- On Screen British Keyboard
- British Keyboard Hashtag
- Backslash On British Keyboard
- British Keyboard Layout Vs American
- Hashtag Key On British Keyboard
- Backslash British Keyboard
The United Kingdom and Ireland use a keyboard layout based on the 48-key version defined in British Standard BS 4822. I’ve included the American keyboard and the UK keyboard below, so you can take a look at the differences. A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard. Physical layout is the actual positioning of keys on a keyboard.Visual layout the arrangement of the legends (labels, markings, engravings) that appear on those keys. To open the On-Screen Keyboard. Go to Start, then select Settings Ease of Access Keyboard, and turn on the toggle under Use the On-Screen Keyboard.A keyboard that can be used to move around the screen and enter text will appear on the screen. The keyboard will remain on the screen until you close it. The keyboard is the uk layout (i.e. The ' sign is got with shift + 2, the @ is shift + '), but the system thinks it is a US keyboard. Unfortunately, this means that these 2 keys are the wrong way round and I have no way of typing the pound (currency) sign, (usually shift + 3).
Page Content
- Codes for Letters with Accents – (e.g. ó, ò, ñ)
- Other Foreign Characters – (e.g. ç, ¿, ß)
- Currency Symbols – (e.g. ¢, £, ¥)
- Math Symbols – (e.g. ±, °, ÷)
- Other Punctuation – (e.g. &, ©, §)
NOTE: For these codes, it is important to distinguish the Alt key (LeftAlt) key on the left side of the keyboard from the Alt key (RightAlt) on the right side of the keyboard.
Student Computing Labs
Follow the instructions below to activate different keyboards as needed. They will remain active in your profile between logins, although you will need to reactivate the Language Bar in the Control Panel each time you log in. See the Windows Computing Lab page to see which operating system is in the labs.
Activate the International Keyboard (Windows 7)
Windows 7/Vista
- Go to the Start (Windows icon) menu on the lower left and select Control Panel.
- Click Clock, Language and Region, then Regional and Language Options.
- While in the Regional and Language Options control panel, click on the Languages tab, then the Details button.
- Click the Add button and select English from the Input Language pull down menu.
- Place a check in the Keyboard layout/IME box and select one of the following from the dropdown menu.
- United State International
- You can also select the U.K., Canadian or Dvorak keyboards from this menu.
See Detailed Windows 7/Vista Instructions for complete instructions with screen capture images. - In the top dropdown menu, you have the option of selecting the international keyboard as the default keyboard for all Windows applications.
- Click the OK buttons until you have exited the control panels – this will save the changes in your Profile.
- To use the International keyboard, open any Windows application then make sure the Language Bar menu on te top is set to EN and that the secondary keyboard menu is set to United States International.
Note: If you do not see a secondary menu, click the option for Language Bar. The switcher will be relocated to the top of the page.
Codes for Letters with Accents
This table is organized by Accent type. The sample shows a letter with that accent, and the Notes present any special comments about using that accent.
On Screen British Keyboard
For the Template, the symbol 'V' means any vowel.
ACCENT | SAMPLE | TEMPLATE | NOTES |
---|---|---|---|
Acute | ó Ó | ‘, V | ‘ = apostrophe key |
Circumflex | ô Ô | Shift+^, V | |
Grave | ò Ò | `, V | |
Tilde | ñ Ñ | Shift+~, V | Only works with n,N,o,O,a,A |
Umlaut | ö Ö | ', V | '= quote key |
Example 1: To type the letter ó – Type the apostrophe key (‘), then O For capital Ó, type the apostrophe, then capital O.
Other Foreign Characters
For most of these, you will use the RightAlt key on the right side of the keyboard, not the LeftAlt key.
