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US Keyboard / International English

brewno

brewno

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2007
461
18
Montreal, Canada
Hello everyone,

I'm a new "poster" here even though I've been reading this forum for years. In a bout a week I'm going to Chicago - I live in Europe - and I'm buying my first MacBook Pro.

The thing is, I speak several languages and I need to use the accent keys all the time, ie: á, à, é, è, you get the point. At the France's online store, I have several options, including French keyboard (which I hate, they use the AZERTY keyboard), US English (no accents) and International English (which is the perfect option to me. I can type the mute-accent key "~" and right after the letter "a", and it will give me an "ã").

At the online US Store there's only the US English keyboard and the spanish option, I see no international english. But I'm assuming this is just a software issue, not a hardware.

My question is, can I change the default US English keyboard to International English keyboard on the new MBP sold in America? Is it just a software option?

Thank you in advance! :)
 
You can map any physical keyboard to a number input definitions found in the System Preferences > International > Input Menu. That said, I can't find one that functions exactly as you say...I have no International English option. There is a Canandian French - CSA option which is close, with specific keys mapped out for ç, à, ù, è, and é as well as a dedicated ^ accent key without hitting modifiers, and the other accents are all accessed via shift or option (though I can't seem to find the mute accent). There's also a Swiss French option which has some dedicated accent keys as well, but is QWERTZ and not QWERTY. There are also many other mappings for other languages as well (the Spanish one, for example has a dedicated ñ and an ´ key). It's also fairly easy to switch between layouts using either the input menu up in the right hand corner or there is a keyboard shortcut as well.

The main problem is going to be memorizing the mapping with the labels on the keys being different, unless you plan to use an existing International English keyboard. (It took me forever to remember that the Spanish layout hides @ as option-g, for example)

Hope this helps.
 
UK user with US keyboard

I'm from the UK and I have a US Macbook keyboard. There is a slight physical difference between the UK (International English) and US models where things like the £ sign and # signs are moved, but otherwise it's the same, at least all the letters are in the same place. If you plan to use the € symbol, then you will definitely need to map that through software, as it's not present on the US keyboard. But being from England, I don't need that :)

What you're asking about regarding accents is something I would think is within the software and key mapping as the previous poster suggests. In any case, buying it in Chicago will save you quite a lot of money compared to rip off Europe.
 
Thanks for the quick replies.

Indeed it will save me money. With 1899€ (price of a base model here) I can buy the top 15" model in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#US-International

^ details about the keyboard I'm speaking of.
And funny that Apple's France Store has both options, and I see it nowhere else. I might even pay a bit more to save me the headache. The bad thing is that I'd have to get the low-end, here.

I thought this issue would be simply resolved by changing something at the System Configuration (ty TheAnswer for giving me the path), but if it isn't, I find it strange. What could possibly be the reason? And why would France's store have this option, of all places? I'm really confused now.
 
brewno said:
...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#US-International

^ details about the keyboard I'm speaking of.

And funny that Apple's France Store has both options, and I see it nowhere else. I might even pay a bit more to save me the headache. The bad thing is that I'd have to get the low-end, here.

I thought this issue would be simply resolved by changing something at the System Configuration (ty TheAnswer for giving me the path), but if it isn't, I find it strange. What could possibly be the reason? And why would France's store have this option, of all places? I'm really confused now.
Click to expand...

I'm back from surfing the French Apple Store...I think I've figured out the issue. The keyboard offered is International English (which I'm assuming means the UK English layout as opposed to the US English layout) and not the US - International layout described in Wikipedia. That's my guess at least.

BTW - the Canadian French layout in Mac OS X is different than shown in that wiki...here is the base layout Picture 2.png. Also the Spanish layout with dedicated ´, `, ç, and ñ keys might be another good option. Both of those keep the QWERTY layout.

And as I said above, you can quickly switch between layouts using a shortcut or the input menu (it's just hard to remember where they've got some of the symbols and punctuation hidden all the time).
 
TheAnswer said:
I'm back from surfing the French Apple Store...I think I've figured out the issue. The keyboard offered is International English (which I'm assuming means the UK English layout as opposed to the US English layout) and not the US - International layout described in Wikipedia. That's my guess at least.
Click to expand...
I really appreciate your help, it's very kind of you.

I was so bugged with this issue I called France's Apple Store, and checked a few french boards concerning this issue, and I confirm it that the "Anglais International" can do ALL accents by typing the accent as a dead key, then the vowel to form the accented letter. The phone guy said it's something you change at System Preferences, so this should be easily fixed if I buy it in the US.
I also asked a friend to check all keyboard options in his US-MBP and he said he found an "english extended" option, but he had to get off and I think that might be it, but sigh, I can't be sure. lol.


As a side note, when we call tech service on the phone in the US, we get indians. When I called france's tech service on the phone, I got canadians (french canadians). I think it's a conspiracy: they hire people we can't understand so we'll hang up and never call again :p
 
brewno said:
...I also asked a friend to check all keyboard options in his US-MBP and he said he found an "english extended" option, but he had to get off and I think that might be it, but sigh, I can't be sure. lol...
Click to expand...

This U.S. Extended doesn't have dedicated dead keys without first hitting the option key. Once you hit option, though...you get a ton of them:
Picture 2.png

compared with the normal US layout:
Picture 3.png
 
Us keyboard or International English keyboard

Can anyone tell me where to find a picture of the 2 Keyboards: US keyboard and International English keyboard? I have an iBook G4 now and I would like to have the same keyboard for my new Macbook Pro 2.66 I just don't know which one to order. The # sign is on the 3 key; does this mean I have the US keyboard?
 
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