Typing a £ or a € on a physical US-format laptop keyboard

[John Gray]

I am considering whether to get a second-user IBM Z61t laptop on which to continue to run XP, and the only real downside is that it has a US-format keyboard - so no £ and € engraved keys.

I could buy a UK-format keyboard for about £40 and fit it, but I wonder whether anyone knows of a straightforward way simply to produce the £ and € symbols in any program?

Obviously in some programs I could use Insert Symbol, and probably everywhere "Alt+numeric pad nnn", but I wonder if someone knows of some software which would (for example) generate £ when Ctrl+3, or Alt+3, was entered, and € when Ctrl+4, or Alt+4, was entered. I don't think I need anything more complicated, and certainly don't want to remap the US keyboard to look like an approximation of the UK keyboard!

All suggestions welcomed!

[HansV]

There's a free utility that lets you remap individual keys: SharpKeys.

[Argus]

Perhaps you could then change from US layout to US International keyboard layout.

See: How to use the United States-International keyboard layout in Windows 7, in Windows Vista, and in Windows XP

And for some images, wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_an ... _keyboards" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And finally, a Google search, for your convenience: http://www.google.co.uk/search?sclient= ... G=S%C3%B6k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(Typing on a mix of a US and UK keyboard, i.e. SE; how about that. )

[Bigaldoc]

And I've used the free Clavier+ 10.6.1 for a few years.

Edited to add a clip. I don't use the pound or euro characters but...

[stuck]

Unless there is something very special about hardware spec of the IBM you are considering would it not be much more logical to spend the same amount of money on a second-user laptop that has a UK keyboard?

Ken
edited to add link a used IBM laptop

[Argus]

Addendum to my other post:
I understand that on a UK keyboard: € is done by AltGr-4 (AltGr-E on a SE keyboard); but since there is no AltGr key on the US keyboard, instead two Alt keys, the right one gets rempped.

"The United States-International keyboard layout assigns new functions to the right ALT key (the ALT key on the right side of the keyboard). Use the right ALT key in combination with other keys to create extended characters."

If the images on wiki are true, that means you get € via AltGr-E, as on the SE keyboard layout, when using the United States-International keyboard layout.

And £ is shifted from Shift-3 on the UK to AltGr-4 (almost as on the SE layout, AltGr-3; AltGr-4 is $ on the SE layout).

So, for £ and € you will have to use AltGr all the time, not only for the € as on the present UK layout.

[John Gray]

Hans: I'm afraid SharpKeys only maps single keys, not key combinations like Ctrl+3...

Argus: I'll have a read through this - it seems a bit complicated, but we'll see when I get into it.

Al: I'll have a look at Clavier (I always liked the reworking to Bach's "The Bad-Tempered Clavier"...!)

[John Gray]

Unless there is something very special about hardware spec of the IBM you are considering would it not be much more logical to spend the same amount of money on a second-user laptop that has a UK keyboard?

Ken
edited to add link a used IBM laptop

Coincidentally I came across that one this morning, but your suggestion has a much slower CPU, with half the memory and 60% of the hard disk space!

[John Gray]

Argus addendum: yea, on a Noble British Keyboard we get € from AltGr+4. AltGr is the single-key equivalent of pressing Ctrl+Alt, BTW...

[StuartR]

My British English keyboard has the £ sign on Shift-3 and the € sign on AltGr-4

[Leif]

On the basis that if I set my regional settings to US Keyboard I get the equivalent of a US keyboard layout (e.g. shift+2 = @), isn't it simply a matter of telling the laptop it has a UK keyboard and using shift+3 to get the £ sign??

[Argus]

Argus: I'll have a read through this - it seems a bit complicated, but we'll see when I get into it.

I see it as simple, or even very simple, part of the setup; it's using OS files, not third-party software; it's easy to setup, and change; and one doesn't have to have the Language Bar showing all the time if one doesn't want to.

Argus addendum: yea, on a Noble British Keyboard we get € from AltGr+4. AltGr is the single-key equivalent of pressing Ctrl+Alt, BTW...

Yep, knew about Ctrl-Alt/AltGr; but it's AltGr all the time over here. Doing a three finger combination with Ctrl-Alt and the keys 2, 3 or 4 is no fun.

[John Gray]

On the basis that if I set my regional settings to US Keyboard I get the equivalent of a US keyboard layout (e.g. shift+2 = @), isn't it simply a matter of telling the laptop it has a UK keyboard and using shift+3 to get the £ sign??

"Up to a point, Lord Copper"! But then I'd have to change back to the US keyboard to get the usual special characters to map correctly to the keyboard engraving, ones like " and # and @, and so on

[Leif]

So use the little annoying systray keyboard switcher (or Alt + Shift?) !

[Argus]

Addendum to the addendum:
I just added the US Int. layout, had the standard SE-US combination earlier.

2011-02-24_A.png

Now I can shift between three layouts by pressing Shift-Alt (default command, but can be changed). And I don't have the ctfmon running or anything like that, the Language Bar etc. I disabled them at setup. Works very well, but I will not keep all of them since no need for that.

(Since the default keyboard layout combination at setup of WinXP here is SE-US, it stays like that even if you disable the Language Bar etc. If I then don't remove layouts, or change the quick key settings (for changing between them) I suddenly can find odd results in Excel etc. Suddenly I have no "åäö"; a result of me using Shift-Alt-= to get "=SUM"; if hesitate and press Shift-Alt and then do it again this time with = to get the SUM, the first time I pressed it is interpreted as a layout change. No problem, the quick keys can be changed, and additional layouts can be removed.)

[John Gray]

A quick play with Al's suggestion of Clavier seems to indicate that it would do the job - thanks, folks!

[Goshute]

Has nobody mentioned that £ is ASCII 156? ...if your device has a keyboard way to enter ASCIIs. But I don't know of way to enter the Euro sign via a US keyboard.

[BobH]

I use the US keyboard and find the £ symbol quite easily in the Windows XP Pro SP3 Character Map; however, I cannot find the symbol for the Euro in most fonts. How long has the Euro been in use? I wonder why Microsofat has not included updates to the fonts in Character Map to include the Euro. Other currency symbols ARE there, but not the Euro. Is this animus from Mr. Gates over issues European?

[HansV]

Most fonts nowadays contain a Euro symbol: Alt+0128 = €

[Bigaldoc]

Just a quick test using Clavier:

€ £
€ £