It is possible to reprogram the keyboard in order to type certain strings ("tokens") with a single key stroke. This is generally used for the names of terminal sound-objects. Current keyboard encoding is visible in window "Keyboard" and may be saved with prefix "-kb". The name of the corresponding file (e.g., "-kb.kathak.azerty") is automatically inserted on top of the alphabet file. Conversely, inserting a name will prompt BP2 to load the declared "-kb." file as soon as the alphabet file is loaded.

Using window "Keyboard" is self-explanatory. To activate/deactivate encoding you may switch button "Use these tokens" on and off, or check "Use tokens" / "Type text" in the "Misc" menu, or type cmd-option t.

Only 52 characters may be mapped to tokens. Any string shorter than 255 characters may be mapped to a key as a token. Fig.30 shows the encoding used for Kathak material on an English keyboard (QWERTY).

Keyboard encoding in versions ≥ 2.5 takes different keyboard layouts into account. Two layouts are currently supported: US (QWERTY) and French (AZERTY). The default layout is QWERTY, but if you change it to AZERTY when tokens have been defined, then the mapping is modified automatically so that tokens appear at the same locations on the keyboard -- except for the ones mapped to the 'M' key, which cannot be remapped. (When changing from AZERTY to QWERTY and vice-versa, the 'M' key is swapped with another key that does not contain alphabetic characters.)

The AZERTY/QWERTY option is saved along with the -kb.<filename> keyboard encoding.