There are many keyboard layouts, for people to be able to type in different languages. The standard English keyboard layout is known as QWERTY. Various alternatives to the QWERTY layout have been suggested, many claiming advantages such as higher typing speeds. The most famous alternative is the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard.

Table of contents
1 Keyboard structure
2 Example keyboard layouts
3 External links

Keyboard structure

The keys labelled only with a capital letter can type both small and capital letters. To type the symbol at the top left of a key, the Shift key, labelled "↑", is used. To type the symbol at the bottom right of a key, the Alt-Gr key is used.

In the standard keyboard structure are included too the control and function keys.

Dead key

Many languages include additional characters, such as accented characters, that do not easily fit onto a standard English keyboard. Typing the accented characters is made easier by using a "dead key" feature. When you use the dead key, you press the designated key for the accent that you want; nothing will happen on the screen. Next, you type the character that you wish to have accented. If you type the correct accent and character, the desired accented character appears on the screen. This key combination requires that you type an acceptable sequence. For example, if you type the accented dead key followed by the letter, "a," you will get the accented "a." If you type the accented dead key followed by the "t" key, you will not get anything on the screen unless that particular font includes an accented "t" character. Alternatively, you get an accent as a separate character, followed by the other character.

To just type a diacritical mark, it should be followed by a space.

Example keyboard layouts

Note: The following layouts assume that the physical location of all keys are the same, with the same scan codes, and that setting the keyboard layout in Windows works correctly.

Arabic

Armenian
How do you type a "{"?

Canadian French

Danish

German

Greek

Hangul (for Korean)
Pressing Ha/En key once switches between Hangul as shown, and English. As there is both a Hangul IME and Hangul keyboard layout, and Hangul keyboard layout won't type any Hangul on my computer, there presumably exists a physically different keyboard for Hangul.

Hebrew

Portuguese, Brazillian

Russian
How do you type a "{"? Well, easy, pal - just use English layout for such minor symbols, they are really rare in Russian texts.

Sanskrit (also for Hindi)
Some things seem impossible to type, some keys don't seem to do anything.

Thai
How do you type a "{"?

US

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See also:
Language code.

External links