Help topics for virtual keyboards

Compatibility

The virtual keyboards are compatible with Internet Explorer 6.0+, Firefox 1.5+, Google Chrome, Opera 9.5+, and Safari 3.0+. Caps Lock is not supported. Shift key is used to access the Caps Lock state. Shift Lock for Swiss German, Hebrew, and other keyboards is supported.

Boxes, Vertical bars, or Question marks

These may appear on your screen instead of your characters for a number of reasons. Make sure a Unicode font for your characters is installed on your machine. You can download Unicode fonts from Alan Wood's website.

Missing characters

Some keyboards use shift state for two completely different chararacters on alphabetic keys. Alphabetic keys are the [A - Z] keys on the US keyboard. The punctuation and numeric keys behave the same way. In such keyboards, the shift key is one of the places to check for the existance of the missing character.

Other keyboards use what are called dead keys. These keys don't produce a character on their own but when followed by another key, they produce characters. For example, on a Spanish keyboard, the accent [`] key is a dead key. When this accent key is followed by either one of [A, E, I, O, U, Y] keys, accent characters are produced.

Some keyboards also have keys for the base sound for a set of characters. When these keys are pressed, the variants will be visible for entry. And there are others ...

Special characters

You may use the Unicode character picker to enter characters not available in the virtual keyboards.

Setup your personal computer and avoid using virtual keyboards

Most personal computers come with many different languages pre-installed. All you need to do is set your keyboard to type your language. The following instruction videos show you how to do just that.

Instructions for MS/Windows

This YouTube video tutorial shows how to setup your computer keyboard to Greek on Windows 7. If you want another keyboard, you would choose your keyboard instead of Greek. If you don't find your language in the input language list, you can select any language.

This YouTube video tutorial shows how to setup your computer keyboard to Greek Polytonic on Windows XP.

Instructions for Apple/Mac

This YouTube video tutorial shows how to setup Greek on Mac OS X. The steps are very similar if you have another version of Mac computer.

Instructions for Ubuntu

This video shows how to setup Hebrew on Ubuntu version 8.10. There are quiet a lot of keyboards available on Ubuntu sorted by country and language. Happy typing!

Keyboard Stickers

Keyboard stickers are rectangular labels that stick on the keys of your computer keyboard. They help you locate your characters on your keyboard. Keyboard stickers come in different sizes and colors. They can be made with transparent material. Check this YouTube video for a sample of how a Russian keyboard sticker looks like on a MacBook.

Some keyboards have keys that can pop out. You can buy a set of keys for your language and replace the keys. This YouTube video shows how to pop out a key from a MacBook.