type pixel values, hex codes, port numbers
  • Calculators — The operator keys (+ − × ÷) are on your left hand, numbers on right
  • IP addresses and phone numbers — Rapid numeric entry
  • Data entry — Faster than hunting keys on the number row

Tips

  • The layout matches a standard numpad: 7-8-9 on top, 1-2-3 on bottom, 0 on the bottom-left
  • G = Enter means you can submit calculator entries or spreadsheet cells without reaching
  • Practice the two-step activation: Leader → ; becomes muscle memory quickly
  • The semicolon activator was chosen because it’s on the home row and rarely conflicts with navigation

Troubleshooting

Nothing happens when I press Leader → ;

  1. Make sure the Numpad pack is enabled in the Rules tab
  2. Verify Vim Navigation is also enabled (it provides the Leader layer)
  3. You must hold Leader the entire time — don’t release it between pressing ;

I get semicolons instead of activating the layer

You’re releasing Leader too early. Hold Leader continuously, then press ; while still holding.

Numbers don’t appear in my app

Some apps (rare) intercept numpad keycodes differently from regular number keys. If a specific app misbehaves, check if it has a “numpad input” mode.

Next Steps