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So as the title states I have a physical american keyboard but in Windows I am using a Swedish layout.' How do I enter the "greater/less, open/closen tag" <> character and the "pipe" | character?

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5 Answers 5

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Just messed around with this. I got a mechanical keyboard with US layout for a good price and my coding ability was struck down when I saw I was missing the <>| key.

I am running Linux (Manjaro & Ubuntu) Here is how I solved it:

I made a variant of the Swedish keyboard layout and made <>| 3rd level (AltGr) from keys ,.- (se-layout... corresponding to ,./ on us-layout)

Seemed like a small enough mod and it coincides fairly well with what is printed on the physical keys on the US keyboard.

Note: For me, sudo was not good enough. Had to go su instead!

1)------ add the following to the bottom of /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/se

// Swedish US_keyMod
partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "se_uskeymod" {

    include "se(basic)"

    name[Group1]="Swedish (US key-mod)";

    key <AB08> { [     comma,  semicolon, less,  dead_ogonek ] };
    key <AB09> { [    period,   colon, greater, dead_abovedot ] };
    key <AB10> { [     minus, underscore, bar, dead_abovedot ] };
};

2)------ open /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml and track down where the segment is for Swedish. Find where the Swedish starts and add the following variant along with the existing ones...

<variant>
  <configItem>
    <name>se_uskeymod</name>
    <description>Swedish (US key-mod)</description>
  </configItem>
</variant>

3)------ in the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.lst find the line

! variant

and look for Swedish layout variants. When you find them squeeze in the folliwing line somewhere there

se_uskeymod   se: Swedish (US key-mod)

4)------ Verify intended result with gkbd-keyboard-display -l "se(se_uskeymod)"

AltGr-mod of , . - should display < > |

5)------ Pick the modded variant of Swedish as your keyboard layout and fire away.

Optionally add SWERTY layout, available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

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On Windows 10/11, you can solve this by installing PowerToys (link) and remapping the keys using their Keyboard Manager. Note that you will need to use the On-screen Keyboard (tutorial) in order to map to keys which are not available (such as |,<,>).

Step-by-Step:

  1. Once you've downloaded PowerToys, navigate to Keyboard Manager.
  2. Select "Remap a key", which opens the window in the bottom.
  3. Find the physical key you want to re-assign, either through the drop-down or with the Type-window. And then click the "Type" button for the "Mapped To".

Note that you cannot map a key combination, only a single key. For instance you cannot map: Ctrl+; or Alt+K.

Steps 1-3

  1. To easily map to the key that's missing from your physical keyboard use the Windows On-screen Keyboard. Simply click the key that you want your physical key to map to.

4a. If your key is missing, ensure that you are viewing the full On-screen keyboard.

enter image description here

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  • Avoid posting answers to old questions that already have well received answers unless you have something substantial and new to add.
    – Toto
    Feb 17, 2023 at 17:43
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    Don't mind Toto, this is actually a great answer that nobody else had brought up, but more detail on the process would be fantastic
    – DanHolli
    Feb 17, 2023 at 18:05
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The answer is that the characters does not exist using a swedish layout.

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All three use a key found to the left of the "z" key and to the right of a half-sized shift key found on ISO 102/105 keyboards. But US Keyboards are missing it.

You can enable the On-Screen Keyboard in windows settings for those times you need to use that key. With the Swedish language enabled the on-screen keyboard will include the missing key.

See below:

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  • Well aware of how it looks on a swedish keyboard, but I was feeling pretty stupid not finding them with the US layout, but the comments above about related threads seems to answer the question that it simply doesn't exist. Feb 12, 2020 at 20:22
  • Yeah, doesn't exist, sorry. It's physically not there. But hopefully toggling the on-screen keyboard can save you in those cases you need to use that key, which I hope is rare. ;)
    – David
    Feb 12, 2020 at 20:40
  • haha developer/sysadmin in windows platforms..... so not that rare....... Feb 12, 2020 at 20:41
  • I worried that... being you are here. For me, because the on-screen keyboard responds to keypresses on the real keyboard, I can click just the one missing key when I need it but type all others and shift on the physical board. That's the only option short of buying an international board with the missing key.
    – David
    Feb 12, 2020 at 20:57
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I have had a similar problem trying to use the UK layout setting with a US keyboard on a laptop. In my case I'm struggling to type the \ and | characters. The US keyboard does have a key with those symbols on it (next to the Enter key) but when using UK layout settings that key actually produces # and ~.

The key I'm trying to find would usually be to the left of the Z key, however this US keyboard simply has a much wider Shift key and the physical key is just missing. I won't stop to count the keys, but I assume this is the difference between a 101-key (US) layout and a 102-key layout.

HOWEVER I'm able to type the characters I want by holding down the AltGr key (the right-hand ALT key in case that's all the label shows) and then use the physical key with \ and | on it.

In order to get the | character I need to hold down the Shift key as well.

I hope that there might be a similar trick for the Swedish layout that works for you.

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