Why different keyboard layouts

Used in Nepal and northern India. Used in northern parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Used in Norway and Svalbard. It can also be a part of the so-called "Nordic" layout, combined with Danish and Swedish layouts. Used mainly in the Indian state of Odisha. Used in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Used in Iran. In widespread use in Poland. It's actually identical to the Dutch and US International layouts. Used back in the 80s and 90s, features Polish symbols. The Brazilian version of Portuguese layout. Used in Brazil. Used mainly in the Indian state of Punjab and Pakistan. Used in Russia. Used mainly by foreigners who learn Russian. Used in Serbia as an alternative to the Cyrillic layout. Used in Sri Lanka. Used in Slovenia. Identical to the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Latin layouts.

The American version of Spanish layout. Used in Sweden. It can also be a part of the so-called "Nordic" layout, combined with Norwegian and Danish layouts. Used in Switzerland. It's a joined layout of Swiss French and Swiss German. Used mainly in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Used by Tibetan people all around the world. Used in Turkey by enthusiasts and fast-typists.

Used in Pakistan and India. Used in western China, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Used in Afghanistan and western parts of China. Used in Vietnam. We run Keyshorts for several years now and we learned that many people need to change their keyboard layout or to have multiple layouts on the same keyboard. Unfortunately, purchasing and replacing the keyboard is expensive and hard, and - in the case of quite a few layouts - impossible.

Keyboard stickers are a great solution for this. They are relatively cheap and easy to apply and come with many different layouts. You can even customize their caption and background colors. If you simply want to switch your keyboard to another layout, we can suggest choosing our Simple Black stickers or language stickers. If you want to have two languages on one keyboard, try our bilingual stickers.

If you need even more, our trilingual stickers and quadrilingual stickers will be the perfect solution. Multi-discipline man and co-founder at Keyshorts. I write about working from home, productivity hacks, e-commerce, keyboards, and Adobe tutorials. Our customers very often reach us for an advise on how to resolve illegible keyboard problem.

The Maltron keyboard may, at first, seem utterly daunting. Rather than a single rectangular grouping of letter-based keys, Maltron produces two square sets of letters, both of which flank a number pad in the middle.

Russian, for example, uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is wholly different from the Latin-based English alphabet. Here are six alternative layouts. You can also get keyboards designed for Dvorak or Colemak, if you like.

The original layout for the typewriter used keys arranged in alphabetical order. Whenever you pressed a key, the bar the key was attached to would hit the piece of paper, printing the letter on the paper.

In the four-row arrangement, these bars were arranged on the outside of a circular ring. Whenever you pressed a key, the appropriate bar would swing from the edge of the ring and hit the paper in the center.

There was a problem here. If you pressed keys next to each other in quick succession, the bars would collide with each other and the keys would jam. This layout is still used today because it became the standard. People learned the QWERTY layout and could maintain their muscle memory as they switched between different typewriters.

When computer keyboards were created, it was only logical to use the same key layout everyone already used. The keyboard had a similar function to the typewriter, and people could use their typewriter skills on these newfangled devices. Even if someone thinks an alternative layout could potentially be more efficient, the reality of having to relearn the layout or make other people relearn the layout discourages us from changing.

August Dvorak. While QWERTY results in most of the typing being performed with the left hand, Dvorak results in most letters being performed with the right hand. But after you get back up to speed, will you be able to type even faster? This is very controversial.

The studies would show that users who used these layouts could type faster. Most studies seem not to show a difference between these keyboard layouts. You can switch your operating system to use this keyboard layout and try using it today.

To enable Dvorak on Windows 7, open the Region and Language window from the Control Panel, click the Keyboards and Languages tab, and click the change Keyboards button. You can then switch your active keyboard layout. Note: If you don't see the Language bar, right-click the taskbar, point to Toolbars , and then click Language bar.

On the Welcome screen, click the Keyboard layout button , and then select a keyboard layout. Note: If you don't see the Keyboard layout button, you might not have more than one input language, or your regional and language settings might not be applied to reserved accounts. Windows 7 Windows 8. Windows 8. Browse for the language you want, and then tap or click it to add it to your language list. Sign out of Windows, and then sign back in.

There are a few different ways to switch between keyboard layouts or input methods: On a hardware keyboard, press and hold the Windows logo key , and then press the Spacebar to cycle through your input methods. Language abbreviation button in the touch keyboard On the desktop taskbar, tap or click the language abbreviation in the notification area at the far right of the taskbar, and then tap or click the keyboard layout or input method you want to switch to.

If you want to keep your Windows language the same but use a different keyboard automatically, follow these steps: Open Control Panel by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search or if you're using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search , entering Control Panel in the search box, and then tapping or clicking Control Panel.

Tap or click Advanced settings. Install or change a display language You can change the language Windows uses to display text in wizards, dialog boxes, menus, and other items in the user interface. To install a language pack, follow these steps: Open Region and Language by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel , clicking Clock, Language , and Region , and then clicking Region and Language.

Click the Keyboards and Languages tab. Need more help? Join the discussion. Was this information helpful? Yes No. Thank you! Any more feedback?