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Buying International Keyboards?

Posted by Cliff on from the not-everything-is-QWERTY dept.

dmayle asks: "I've been investigating the purchase of some non-US keyboards for the flexibility it would give me in correspondences (easy access to the Euro symbol, accented characters, etc.). Specifically, I've been looking at U.K. keyboards, which are still QWERTY (as opposed to the German QWERTZ, or the French AZERTY), even if some of the punctuation is placed a little differently. The problem I have is that I can't find a U.K. company willing to ship keyboards out of the U.K. So, where does the Slashdot crowd go to satisfy their internationalization need? Any favorite importers? (Not just for keyboards, but in general.)"

2 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Look up AltGr key coomnbinations by belroth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It might be easier to look up the AltGr key combinations that apply to your keyboard, for example on a UK keyboard the Euro symbol is produced by AltGr+4, according to this microsoft site on a US international keyboard it should be AltGr+5.
    AltGr+vowel combinations produce acute accented versions of the vowels.

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  2. Hidden keys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I recently removed the keycaps while cleaning my Keytronics keyboard, and found some spots where extra keys could be installed. An extra key was hidden under each shift, one under the Enter key, at least one on the numeric keypad (under the larger keys), and one under backspace, IIRC - this results in at least 108 keys.

    There were no keycaps on the keys, but I moved a few existing keycaps to those locations. They worked, and produced unique scancodes. If I got some shorter shift/enter/... keys, and new keycaps for those locations, I could use it as an international keyboard (the replacement keys should be easy enough to find around an office, just pull them from some retired keybaords).

    I also found that the caps lock, num lock, and scroll lock LEDs could be moved from the upper right of the keyboard, to directly under their respective keys (in case you had keys with clear windows on them). It looks like the same electronic board is used in many different keyboard models.