Getting US English / QWERTY keyboards in Switzerland

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1
Just read through the Dell - Online ordering is a joke thread, and this issue came to my mind which I didn't consider before: I'm quite sensitive to keyboard layouts - even the slightly different UK keyboard slows me down.

The Swiss keyboard layout is horrible. Trying to squeeze all those French, Italian, and German characters on the keyboard, and making all kinds of other useful characters (punctuation, symbols, etc.) more difficult to type. Maybe it's less bad if you are used to this, but trying to use them was really inconvenient when I was in a visit at EPFL a few years ago or at an Internet Café in Zürich two weeks ago...

I use a keyboard layout with a Compose key (being mapped to AltGr or to some other available key depending on environment) for when I need European accented characters (like, AltGr+"+A for Ä). Esp. being a programmer, it's more important to me to be able to type a semicolon, brackets, backslash, etc. in one stroke.

I don't intend to bring my PC with me - only my old laptop to have something in the beginning. At some point I'll buy a new computer in Switzerland, either a desktop or a laptop, not yet sure.

Should I bring a keyboard or two with me when I move? (In Israel we have the standard US-English QWERTY layout, with additional Hebrew labels on the keys for when we switch to Hebrew input mode).

How difficult is it to get a US English layout keyboard in Switzerland? What companies/shops let you choose a non-Swiss keyboard layout here? What about when buying a laptop? Then obviously a keyboard I'd have brought with me wouldn't help.

Then there's the option of just using a local keyboard and changing to a different keyboard layout in software, possibly putting some stickers on some keys if I find the labels confuse me (don't think so, I hardly ever look at them), but I recall the Swiss keyboards have a slightly different physical shape too - this oddly shaped Enter key (upside-down "L", with a narrow bottom part leaving room for another key, and a wide top part taking the place of the backslash), and a shorter left Shift with some other key tucked right to it. So that wouldn't be ideal either.

Oh well, may that be my worst difficulty in migration Enjoy the upcoming Pentecost (Pfingstmontag),

-- Tom

2
Hey Tom,

Have ordered 3 Dell laptops in the last 5 years here, all with regular QWERTY keyboards, so it's quite easy to do.

Just make sure it goes on the Dell order summary correctly. Call them if not.

Barbra.

3
I've been buying most of my computer kit from digitec , and they seem to have a few US-layout keyboards in their stock. However, the selection is relatively limited - if you're fussy about keyboards then you'll probably need to order them from overseas to get just the one you want, in a US layout.

I can also confirm that Dell and Apple will provide a US keyboard if you ask for one.

4
Can't you set the keyboard in Windows as qwerty and swap the 'z' and 'y'??

5
A couple of zears ago, when I had to swap kezboards, all mz letters were confusing to put it mildlz.

6
How did you choose a QWERTY keyboard? I tried going through the customization/order of a few models at dell.ch, and they only offer Swiss French and Swiss German layouts (the only difference between them being

whether unshifted you get ö, ä, ü and shifted é, à, è or vice versa (which makes me wonder now - how do you capital accented/umlauted letters?).

Do you just call Dell after making the order and specify it? Does it complicate the order? (Seems so according to that other thread)

Oh, and the laptops you got with a QWERTY layout - was it US or UK layout?

Also what about IBM/Lenovo? They don't even seem to have online ordering in Switzerland (in Israel nobody has, but in the US/UK it's pretty standard with them all)... Can you get ThinkPads with a US layout in Switzerland? One day I'd like to get one of them ThinkPad X61 Tablet PCs... Thanks anyway,

-- Tom

7
Doesn't the "German" layout also have the vertically-oriented Enter/Return key and a relocated '\' key (probably amongst others) ?

8
I can remap the keyboard alright in whatever system I'm using. May even put stickers to avoid occasional confusion when I happen to look at the keycaps. But then there is still the different physical layout - backslash key gone, replaced by oddly shaped top of Enter, additional keys right of the left Shift and left of the Enter...

