I've been using a German keyboard layout for pretty much all my life. A couple of years ago, I learned to touch-type, and I've been happy with it ever since. That is, up until recently when I decided to switch from de-DE to a more programming-friendly layout like en-US — and I love it!
#Advantages of en-US
Writing code is different from writing prose. While both should read well, most programming languages require various punctuation characters that are hard to type on a German keyboard layout. The most important ones are {
, }
, [
, ]
, |
, and . You use them all the time for block scopes, array subscripts, logical disjunctions, or file paths. All of those characters are much easier to type on en-US than on de-DE.
Here's a comparison of the layouts. First up, de-DE:
And here's en-US:
As you can see, most characters needed for programming can be found on the right half of an en-US layout. If you need to type a semicolon, simply press your right pinky – no need for multiple keys. All in all, the American layout just feels much more natural for programming. It feels right.
- Press the ENG tab at the bottom right of your screen, and then click English (United Kingdom) or English (United States) depending on what layout your keyboard is. They're both QWERTY, so select the one that isn't currently selected.
- I reviewed your post and I understand that the keyboard layout on your computer is US instead of the UK. I'd love to help! I checked the product specification of your computer and it is mentioned Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with numeric keypad. However, it doesn't confirm whether it is the UK or US layout.
- Chinese Mechanical Keyboard: US (or International) Keyboard Layout. I am using UK Layout. Note: Use PC Keyboard Turtle Beach Mechanical Keyboard on Mac. Swap Control and Command on Mac; use the UK PC layout; Sougou use the UK PC layout; and UK Mac Layout. The symbols on 6,7,8,9,0 is different. Danish has special 6,7,8,9,0 symbols.
Uk Keyboard Layout
#Disadvantages of en-US
This is of course set up with a US keypad and I am in the UK. This means that on the keys my @ is a ' and my Pound sterling sign is a #. Yes I know I can use the ' to make an @ and I can alt 0163 to create a Pound sign although It wont let me do this in this post?? Is there any way I can change the keyboard setting to UK please.
#Disadvantages of en-US
This is of course set up with a US keypad and I am in the UK. This means that on the keys my @ is a ' and my Pound sterling sign is a #. Yes I know I can use the ' to make an @ and I can alt 0163 to create a Pound sign although It wont let me do this in this post?? Is there any way I can change the keyboard setting to UK please.
As nice as the en-US layout is for programming and writing English texts, it's not as helpful when you need to write in German. Naturally, it doesn't have keys for umlauts like ä, ö, and ü. So what does one do?
Rather than going through the hassle of using complicated shortcuts to type those characters, I decided to add both English and German as input languages to my operating systems. Now I can press WIN+SPACE on Windows and CMD+SHIFT+SPACE on macOS (custom mapping) to switch between the languages. Whenever I write a couple of sentences in German, I quickly change my keyboard layout. Otherwise, en-US remains my default setting.
#Difficulties of Transitioning to en-US
It took me about two weeks to fully get used to the en-US layout. While the control keys and the letters of the alphabet (except y and z) are located at the exact same position, very few of the special characters are. I had to remember how to type all of those without being able to look down at my keyboard, which was still de-DE. That turned out to be a little difficult and resulted in lots of trial and error.
Black ops 3 multiplayer starter pack ps4. In the end, I purchased a new Logitech Illuminated keyboard with an en-US layout:
I've owned and used a Logitech Illuminated keyboard (German edition) for more than four years now, and I still am a huge fan. It has a perfectly balanced keystroke resistance and it's backlit, flat, and pretty. If you're looking for a new keyboard, I very much recommend it. You can get the Logitech Illuminated on amazon.com.
#Just Try It for Yourself!
If you're still using a German keyboard layout for programming, I strongly encourage you to try out the American English one. Simply add another input language to your operating system of choice and see if it works for you.
-->Choose a keyboard below to view its layouts. To see different keyboard states, move the mouse over state keys such as Shift, Caps or AltGr. You can also lock or unlock those keys by clicking them. Use the browser magnification feature to increase the size of the keyboards.
