Where to Buy a European-style Keyboard?

Discussion in 'General Language' started by gfross, May 9, 2007.

  1. Qcumber

    Qcumber Well-Known Member

    You can always type your text in the MS-WORD processor, and add the letters with diacrital marks from the the chart.
    Then, if it's an e-mail you want to make, you can copy and paste the text.
    On the other hand, this won't always work in forums.
    For instance, this Czech sentence taken from a phrase book
    Směnárna je otevřena nepřetržitě.
    "The change office is open 7/7, 24/24 (uninterruptedly)."
    doesn't display correctly in this Czech forum (although it was correctly displayed in the preview) - which is a paradox! :lol:
     
  2. eso

    eso Well-Known Member

    It display correctly for me.
     
  3. Zeisig

    Zeisig Well-Known Member

    On my CRT it is displayed correctly, too.

    On the other side the grave accent is displayed incorrectly (even in the preview).

    Les Pays Tchèques
     
  4. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

    Set the encoding in your browser to Central European.
    “Les Pays Tchèques”, what’s the problem? (BTW, Zeisig, are you sure of your way of capitalization?)

    â å ą è ė ö ő ç

    I simply type it on my keyboard. Right, the forum recodes it to numeric codes, but it works.
     
  5. Zeisig

    Zeisig Well-Known Member

    I see your e-grave correctly.

    But my e-grave is displayed: & e g r a v e ; (without spaces, of course)

    My e-grave is not encoded into the numeric code.

    Do you see the folloving characters correctly:

    à è ì ò ù
     
  6. eso

    eso Well-Known Member

    So it's more problem of web browser then keyboard.
     
  7. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

    And how do you type it? I use <Alt Gr>-<ý> followed by <e>.

    Maybe the browser cares about the recoding. It works fine with most recent Opera and Firefox, but I remember having your problem formerly.

    No, I see the same as you.
     
  8. eso

    eso Well-Known Member

    In your post from 13:42 Opera shows characters â å ą è ė ö ő ç ok, but Explorer translates them to HTML entities.

    When somebody reply in Explorer, then in edit windows characters are changed to entities.

    Of course, database maybe save these characters even more differently ( therefore gor some characters is right appereance possible in preview, but not later, when post is read from db)
     
  9. Qcumber

    Qcumber Well-Known Member

    Yes, it's a problem of web browser and forum. In the other forums where I have used this system (copy-pasted MS-Word text), everything is properly displayed and I can see it is properly displayed.
    PS. I currently use Firefox as my default browser.
     
  10. phi11ip

    phi11ip Well-Known Member

    This is not true, they are different keys. if you have an English (US or UK) extended/international keyboard, then by press Alt Gr and 'a' at the same time you should get the letter 'a' with acute, á. Similar for the other vowels. This assumes, of course, that you have an extended/international layout loaded.
    If you run Windows 2000, XP or Vista, then you can alter your keyboard in any way you want. For example on my keyboard I can type all the usual English characters and Czech characters without swapping keyboards. For example to type 'š' I simply press Alt Gr and 's' at the same time., Alt Gr + 'z' for 'ž', etc..
    All you need to do this is to use a program called Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator. It's free and you can download it from Microsoft's website.
     
  11. Zeisig

    Zeisig Well-Known Member

    On the hardware (lowest) level all keys of a keyboard are equivalent. They differ only in the generated numeric code. It is the software that is responsible for the interpretation. For example, both ENTER keys are nearly always interpreted the same way by software. But a special program can differentiate between the ENTER keys if necessary.

    All "national" PC keyboards are basically the same. They do not differ electrically. They differ in the text printed on the keys, of course.
     
  12. gfross

    gfross Member

    Thanks, Qcumber. The Czech sentence displayed correctly for me, by the way. In reference to your suggestion, however, no matter where I choose to enter the text, I still have to use the Windows XP language bar in order to switch between English and the foreign language(s) I have installed. I have never had to copy and paste the text from MS Word to a website or an email. Windows XP allows me to type directly to a web site in a foreign language if that website allows that foreign language. For example, I have no problem typing Czech here.

    My "beef" (complaint) is that I have to switch virtual KEYBOARD LAYOUTS. Each language other than English (i.e., "foreign" language to me) has its own virtual keyboard layout. Europeans who have physical keyboards with multi-symboled keys (with three or four symbols per key) and the software to correspond to those keys) don't have to do this, because they can use the SHIFT, ALT, and ALT GR (and perhaps even the CTRL) keys in order to produce the necessary diacritics and "odd" letters for the various Latin-alphabet European languages. I have not been able to find any such three-/four-symboled key keyboards (along with the corresponding software) for sale in the USA or Canada.

    The thought has come to me that it would probably be illegal for me to buy keyboard software (drivers?) that accompany the keyboard sold in a specific European country unless I were physically present in that country when I made the purchase. This whole issue is becoming too complex for me, so I have decided to make do with what I have.
     
  13. eso

    eso Well-Known Member

    Well, I switch Czech and English keyboards with ctrl+shift hot key.
    (and I'm Czech and I have Czech Windows). AltGr dooesn't work on my keyboard.
     
  14. gfross

    gfross Member

    That's interesting. I keep learning new things. Yes, I am also given the option of using CTRL-SHIFT + hotkey. Of course, having a "Czech" keyboard (and keyboard software) to begin with allows you to already have all the diacritics you need. Since English has no accent marks, etc., it is no doubt much easier for you to learn the virtual keyboard layout for English than it is for me to learn the virtual keyboard layout for Czech (or any Latin-European language that has diacritics). Czech diacritics drive me nuts. It's far easier for me to type Czech without them, but since I want to learn how to spell Czech correctly, I prefer to use them.
     
  15. gfross

    gfross Member

    I don't see those accents correctly. Interesting -- my browser (MSIE 7) must have automatically set the encoding to Central European when I came to this website (or message boards) . I know that I didn't do it manually. :)
     
  16. gfross

    gfross Member

    Ah, now I understand why you recommended copy/pasting MS Word text. I said in another post that I never had to do this. I should amend that statement to "I have not had to do this ever since I started using Windows XP, SP2, MSIE 6 and 7, and MS Office 2003."
     
  17. gfross

    gfross Member

    Thank you so much for this information about the extended/international keyboard layout! I had no idea that such a layout existed for US English keyboards. Such a simple solution! I'm overwhelmed. :)

    The newest version of MKLC requires version 2.0 of the Microsoft .NET Framework. How do I find out which version of .NET Framework I have already installed?
     
  18. eso

    eso Well-Known Member

    How to determine which versions of the .NET Framework are installed and whether service packs have been applied
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318785
     
  19. gfross

    gfross Member

    I learned that I have 2.0. :) Thanks again for all your help! I appreciate it!
     
  20. Qcumber

    Qcumber Well-Known Member

    Why "illegal"? I don't follow you here ... unless you use "illegal" the funny way some computer experts do, meaning "that cannot be accepted by your machine and / or your software platform." :)
     

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