Love my iBook, but not its keyboard layout

[Zaid]

I've had my iBook for about 2 months now and i love it. i absolutely love it. my PC has never been so neglected :)

I have only one small problem with it and thats the keyboard layout. And its not what you think, its got nothing to do with the cmd, alt or ctrl keys, i've gotten so used to them, that i sometimes press Alt V on my windows machine instead of Ctrl V. :)

My gripe lies with the implementation of the British Keyboard layout. (yes we use our own different layout :) )

Basically this keyboard is layed out like a std US keyboard with the £ on top of the 3. To my british trained fingers lots of keys are in the wrong place, for instance

@ is on top of the 2, rather than on top of '
" is on top of ' instead of on top of 2
Euro is alt2 instead of alt4
# is alt 3 instead of being on the mid right hand side of the keyboard.

Its not a big deal (except that when i needed to use keycaps the first time i wanted to use #, and i miss having ¬ off the main keyboard) as my fingers are now used to this keyboard and automatically remember the correct layout when i use another computer. I still love my iBook, and the only way you get it away from me is to pry it from my cold dead fingers, or to replace it with a G5 PowerBook :)

Just my 2p

[MacFan25]

I'm glad to hear that you are liking your iBook. You will probably get used to the keyboard soon. :)

[Zaid]

Originally posted by MacFan25
I'm glad to hear that you are liking your iBook. You will probably get used to the keyboard soon. :)

I've already gotten used to it, its just a pain sometimes. I just think If apple says they're giving me a UK keyboard layout they should do so, not some barely modified US keyboard. If thats what they want to give me the advertise it correctly.

They can mess with the layout of the modifier keys all they want, but they shouldn't mess with the layout of the input keys. Otherwise they can't really say it follows that keyboard layout.

But then apple doesn't really seem to care about its non-US customers very much.

[Nermal]

I remember having a similar problem back in the late 80s - I had a Commodore 64, which plugged into a PAL TV and had the British keyboard layout. When I first got a PC, it came with an American keyboard (as all PCs sold here do) and I had to get used to it.

Fast forward 15 years, put me in front of a British keyboard and my typing slows dramatically. So you'll get used to it.

[Latino]

Hey, I'm in the same boat here

Recently bought an iBook, and although I love it, I hate the keyboard layout (supposed to be UK layout). It's not so much a problem per se, as I quickly adapt to new things. The biggest problem is that at work I have to use a windows PC, and I keep getting the keys wrong all the time!!!

The \ in my ibook is next to the return key, and next to the left shift on the pc at work. I can't tell you guys how many times I've typed # at work, expecting a \ (next to return is the # on a pc), or how many times I've typed ` expecting a \ on my ibook.

It's really getting on my nerves!!!

Now, here is a question for you all. When I'm at home, I don't mind using an external PC keyboard (i have a cordless logitech keyb/mouse thang). Is there any way I can remap the keys so that when I have the external keyboard, everything is where a PC would find it? ie, \ next to the left shift, # next to the return key, etc...

Thanks

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by Zaid
I've already gotten used to it, its just a pain sometimes. I just think If apple says they're giving me a UK keyboard layout they should do so, not some barely modified US keyboard. If thats what they want to give me the advertise it correctly.

They can mess with the layout of the modifier keys all they want, but they shouldn't mess with the layout of the input keys. Otherwise they can't really say it follows that keyboard layout.

But then apple doesn't really seem to care about its non-US customers very much. for all their support for standards, apple does have some really odd exceptions. if you are familiar enough with how it should be, you mught be well-served by a piece of software that remaps the keyboard layout key by key... but i don't see one. i guess grin and bear it is the best advice :D