2

I'm French, but I've chosen to take a QWERTY keyboard for my MacBook Pro for many reasons:

  • first of all, the AZERTY keyboard is not at all ergonomic because it has no numeric keypad, and I must use MAJ or CAPS LOCK to access to the numeric keys ;
  • secondly, I've bought this mac for development ; and chars {, }, etc., are not directly accessible on the Apple AZERTY keyboard
  • the last thing is that: the diacritics are VERY easy to produce on an Apple keyboard with Mac OS X : ⎇ + c for a ç, for example, and many dead keys easy to use (e.g. ⎇ + e, then e give you an é.

So, I have no difficulties to write in my native language with this keyboard under Mac OS X.

BUT, when I boot on Windows 7's Boot Camp partition, or when I use applications from it through VMware Unity, it is no longer the same comfort!

Without numeric keypad, it's impossible to use it for produce specials characters (e.g.: Alt + 0231 for the ç)

I've tried many solutions, like auto replacement in Microsoft Office (e.g.: ,,c being replaced by ç), but for all my diacritics, I must type a space, then a back space before the replacement work.
I've also tried third party software, as Texter, but it is very buggy and don't work properly (or don't work at all) in many case!

So, is there a solution somewhere, to have this Mac OS X's nice and comfortable way of producing diacritics for Windows 7?

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

The closest I've found this far is at http://rabbe.tumblr.com/post/23117297936/mac-us-keyboard-layout-for-windows.

EDIT: Disregard my comment about the missing modifiers for curly quotes. For some reason, I just had to reboot and then they worked.

Taken from the linked site…

No modifiers

` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
q w e r t y u i o p [ ] \
a s d f g h j k l ; '
z x c v b n m , . /

Shift

~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ +
Q W E R T Y U I O P { } |
A S D F G H J K L : "
Z X C V B N M < > ?

Option

` ¡ ™ £ ¢ ∞ § ¶ • ª º – ≠
œ ∑ ´ ® † ¥ ¨ ˆ ø π “ ‘ «
å ß ∂ ƒ © ˙ ∆ ˚ ¬ … æ
Ω ≈ ç √ ∫ ˜ µ ≤ ≥ ÷

Option+Shift

` ⁄ € ‹ › fi fl ‡ ° · ‚ — ±
Œ „ ´ ‰ ˇ Á ¨ ˆ Ø ∏ ” ’ »
Å Í Î Ï ˝ Ó Ô  Ò Ú Æ
¸ ˛ Ç ◊ ı ˜ Â ¯ ˘ ¿
Improve this answer
3
1

In the Region options in Control Panel, add the United States - International keyboard layout and enable the Language Bar. Select the keyboard layout using the button on the Language Bar, and you can then type 'c 'to produce a ç, for example. You may need to restart Windows (at minimum, you'll need to restart any running applications) for this to take effect.

There are other keyboard layouts that exhibit this behaviour, but I know the US-International layout does what you need.

Alternately, you can create/edit a keyboard layout using the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator.

Improve this answer
6
  • The problem is that United States - International has a different key mapping of my United States - International (Apple) keyboard…
    – Pascal Qyy
    Mar 22, 2012 at 7:11
  • Proprietary keyboard layouts? Really? :I - Is there a screenshot of the Apple keyboard layout anywhere? Might the French Canadian layout work?
    – EKW
    Mar 22, 2012 at 7:27
  • Here it is: English International (Apple). I found it here: Apple KB — How to identify keyboard localizations
    – Pascal Qyy
    Mar 22, 2012 at 8:00
  • 1
    Since it isn't a normal keyboard, you may be able to use msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665 to create the layout you want. I'll add it to the answer.
    – EKW
    Mar 22, 2012 at 8:19
  • 1
    If you "Load existing" first, yes, you'll have all of the US-International functionality, and you can then add or modify whichever keys you need to for the Apple layout (Looks like the only real differences are the ~ and Section-symbol keys).
    – EKW
    Mar 22, 2012 at 12:38

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .