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 for over 7 years 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 over the past few years. 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 (^, or shift 6), or tilde (~, or 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

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 get:

¡²³¤€¼½¾‘’äåé®þüúíóö«»áßðø¶´æ©ñµç¿

You can add the Shift key to obtain more characters, including capitals:

ÄÅÉÞ, etc.

Advantages:

Works in all Windows programs: email, Word, Excel, Paint, and in particular Deja 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 can still be obtained as shown on the top of the 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 key.

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 (only two that I can think of, in 7 years):

If you actually want a ', ", `, ^, or ~ character, you need to press another character afterwards. This can get confusing and cause unexpected results. The best practice is to press a space immediately after such a keystroke.

Not covered properly in Windows help, the Microsoft web site, or most Windows reference materials. I have not seen a printed guide to this feature in over 4 years.

Steven

Standard key:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

0

-

=

Right-Alt obtains:

¡

²

³

¤

€

¼

½

¾

‘

’

¥

×

Standard key:

@

%

+

Right-Alt obtains:

¹

£

÷

Standard key:

q

w

e

r

t

y

u

i

o

p

[

]

\

Right-Alt obtains:

ä

å

é

®

þ

ü

ú

í

ó

ö

«

»

¬

Standard key:

Q

W

E

R

T

Y

U

I

O

P

|

Right-Alt obtains:

Ä

Å

É

Þ

Þ

Ü

Ú

Í

Ó

Ö

¦

Standard key:

a

s

d

f

l

;

'

Right-Alt obtains:

á

ß

ð

(1)

ø

¶

´

Right-Alt obtains:

á

§

Ð

Ø

° (2)

¨

Standard key:

A

S

D

l

:

"

Standard key:

z

c

n

m

,

.

/

Right-Alt obtains:

æ

©

ñ

µ

ç

…

¿

Standard key:

Z

C

N

<

Right-Alt obtains:

Æ

¢

Ñ

Ç

Standard key:

a

c

e

i

o

u

y

Preceded by ':

á

ç

é

í

ó

ú

ý

Standard key:

a

e

i

o

u

y

Preceded by ":

ä

ë

ï

ö

ü

ÿ

Standard key:

a

e

i

o

u

Preceded by `:

à

è

ì

ò

ù

Standard key:

a

e

i

o

u

Preceded by ^:

â

ê

î

ô

û

Standard key:

a

n

o

Preceded by ~:

ã

ñ

õ

(1) short cut for footnote

(2) degree symbol