Us Vs Uk Keyboard Layout
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Keyboard Name | Introduced | |
A | ADLaM | 10 |
Albanian | pre-XP | |
Arabic (101) | pre-XP | |
Arabic (102) | pre-XP | |
Arabic (102) AZERTY | pre-XP | |
Armenian Eastern (Legacy) | pre-XP | |
Armenian Phonetic | 8 | |
Armenian Typewriter | 8 | |
Armenian Western (Legacy) | pre-XP | |
Assamese - INSCRIPT | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Azerbaijani (Standard) | 8.1 | |
Azeri Cyrillic | pre-XP | |
Azeri Latin | pre-XP | |
B | Bashkir | Vista / Server 2008 |
Belarusian | pre-XP | |
Belgian (Comma) | pre-XP | |
Belgian (Period) | 8.1 | |
Belgian French | pre-XP | |
Bengali | pre-XP | |
Bengali - INSCRIPT | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Bengali - INSCRIPT (Legacy) | XP SP2 | |
Bosnian (Cyrillic) | 8 | |
Buginese | 8.1 | |
Bulgarian | 8 | |
Bulgarian (Latin) | 8.1 | |
Bulgarian (Phonetic Traditional) | 7 / Server 2008 R2 | |
Bulgarian (Phonetic) | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Bulgarian (Typewriter) | Vista / Server 2008 | |
C | Canadian French | pre-XP |
Canadian French (Legacy) | pre-XP | |
Canadian Multilingual Standard | pre-XP | |
Central Atlas Tamazight | 8.1 | |
Central Kurdish | 8 | |
Cherokee Nation | 8 | |
Cherokee Phonetic | 8 | |
Chinese (Simplified) - US | 8.1 | |
Chinese (Simplified, Singapore) - US | 8.1 | |
Chinese (Traditional) - US | 8.1 | |
Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong S.A.R.) - US | 8.1 | |
Chinese (Traditional, Macao S.A.R.) - US | 8.1 | |
Czech | pre-XP | |
Czech (QWERTY) | pre-XP | |
Czech Programmers | pre-XP | |
D | Danish | pre-XP |
Devanagari - INSCRIPT | pre-XP | |
Divehi Phonetic | XP / Server 2003 | |
Divehi Typewriter | XP / Server 2003 | |
Dutch | pre-XP | |
Dzongkha | 10 | |
E | English (India) | 8 |
Estonian | pre-XP | |
Faeroese | pre-XP | |
F | Finnish | pre-XP |
Finnish with Sami | XP SP2 | |
French | pre-XP | |
Futhark | 8.1 | |
G | Georgian (Ergonomic) | Vista / Server 2008 |
Georgian (Legacy) | pre-XP | |
Georgian (MES) | 8 | |
Georgian (Old Alphabets) | 8 | |
Georgian (QWERTY) | Vista / Server 2008 | |
German | pre-XP | |
German (IBM) | pre-XP | |
Gothic | 8.1 | |
Greek | pre-XP | |
Greek (220) | pre-XP | |
Greek (220) Latin | pre-XP | |
Greek (319) | pre-XP | |
Greek (319) Latin | pre-XP | |
Greek Latin | pre-XP | |
Greek Polytonic | pre-XP | |
Greenlandic | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Guarani | 8.1 | |
Gujarati | XP / Server 2003 | |
H | Hausa | 7 / Server 2008 R2 |
Hawaiian | 8 | |
Hebrew | pre-XP | |
Hebrew (Standard) | 8 | |
Hindi Traditional | pre-XP | |
Hungarian | pre-XP | |
Hungarian 101-key | pre-XP | |
I | Icelandic | pre-XP |
Igbo | 7 / Server 2008 R2 | |
Inuktitut - Latin | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Inuktitut - Naqittaut | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Irish | pre-XP | |
Italian | pre-XP | |
Italian (142) | pre-XP | |
J | Japanese | pre-XP |
Javanese | 8.1 | |
K | Kannada | XP / Server 2003 |
Kazakh | pre-XP | |
Khmer | 8 | |
Khmer (NIDA) | 8 | |
Korean | pre-XP | |
Kyrgyz Cyrillic | XP / Server 2003 | |
L | Lao | Vista / Server 2008 |
Latin American | pre-XP | |
Latvian | pre-XP | |
Latvian (QWERTY) | pre-XP | |
Latvian (Standard) | 8.1 | |
Lisu (Basic) | 8 | |
Lisu (Standard) | 8 | |
Lithuanian | pre-XP | |
Lithuanian IBM | pre-XP | |
