Using a US layout keyboard in UK

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2005
Posts
8,989
Location
Birmingham
Im searching for a nice mechanical keyboard at a reasonable price. Many of the good value ones are US layouts though.

I can see that most of the key symbols still exist on a US layout, but they are in different locations. Is this annoying to use?

And one or two symbols don't appear at all, eg the £ sign. How do you handle this?

I really don't want to have a symbol saying one thing on the keyboard but producing another when typed.

But if I could get a US layout, it would certainly open up more buying choices.

Any views please?
 
Personal here but I would never buy a non uk keyboard. Too much faff it will wind you up no end IMO.

If you ever get used to it wait until you have to use a UK one again at work etc your head will literally explode.

Don’t be so tight, treat yourself.
 
Last edited:
Change your UK layout keyboard to be US layout and decide how annoying it is, if not annoying, then go ahead and purchase.
 
danlightbulb said:
Im searching for a nice mechanical keyboard at a reasonable price. Many of the good value ones are US layouts though.

I can see that most of the key symbols still exist on a US layout, but they are in different locations. Is this annoying to use?

And one or two symbols don't appear at all, eg the £ sign. How do you handle this?

I really don't want to have a symbol saying one thing on the keyboard but producing another when typed.

But if I could get a US layout, it would certainly open up more buying choices.

Any views please?
Click to expand...
I use ANSI in the UK since most of the custom mechanical keyboards i buy are usually ANSI Hotswap only and ISO would only be supported via soldering in switches (though this is changing now). It's not hard to use, i've learnt adapt and especially the £ sign is not activated by pressing alt+shift+$ key. Every other key i normally use is fine, just in a slightly different location.

The obvious things to do include changing the keyboard layout in windows to international layout.
 
Last edited:
A lot of the marketing material for keyboards shows pictures of a usa layout when it's actually a uk layout. Winds me up. I occasionally ask retailers to fix their pictures and they never do. I tried asking for pictures of actual products and would receive a photo of the entirely wrong product. Absolutely shocking situation, false advertising imo.
 
LuckyBenski said:
One option is to get a keyboard with a standard layout of physical keys and buy a keycap set to suit you. Set it to UK layout in Windows, sorted.
Click to expand...

I was looking at this but it seems far from straightforward. For a start some keys are actually different sizes (enter, left shift) and then have to try and find a set which has the £sign on the 3 key.
 
I use a US mech at home and a standard UK in the office for programming, doesn't cause me any issues whatsoever any more. Takes a little getting used to to begin with though, still nothing major.
 
danlightbulb said:
Im searching for a nice mechanical keyboard at a reasonable price. Many of the good value ones are US layouts though.

I can see that most of the key symbols still exist on a US layout, but they are in different locations. Is this annoying to use?

And one or two symbols don't appear at all, eg the £ sign. How do you handle this?

I really don't want to have a symbol saying one thing on the keyboard but producing another when typed.

But if I could get a US layout, it would certainly open up more buying choices.

Any views please?
Click to expand...
So I have this quandary at the moment.

I have mech 2 keyboards. A Ducky One2 with MX reds which is a dream to type on and a Logitech with their own switches and is less than pleasant to type on but is the UK layout.

The best UK layout keyboard I can find is the Keychron Q series which has excellent reviews and is Mac OSX compatible.

I have my eyes on the Q2 65% model for work as I move too and from the office quite a bit and don’t want to have to think about which keyboard layout I’m using.

Review here https://www.rtings.com/keyboard/reviews/best/mechanical

It comes with the optional UK key caps and can be changed between the US and UK layout easily.

The switches are also hot swappable and it’s a very customisable keyboard for a prebuild.
 
Last edited:
Always UK. Complete refusal for US keyboards in the UK. Life is too short. If I turned up to a job with a US one I'd politely disconnect it and wait for someone to give me a UK one before typing any further. It's not that you can...it's that you shouldn't.
 
Revisiting this thread because I have an update.

There is a native windows software add on called Windows Keyboard Layout Creator. It allows you to create and install completely bespoke keyboard mapping layouts.

So for example, if you had an Ansi keyboard with the 3# key, you could create a keyboard layout that lets you get a £ sign on altgr+3.

Or what ever other symbols you want mapped anywhere on the keyboard.

So I'm wondering now if this changes things. If I get a barebones Ansi layout and a set of keycaps which has both iso and Ansi keycaps in it, I could create a broadly ISO keyboard layout using the windows software. The only difference then to a full iso layout would be the different sized/shaped enter and shift keys.

Or, using a completely standard Ansi layout, a simple key remap of the £ symbol on altgr+3 would give me the £ symbol on key 3 where it should be. I just wouldn't have the symbol showing on the key itself. This would leave the other Ansi keys on their original spots, so 2@ instead of 2", and 3# instead of 3£, etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom