Using the United States-International keyboard layout

If your computer is intended for the US market, and does not already have an actual foreign language keyboard, I would strongly recommend that you install the "United States-International" keyboard layout and NOT a Swedish, Spanish, or other keyboard layout.

I work in English and Spanish every day, and since 1996 I have used the United States keyboard set to the "United States-International" layout. I have installed this on other computers for at least a dozen other people. Each one has told me that it is the best way to work both in English and many other European languages using the US standard keyboard.

This layout is available in Win 95, 98, Me, 2000, and XP. The following installation steps apply to Windows 2000, but the others are similar.

Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Keyboard.
Click the tab Input Locales.
Select the "Input Language" keyboard. It should say "English (United States). If so;
Click on Properties, and change to the "United States-International" layout.

Result: Almost all characters in major western European alphabets are available, in one of two ways (sometimes both):

First, certain keys become "prefix" or "dead" keys:

   ' single quote

   " double quote

   ` grave accent

   ^ caret (Shift-6)

   ~ tilde (Shift-`)

When followed by a letter that "takes" an accent mark, this sequence creates the accented characters. Examples: á, ü, è, ô, ñ.

This will be confusing at first, because nothing is visible on screen after the first key press. The combination character is not displayed until the second key is pressed to complete the sequence. If the subsequent character does not represent a proper "accented" character, then the prefix sequence is aborted and two consecutive ordinary characters are obtained. For example: since there is no letter p with a tilde ~ on top, the key sequence ~ p will produce the separate characters ~p.

Second, the behavior of the right-hand "Alt" key is modified. Hold the Right Alt key and press other letter or number keys to obtain a wide variety of other letters and accents. Some of them are duplicates of the "prefix" combinations, others are new. I don't use this much, but here are some of the letters you can obtain (the last ones use the Shift key):

¡²³¤€¼½¾‘’äåé®þüúíóö«»áßðø´æ©ñµç¿ ÄÅÉÞ

Advantages:

Works in all Windows programs: email, Word, Excel, Paint, and especially interesting to me, Déjà Vu.
You can usually leave it set at all times. Does not interfere with working in English, except for one minor disadvantage (mentioned below)
Every character shown on a key can still be obtained using that key. In other words, each key still produces the US English equivalent. If you install a Swedish, Spanish, or other keyboard layout but retain the physical US keyboard, the characters produced by the keyboard will not match what is printed on the top of the keys.
Free. Nothing to download. Should not require any other installation. You may be asked to insert the Windows CD-ROM, but I have always been able to navigate to the location on the hard drive where the Windows "cab" files are found, and Windows then finds what it needs.
Non-English letters are produced with very few additional keystrokes, many times equivalent to using a "native" foreign keyboard.

Disadvantages

This is the only one that I can think of, in 10 years):

If you actually want one of the “dead” characters: " ` ' ^ ~ you need to press another character afterwards. This can cause unexpected results. The best practice in my experience is get in the habit of pressing a space immediately after such a keystroke.

For more information (from Microsoft.com)

(On my computer, the following link only works properly in Internet Explorer, not in Firefox. It may require ActiveX.)

US International keyboard layout

Other useful references:

Pointers for Users with US Keyboards

	'	single quote
	"	double quote
	`	grave accent
	^	caret (Shift-6)
	~	tilde (Shift-`)