Lithuanian Standard | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Luxembourgish | Vista / Server 2008 | |
M | Macedonian (FYROM) | pre-XP |
Macedonian (FYROM) - Standard | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Malayalam | XP SP2 | |
Maltese 47-Key | XP SP2 | |
Maltese 48-Key | XP SP2 | |
Maori | XP SP2 | |
Marathi | pre-XP | |
Mongolian (Mongolian Script) | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Mongolian Cyrillic | XP / Server 2003 | |
Myanmar (Phonetic order) | 10 | |
Myanmar (Visual order) | 10 | |
N | Nepali | Vista / Server 2008 |
New Tai Lue | 8 | |
N'Ko | 8 | |
Norwegian | pre-XP | |
Norwegian with Sami | XP SP2 | |
O | Odia | Vista / Server 2008 |
Ogham | 8 | |
Ol Chiki | 8.1 | |
Old Italic | 8.1 | |
Osage | 10 | |
Osmanya | 8.1 | |
P | Pashto (Afghanistan) | Vista / Server 2008 |
Persian | pre-XP | |
Persian (Standard) | 8 | |
Phags-pa | 8 | |
Polish (214) | pre-XP | |
Polish (Programmers) | pre-XP | |
Portuguese | pre-XP | |
Portuguese (Brazil ABNT) | pre-XP | |
Portuguese (Brazil ABNT2) | 8.1 | |
Punjabi | XP / Server 2003 | |
R | Romanian (Legacy) | pre-XP |
Romanian (Programmers) | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Romanian (Standard) | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Russian | pre-XP | |
Russian - Mnemonic | 8 | |
Russian (Typewriter) | pre-XP | |
S | Sakha | 7 / Server 2008 R2 |
Sami Extended Finland-Sweden | XP SP2 | |
Sami Extended Norway | XP SP2 | |
Scottish Gaelic | pre-XP | |
Serbian (Cyrillic) | pre-XP | |
Serbian (Latin) | pre-XP | |
Sesotho sa Leboa | 7 / Server 2008 R2 | |
Setswana | 7 / Server 2008 R2 | |
Sinhala | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Sinhala - Wij 9 | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Slovak | pre-XP | |
Slovak (QWERTY) | pre-XP | |
Slovenian | pre-XP | |
Sora | 8.1 | |
Sorbian Extended | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Sorbian Standard | 7 / Server 2008 R2 | |
Sorbian Standard (Legacy) | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Spanish | pre-XP | |
Spanish Variation | pre-XP | |
Standard | 10 | |
Swedish | pre-XP | |
Swedish with Sami | pre-XP | |
Swiss French | pre-XP | |
Swiss German | pre-XP | |
Syriac | XP / Server 2003 | |
Syriac Phonetic | XP / Server 2003 | |
T | Tai Le | 8 |
Tajik | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Tamil | pre-XP | |
Tatar | 8.1 | |
Tatar (Legacy) | 8 | |
Telugu | XP / Server 2003 | |
Thai Kedmanee | pre-XP | |
Thai Kedmanee (non-ShiftLock) | pre-XP | |
Thai Pattachote | pre-XP | |
Thai Pattachote (non-ShiftLock) | pre-XP | |
Tibetan (PRC) | 7 / Server 2008 R2 | |
Tibetan (PRC) - Updated | 8.1 | |
Tifinagh (Basic) | 8 | |
Tifinagh (Extended) | 8 | |
Traditional Mongolian (Standard) | 8.1 | |
Turkish F | pre-XP | |
Turkish Q | pre-XP | |
Turkmen | Vista / Server 2008 | |
U | Ukrainian | pre-XP |
Ukrainian (Enhanced) | Vista / Server 2008 | |
United Kingdom | pre-XP | |
United Kingdom Extended | XP SP2 | |
United States-Dvorak | pre-XP | |
United States-Dvorak for left hand | pre-XP | |
United States-Dvorak for right hand | pre-XP | |
United States-International | pre-XP | |
Urdu | pre-XP | |
US | pre-XP | |
US English Table for IBM Arabic 238_L | pre-XP | |
Uyghur | 7 / Server 2008 R2 | |
Uyghur (Legacy) | Vista / Server 2008 | |
Uzbek Cyrillic | pre-XP | |
V | Vietnamese | pre-XP |
W | Wolof | 7 / Server 2008 R2 |
Y | Yoruba | 7 / Server 2008 R2 |