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Encyclopedia > British and American keyboards

There are two major English language keyboard layouts, the United States layout and the United Kingdom layout. United States users do not frequently need to make use of the £ and € currency symbols, which are common needs in the UK and Ireland. As one might expect, different operating system vendors have provided their own solutions to this, which are often not equivalent. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A standard Hebrew keyboard showing both Hebrew and English (QWERTY) letters. ... A standard Hebrew keyboard showing both Hebrew and English (QWERTY) letters. ... A standard Hebrew keyboard showing both Hebrew and English (QWERTY) letters. ... // An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. ...

Contents

Microsoft Windows

For its UK layout, Microsoft accordingly adds an AltGr key, maps the £ to where the US layout has a #, and adds a 102nd key to accommodate the #. A few other variations (the reversals of @ and ", and the movement of ~ to the # key to accommodate a ¬ on the backquote key, and the movement of the key to the left of Z) have also crept in between the two. On laptop computers, the | and key is often placed next to the space bar, and a Function key added. Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... AltGr is a modifier key on PC keyboards used to type many characters, primarily ones that are unusual for the locale of the keyboard layout, such as foreign currency symbols and accented letters. ... For the band, see Laptop (band). ...

United Kingdom keyboard layout for a computer running Windows.
United Kingdom keyboard layout for a computer running Windows.

Early versions of Windows handled both the differences between the two keyboards and the differences between American English and British English by having two English language options—a UK setting and a US setting. While adequate for users in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland, this solution caused difficulty in other English-speaking countries. In many Commonwealth countries and other English-speaking jurisdictions (e.g., Australia, Canada, the Caribbean nations, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and South Africa), local spelling, grammar, and vocabulary strongly conformed to British English usage, while the supplied keyboard was printed with the United States layout on the keys. People in these countries were forced to choose between a keyboard layout incompatible with their hardware, or having their spell checker software complain about the preferred local spelling of words such as "colour", "centre", etc. Image File history File links KB_United_Kingdom. ... Image File history File links KB_United_Kingdom. ... For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ... The Commonwealth of Nations as of 2006 Headquarters Marlborough House, London, UK Official languages English Membership 53 sovereign states Leaders  -  Queen Elizabeth II  -  Secretary-General Don McKinnon (since 1 April 2000) Establishment  -  Balfour Declaration 18 November 1926   -  Statute of Westminster 11 December 1931   -  London Declaration 28 April 1949  Area  -  Total... “West Indian” redirects here. ... British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ... A standard Hebrew keyboard showing both Hebrew and English (QWERTY) letters. ... In computing terms, a spelling checker (also spell checker) is a software program designed to verify the spelling of words in a file, helping a user ensure his/her spelling is correct. ...

United States keyboard layout
United States keyboard layout

However, in more recent editions, the number of options was increased, allowing users to select the correct keyboard and dialect independently. For example, one is given a number of default options for locality that will usually correctly match dialect and keyboard. Further, even if your hardware keyboard layout does not match the device driver software layout that was pre-selected, you can change that without changing the regional setting.
Image File history File links KB_United_States-NoAltGr. ... Image File history File links KB_United_States-NoAltGr. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ... A standard Hebrew keyboard showing both Hebrew and English (QWERTY) letters. ... Windows XP loading drivers during a Safe Mode bootup A device driver, or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer hardware device. ...

US International keyboard layout
US International keyboard layout

Since the standard US keyboard layout in Microsoft Windows offers no way of inputting any sort of diacritic or accent, this makes it unsuitable for all but a handful of languages unless the US International layout is used. The US International layout changes the `, ~, ^, " (for ¨), and ' (for ´) keys into dead keys for producing accented characters. The US International layout also uses the right alt (AltGr) as a modifier to enter special characters. Although there is no UK International layout on Windows, XP SP2 and above provide a UK Extended layout which, if activated, will allow the user to enter a wide variety of diacritics (such as grave accents) which are not accommodated by the standard UK layout.
Image File history File links KB_US-International. ... Image File history File links KB_US-International. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Combining character. ...


Changing Keyboard Layout Settings in Windows XP

To change your settings from a US to a UK keyboard layout when running Windows XP: A standard Hebrew keyboard showing both Hebrew and English (QWERTY) letters. ... Windows XP is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ...

  • Go to Control Panel
  • Open Regional and Language Options
  • Select Languages
  • Click on Details
  • If English (United Kingdom) is not listed under "Installed Services" then:
    • Click Add
    • Select English (United Kingdom) as the input language
    • Click OK (You do not need to change the "Keyboard layout/IME" setting if you have a UK keyboard. If you have a US keyboard but you want to have English (UK) as the keyboard input language, change it to "United States")
  • Select English (United Kingdom); it will become bold
  • Click OK Text Services and Input Languages window
  • Click OK Regional and Language Options window
  • Restart your computer for changes to take effect

Most notably this will fix the error of the reversal of @ and ", which occurs when using the wrong settings.


Changing from UK to US settings is done similarly. However, this is rarely necessary as keyboards use English (US) as the default settings.


You may also add other English-language dialects like English (Australia), English (New Zealand), English (Canada) etc. Normally the US keyboard layout is automatically selected for these dialects.


It is also possible to add the keyboard input language English (UK) with a US keyboard layout. For US keyboard users, you need to do this to make the spell checker in Microsoft Office to work in British English. In computing terms, a spelling checker (also spell checker) is a software program designed to verify the spelling of words in a file, helping a user ensure his/her spelling is correct. ... Microsoft Office is an office suite from Microsoft, which is available on the Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X operating systems. ...


Mac OS

The default US layout on Macintosh computers has allowed input of diacritical characters since inception, whereby the entire MacRoman character set is directly available, so many of the problems outlined above are not encountered, but even so Apple supplies a UK layout where characters such as £ are more accessible, in this case it is transposed with the # character, at Shift-3 and Option-3 respectively. Another character swap present on UK layouts is between @ and " (straight double quote), where the former is available via Shift-2 and the latter via Shift-apostrophe. The Mac OS Roman character set Mac-Roman encoding is a one byte character encoding system, traditionally used by Mac OS. In Mac OS X, it has been replaced with Unicode. ... A character encoding is a code that pairs a set of characters (such as an alphabet or syllabary) with a set of something else, such as numbers or electrical pulses. ...


See also


  Results from FactBites:
 
Computer keyboard - Facts, Information, and Encyclopedia Reference article (924 words)
Keyboards are designed for the input of text and characters, and also to control the operation of the computer.
These different keyboard layouts arise because different people need easy access to different symbols; typically, this is because they are writing in different languages, but specialised keyboard layouts for mathematical, accounting, or computer-programming use do exist.
Keyboards are less than ideal when many keys are pressed at once, as the limited circuitry means that only a certain number of keys will register at one time.
British and American keyboards - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (474 words)
There are two major English language keyboard layouts, the United States layout and the United Kingdom layout.
People in these countries were forced to choose between a keyboard layout incompatible with their hardware, or having their spell checker software complain about locally-correct spelling like 'colour'.
Further, even if your hardware keyboard layout does not match the device driver software layout that was pre-selected, you can change that without changing the regional setting.
  More results at FactBites »

 

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