British Keyboard Hashtag
SYMBOL | NAME | CODE |
---|---|---|
¡ | Upside-down exclamation point | RightAlt+1 |
¿ | Upside-down question mark | RightAlt+? |
Ç,ç | French C cedille (caps/uppercase) | Shift+RightAlt+< RightAlt+< OR ‘, C and ‘, Shift+C ‘ = apostrophe key |
Œ,œ | French oe liagature – there is no code. Use the combination 'oe' instead. | -- |
ß | German Sharp/Double S | RightAlt+S |
Ø,ø | O slash (caps/lowecase) | Shift+RightAlt+L RightAlt+L |
Å,å | A with ring/Angstrom Sign (caps/lowercase) | Shift+RightAlt+W RightAlt+W |
Æ,æ | AE ligature (caps/lowercase) | Shift+RightAlt+Z RightAlt+Z |
Þ,þ | Icelandic/Old English Thorn (caps/lowercase) | RightAlt+T Shift+RightAlt+T |
Ð,ð | Icelandic/Old English eth | RightAlt+D Shift+RightAlt+D |
« » | This is Spanish style quote mark. | RightAlt+[ RightAlt+] |
Example 1: To input Spanish upside down exclamation point ¡
(RightAlt+1), hold down the RightAlt, then the 1 key. Release both keys, and the ¡ punctuation will appear.
(RightAlt+1), hold down the RightAlt, then the 1 key. Release both keys, and the ¡ punctuation will appear.
Example 2: To input capital French C cedilla Ç (Shift+RightAlt+<), hold down the Shift key, then the RightAlt key, then the < key. Release all three keys, and the letter will appear.
Example 1: To input Spanish upside down exclamation point ¡ (RightAlt+1), hold down the RightAlt, then the 1 key. Release both keys, and the ¡ punctuation will appear.
Example 2: To input capital French C cedilla Ç (Shift+RightAlt+<), hold down the Shift key, then the RightAlt key, then the < key. Release all three keys, and the letter will appear.
Currency Symbols
SYMBOL | NAME | CODE |
---|---|---|
¢ | Cent sign | Shift+RightAlt+C |
£ | British Pound | Shift+RightAlt+4 |
¥ | Japanese Yen. – = minus key | RightAlt+- |
€ | Euro Sign. | RightAlt+5 |
¤ | Generic Currency | RightAlt+4 |
Math Symbols
SYMBOL | NAME | CODE |
---|---|---|
÷ | Division sign | Shift+RightAlt++ Shift, RightAlt, then the plus key. |
° | Degree symbol | Shift+RightAlt+: Shift, RightAlt, then the colon key. |
¬ | Not symbol | RightAlt+ |
µ | Micro | RightAlt+M |
Other Punctuation
SYMBOL | NAME | CODE |
---|---|---|
© | Copyright symbol | RightAlt+C |
® | Registered symbol | RightAlt+R |
¶ | Paragraph Symbol. | |
§ | Section Symbol | Shift+RightAlt+S |
Links to External References
These are links to alternate instructions for inputting accents and other characters with the International Keyboard.
Yesterday Erin took you through the signs and symbols that you will find on your computer keyboard. She even explained the name for each symbol. Another element she mentioned is that there are different keyboards for different countries.
If you have ever sat down at a computer whilst in the United Kingdom and tried to type an email, you probably ran into a few frustrations. That’s because the UK keyboard, while very similar to the American one, has a few differences.
The United Kingdom and Ireland use a keyboard layout based on the 48-key version defined in British Standard BS 4822. I’ve included the American keyboard and the UK keyboard below, so you can take a look at the differences. To be honest, the differences are so few and minor that identifying them might feel a bit like some of those “spot 5 differences” images you may have completed as a kid.
United Kingdom Keyboard
Backslash On British Keyboard
I’ve included a list of the main differences below for you but one of the first differences you might have seen is that the UK enter key is a little bit bigger. You might have also noticed that some of our symbols are in different places. The one people notice the most are the “@” symbol, which is to the left of the enter key. While the quotation mark makes it way over to above the number 2.
British Keyboard Layout Vs American
The pound symbol, which we actually call a hash rather than pound, is also moved closer to the enter key giving us a space for the currency symbol of the British Pound.
Hashtag Key On British Keyboard
Main differences between a US and UK keyboard:
Backslash British Keyboard
- an AltGr key is added to the right of the space bar
- the # symbol is replaced by the £ symbol and a 102nd key is added next to the Enter key to accommodate the displaced #
- @ and ” are swapped
- the ~ is moved to the # key, and is replaced by a ¬ symbol on the backquote (`) key
- the key is moved to the left of the Z key
- the Enter key spans two rows, and is narrower to accommodate the # key
- on laptop computers, the | and key is often placed next to the space bar