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Apple Keyboards

StokeLee

StokeLee

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 30, 2005
413
0
Stoke-on-Trent. Midlands, UK
I had an accident with my keyboard. Well anyway, looking on ebay there is the same keyboard as i got with my iMac G5 (pre iSight) and this may be a dumb question but, is it only the actual keys that are different?

If i brought it, and plugged it in, would it say that it was a german keyboard? Because, its really cheap, and ive still got my busted keyboard, and plan to just swap the keys over.

Lee
 
randas said:
what the heck?
Click to expand...

Is that due to me posting nothing, or dont i make sense? For some reason after midnight my posts tend to be a bit strange.

Apple keyboard if it is labelled as German, does it have German keys? like Caps lock, etc? and if i plugged it in my iMac would it say German keyboard, and if it does, can i change this setting?
Its only £5 on ebay, and using my old keyboard, and swapping the German keys would mean a English keyboard for me.

OMG its too late.......
 
Yeah, switching in the International preferences, Input Menu tab should let you set the layout you want. Have fun prying off key caps :p :D
 
iMeowbot said:
Yeah, switching in the International preferences, Input Menu tab should let you set the layout you want. Have fun prying off key caps :p :D
Click to expand...


Well ive had a bit of practice with doing that when I couldnt get my busted keyboard to work again, they sure dont like Stella :mad:

Edit :- Ok Ive bid for it, Please no one bid on it too :p
Heres the link to the Ebay shop ive brought it from incase anyone is interested. http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Buy-It-Love-It
They have also got an apple remot for £5, the ones to control Front Row, or your iPod if you have the dock
 
The German keyboard will have different markings on the keycaps...but it should be pretty usable. Why not take the opportunity to get a bluetooth one, though? :D
 
Ohh they've got 20 pages of brand-new-sealed Apple stuff! You've done it now. I won't be going to bed for a few hours.

Has anyone seen my credit card recently?

AppleMatt
 
The first thing I thought of was that the UK keyboard has a smaller left shift key as it has to have space for the ~ symbol beside it. I know the US keyboard has a big left shift key.

I looked up an image of the German keyboard and sure enough it too has the big shift key. So you are going to lose the ~ or it will be somewhere else. Worse, the UK keyboard has an oversized return key compared to most other countries. Again, if you look at the German keyboard you can see it has a different layout around the return key.

Here's an image I found. I can't find anything bigger... you can't see the actual keys but you can clearly see the different layout.

http://217.110.127.233/bilder/items/img.php?img=295099.jpg
 
Well, im typing on my German Apple keyboard, and I could probably leave a the keys as they are, except the y and z as they have been swapped. Everything else is the same, even the size of the Return key.

So a bargain had by me :D

i think i will be buying a wireless one soon though, as this cable is a little short. But its always good to have a spare keyboard for when little accidents happen.:p
 
Yes, they use QWERTZ instead of QWERTY. If you ever in doubt about buying a foreign keyboard, change your input language settings under System Preferences and just type characters somewhere. You'll see that way if anything is different.

I had someone explaining a problem with keys switching over on an iMac. I thought it must be set to US rather than British, but they are identical according to what I was pressing. I told her over the phone to click on the button in the top right to link to Keyboard settings, but she spotted then and there it was set to Austrian. Sorted.
 
steve_hill4 said:
Yes, they use QWERTZ instead of QWERTY. If you ever in doubt about buying a foreign keyboard, change your input language settings under System Preferences and just type characters somewhere. You'll see that way if anything is different.

I had someone explaining a problem with keys switching over on an iMac. I thought it must be set to US rather than British, but they are identical according to what I was pressing. I told her over the phone to click on the button in the top right to link to Keyboard settings, but she spotted then and there it was set to Austrian. Sorted.
Click to expand...


British and US keyboards are not identical. US keyboards have less keys than British ones. US keyboards have a smaller return key and a larger left shift key. My point was that as the German keyboard has the same number and size of keys as a US keyboard then you can not simply lift the keys out of the UK keyboard and put them in a German or US keyboard. The left shift and return keys simple won't fit in the slots and you'll have at least one key left over.

Here are images of a USA and UK keyboard. Note the different size of keys for return and left shift. If you count the keys on each you'll see the British keyboard has more keys.

http://img499.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m3261applekeyboard5nb.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img001916xv.jpg
 
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