Where to Buy a European-style Keyboard?

My present Microsoft US English keyboard lacks the key to the left of the Czech y key (z key in US English) that is used to type \ in Czech. Instead, the US keyboard has an elongated SHIFT key.

This missing key is used in many European languages, so I would definitely like to have a keyboard that contains it.

I have been unable to find an outlet in the USA that sells this type of keyboard, so I was wondering whether any of you might know where I can purchase this type of keyboard for import into the USA?

 

On my keyboard is \ (backslash) under backspace key.
I actually never seen keyboard with layout you described.

On many keyboards works ctrl+alt+Q for backslash, too.

 

Yes, on my keyboard the \ is under the backspace key, too. However, when I change from US English to Czech (using the Microsoft Office Tools Virtual Keyboard), this \ key is used to type the diaresis (unshifted), as in ä, and the apostrophe ' (shifted). It does NOT type \ (unshifted) or | (shifted). The only way I can type \ or | in Czech is either to switch back to US English so that I may use the PHYSICAL key that types \ (unshifted) and | (shifted) or to remain in Czech and use my mouse cursor to click on the virtual key located between the left SHIFT and the y key in the Microsoft Visual Keyboard: Czech -- which is a VISUAL keyboard only, not a physical keyboard, and which appears as a small window within my Windows Internet Explorer window.

In the Canadian Multlingual Standard that "missing key" types &ugrave;(unshifted) and &Ugrave; (shifted). How interesting! This website does not support the u or U with a grave accent over it. I can see a grave-accented u or U when I type it, but when I click on the Preview button to see what will appear on your website, the accented u and U don't appear, as you can see. In German and Spanish (International) that missing key types < (unshifted) and > (shifted).

The "Microsoft Visual Keyboard: US" displays 57 keys (which is what my physical keyboard has). The "Microsoft Visual Keyboard: Czech" displays 58 keys. So do the Microsoft Visual Keyboard layouts for Canadian French (called "Canadian Multilingual Standard"), for German, and for Spanish (International) -- all have 58 keys. That is why I believe there are physical keyboards that have 58 keys. However, all of the keyboards advertised on the US Microsoft site have only 57 keys. I am not counting, of course, the F keys (F1, F2, etc.), the ESC key, or any of the many other keys that can appear on physical keyboards (arrow keys, number pad keys, Page Up, Page Down, etc.).

Perhaps I should contact a dealer in Canada who sells keyboards designed to type French as well as English. They might have the extra key.

 

WOW! Our keyboards are designed exactly the same -- with the exact same number of keys, and all of them are in exactly the same position.

However, your keyboard is much more complex than mine. My keys will type only two symbols. Some of the keys on your keyboard can type four symbols! I'd love to get a keyboard like yours, but I've never seen one like that for sale in the USA.

 

Deleted. See below.

 

It is the combined US/Czech keyboard but technically it is exactly the same keyboard like the US one, only some keys have different labels.

 

Another option is to buy Czech character stickers and stick them on your keyboard.

http://www.multilingualbooks.com/keyboard.html
http://www.worldlanguage.com/Products/C ... /Page1.htm
http://www.datacal.com/czech-overlays.htm

Interesting prices thought. Here stickers cost about $1.50

 

yes - I have the datacal stickers on my keyboard - work fine. as for the cost - it is supply and demand, not many Czech typers over here.

you can type the backslash \ by using the right Alt key and the usual backslash key over the enter key

 

You question started me experimenting with my Windows XP Czech keyboard. I found out that if you hold down <CTRL> <ALT> plus any of the symbol keys (meaning those keys on the English keyboard that type symbols), you get the English keystroke equivalent.

Examples:
backslash <CTRL> <ALT> \
vertical line <CTRL> <ALT> <SHIFT> |

Note that the shift seems only to be necessary when a given key gives symbols both in shift and unshifted mode AND when both symbols are not in the same place on the Czech keyboard.

Ex:
left parenthesis <CTRL> <ALT> 9
right curly brace <CTRL> <ALT> <SHIFT> }
BUT
less than sign <CTRL> <ALT> <

Anyway, it was a revelation to me that this feature existed.

 

Hmm... I just read GlennInFlorida's post, and realized that the RIGHT ALT key has the exact same functionality as the CTRL LEFT ALT.

