Hi Jane, Why don't you try the Spanish keyboard from the International menu options and see how you like it for input? You need to check the box for this in the table on the input menu tab. Then, you'll have a text input menu appear on the part of the menu bar that reports your battery status, airport, and volume. VO-keys+m twice and right arrow to this, then down arrow to select Spanish. >So how would I get a feel for, say, a Spanish keyboard layout? I know >the US one, but it would be nice to just switch keyboards and not >worry about key combinations to type accents--at leastnotlike I have >to with the US keyboard. > >Any suggestions?
What I do to check out these keyboards is set the VoiceOver verbosity to While typing: speak every character. Then I open a TextEdit window and start typing. In general, if I'm checking out accents I'll try the keys to the right of the standard letter keys first: right bracket, left bracket, backslash, semi-colon, apostrophe, comma, period, and slash at the right-hand side, and the accent key under the escape key on the left. I might also check out the hyphen and equal keys at the right end of the row of numbers. I type the keys straight, then shifted, then with the option key held down. If I want to check whether any letters are switched, I just type an abcd etc. alphabet sequence. Then I run through numbers at the top of the keyboard. Any key that has special symbols will usually also get checked out with the Option key and Shift key held down. HTH Cheers, Esther P.S. Just as a comment, you turning on keyboard practice mode in VoiceOver always uses your real, default keyboard, so you'll always hear your U.S. keyboard setup. However, if you use TextEdit, you can listen to the different key strokes. You can also type a standard sequence of keys for one keyboard, then switch to a different country's keyboard in the text input menu, and type the same keys. You'll have a record of the keyboard differences. > > >On Mar 27, 2008, at 5:31 PM, Greg Kearney wrote: > >> It should be noted that you can have more than one national keyboard >> and select them from a keyboard menu. For example I have the US and >> Swedish keyboards so that I can quickly change the [ ' ; keys to >> type å ä ö >> >> >> Greg Kearney >> 535 S. Jackson St. >> Casper, Wyoming 82601 >> 307-224-4022 >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> On Mar 27, 2008, at 3:06 PM, Esther wrote: >>> Hi Will, >>> >>> You asked: >>>> WL: hi, does anyone use a german keyboard layout on a >>>> macbook at >>>> all? >>>> how do i type the umauts such as a umlaut, o umlaut u umlaut >>>> etcetera? >>> >>> I type an umlaut on a regular (U.S.) Mac keyboard using the option >>> key, >>> To place the diaresis over the u, hold down the Option key while >>> pressing >>> the u key; release and type u again. For the same mark over the o, >>> after >>> you release your option and u keys, type o. For a "sharp ess" (or >>> German >>> eszett) hold down the Option key while pressing the s key. >>> >>> In general the way you type accents on the Mac keyboard with the >>> Option key >>> follows one of the two patterns given above: >>> >>> 1. accent marks associated with specific letters are typed by >>> pressing the >>> Option key in combination with that letter; for example: >>> French cedilla Option+c (as in français) >>> German eszett Option+s >>> Nordic o Option+o (as in Søren's name) >>> >>> 2. accent marks that can be used with different letters (like your >>> example of >>> umlaut 0, umlaut u, etc.) are typed by pressing the Option key in >>> combination >>> with the accent mark key, then after releasing both keys you press >>> the >>> letter you want accented: >>> >>> diaresis (umlaut) Option+u (as in für) >>> circumflex Option+i >>> acute accent Option+e >>> grave accent Option+` (VO announces this key as "accent" whether >>> or not >>> the option key is pressed with it; on U.S. keyboards this is >>> the key >>> under the escape key at the left side of the keyboard) >>> tilde Option+n (as in señor) >>> >>> If you want to get these accents by themselves, type Option+Shift >>> +that accent >>> key. So Option+Shift+u for the umlaut (with no letter accented), >>> and >>> Option+Shift+n for the tilde, etc. >>> >>> I experimented with these after Jane's question to the list a while >>> ago >>> about typing accents on the regular keyboard. >>> >>> HTH >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Esther >>> >> >> > > > >