Some other additional symbols:
× -- <right ALT> <SHIFT> ,
÷ -- <right ALT> <SHIFT> .
¤ -- <right ALT> <SHIFT> '

 

This is the Czech Windows layout:



Left bottom … <Alt Gr>
Right bottom … unshifted
Right top … shifted

 

this is what the stickers look like for an American style keyboard



click on the image to see it larger

 

Yes, exactly! Note the extra key to the left of the y key. Not counting the space bar, the above keyboard layout has 58 keys. The left SHIFT is shortened to make space for that extra key. The right ENTER key is shortened and extends up toward the BACKSPACE key.

I'm wondering whether this exists as a physical keyboard. If so, I'd like to buy it because all the Microsoft Office Visual Keyboard layouts for foreign languages that I have encountered so far display this keyboard.

(Added later, after I saw the enlargement of the keyboard that GlenninFlorida posted here: Thank you, Glenn, for posting this! I think the physical keyboard I'm looking for is called the "102 keyboard," because the one I have is called the "101 keyboard."). I'll contact Microsoft and see if they have it for sale.

By the way, wer, how did you create the image of your Windows Czech keyboard with all the different key symbols, or if you didn't create it, where did you find it (before you stored it on imageshack)?

 

Yes, I have such keyboard. It is the IBM keyboard for the Czech language (Latin-2), made in Thailand in 1997.

But there are some differences to wer's keyboard:

the key to the left of Y: & (unshifted) * (shifted) < (with AltGr)
Y key: y Y >
C key: only c C
E key: only e E (without Euro symbol)
the 1st key to the right of M: only , ?
the 2nd key to the right of M: only . :
the 3rd key to the right of M: only - _

The other keys are exactly the same.

Although on my keyboard there are keys with the Flying Window symbol between the Ctrl and Alt keys, I think it is in fact the standard MS DOS keyboard for the Czech language. It worked perfectly with the standard MS DOS keyboard driver.

 

BTW on such keyboard you can easily insert all characters from the Latin-2 character set.

For example: Ł Ś Ź Ż Ń Đ Ų Ę Ă Â Ş Ű Ë × ÷ ß ¤

 

Yes, I use this physical keyboard right now.

Glenn posted here the Czech QWERTY layout. It is used by Czech programmers sometimes, but most of Czechs prefer QWERTZ. But maybe it’s the better layout for English natives accustomed to English QWERTY.

Yes, nowadays we use mostly 102 physical keyboards, but there’re different types with different position of the Umlaut-key. I posted the most common version, the others are:





I think you needn’t the 102 physical keyboard, you can use the 102 layout for the 101 physical keyboard and use the <Alt Gr>-<Q> resp <Alt Gr>-<W> for the symbols from the missing key. You can also swap the CZ and US layout. And maybe you needn’t these symbols at all when writing Czech, I suppose you’re not going to replace your layout with the Czech one, right?

I made the pictures using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator and a graphic editor.

…to wer’s picture of Czech Windows layout :wink:. I use a non-standard layout.

Yes, that seems be the MS-DOS (or pre-euro Windows) Czech QWERTZ layout.

 

[Deleted] (I found out the answer.)

 

There is no such thing as a European keyboard. It varies from country to country.
On my French keyboard (AZERTY) the backslash is under 8. To obtain it I press [ALT GR] [8 _ \].

 

Thank you. We seem to be very parochial here in the U.S. (so what else is new?). Although our US English keyboards have two ALT keys, the right ALT key (what you call the ALT GR key) has exactly the same function as the left ALT key. I have yet to see a US English keyboard that is manufactured with keys that have more than two symbols on them (unshifted and shifted), and there are NO keyboards for sale in the US or Canada that I could find which have the extra key to the left of the Z key (between the left SHIFT key and the Z key on a QWERTY keyboard).

Because US English does not have diacritical marks, if I want to type in several different European languages (switch from English to French to Spanish to German to Czech, etc.), I am forced to install the software for those languages, then use a Language Bar to switch from English to whatever language I wish to type in, and then learn the keyboard layout for that foreign language. (I use the Microsoft Office Visual Keyboards software to display the correct keyboard layout in a small window to which I can refer while I am typing.) So I have to say that you Latin-alphabet Europeans have a definite advantage over us Americans with the three- and four-symbol keys on your keyboards, because in general you can switch from one language to another far more easily than we can and because you don't have to learn a new keyboard layout for each language that you type in.