Were it only the Z and Y... I just looked up the Swiss keyboard layout on Wikiipedia - ignoring the physical changes in key arrangement/shape, if I'd want to re-label the keys to QWERTY, I'd need to put stickers on 21 keys... Including all of the numeric keys except for the 5 key. But it's really the physical shape/arrangement change that poses the main problem - else I wouldn't mind labeling some keys...

Get Das Keyboard to avoid those printed layout problems :-)

-- Tom

9
Yes, it appears that most European countries use such odd keyboards. Dutch has a relatively reasonable shape, but other than that, according to the Keyboard layout Wikipedia entry, only Turkey and Romania have the same physical shape as US keyboards. Apparently in Poland most keyboards use the "Polish Programmer layout", though, which is identical to US English with Polish accentuated letters available using AltGr.

Well, I learn something new every day

-- Tom

10
I can imagine that also local cellphones use such weird keyboard... I am getting used to it slowly, but everytime I press ''Z'' on German keyboard it pops ''Y'' and vice-versa.... This is only part of the problem when it comes to other numeric keys it gets even worse!

I heard many times before that in Switzerland things are done differently but didnt know that to such extent

11
When i ruined my keyboard i bought a new one at interdiscount ,couldn't deal with the QUERTZ so i bought stickers from this place http://www.4keyboard.com/ took me 5 minutes to put them on worked nice and look original.

12
Well, if anybody else is interested, for your information: having sent some queries to notebook computer distributors in Switzerland, yesterday I got a reply from Lenovo Switzerland, in German:

What I understand from it, in short: We don't sell ThinkPads with US English keyboards - but we can sell you a replacement US English keyboard for your ThinkPad separately, for CHF 40-50.

By the price he quoted and model dependency, I suppose it can be assumed that's really meant a notebook keyboard that you replace by opening lots of screws and fuzzing with those tiny connectors in there, and not just an external USB keyboard.

I also saw in Apple Store Switzerland , that when configuring a notebook, you have choice of keyboard and documentation: Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide Beleuchtete Tastatur (Schweiz) & Benutzerhandbuch (Englisch) Beleuchtete Tastatur (Schweiz) & Benutzerhandbuch (Italienisch) Beleuchtete Tastatur (US) & Benutzerhandbuch (Englisch) So there are two options for English keyboards - maybe the "Backlit Keyboard (English)" option is a UK English layout keyboard and the "Beleuchtete Tastatur (US)" is a US English layout keyboard?

By BHBT's post, you can order a Dell with a US English keyboard too. So those are already three major notebook computer makers whose laptops you can have with QWERTY keyboards in Switzerland.

No response from HP (yet). The situation's not that bad, then...

-- Tom

13
Solution,

...fun for the whole family

Buy hammer, egg timer and two or three keyboards of any nationality, feel free to mix it up and add a Chinese or Arabic keyboard. Use said hammer and begin smashing keyboards. Set egg timer for 2 minutes Start timer and begin putting all the characters in one of the keyboards where you think they might go When timer stops, if any slots are still open, you may only use vowels to fill in the rest. Hook up to significant other's computer. Optional: Use keyboard on your own computer when you have guests coming over for a party or dinner, whom you would like not to use your PC/Mac.

14
I've brought 3 UK keyboards with me, but that doesn't really help as my work laptop is SG. You can buy stickers from Ebay, but the easiest thing to do is configure the preferred keyboard in windows, and just type without looking at the keys

15
I bought a logitech US layout keyboard directly from their website about a year ago, it wasn't a problem. Well, originally they sent me a swiss german layout keyboard, but when I wrote to complain, they sent me the US layout one and didn't want the Swiss one back.

16
I have similar issue, namely just ordered online a Lenovo laptop and it came with the Swiss keyboard layout (there was no option to select the desired keyboard layout). Can anyone advise of an website/store that sells US/International keyboard layout stickers for laptops here in CH?

Thanks,

Laur

17
i don't think stickers will help as the keys are physically different. at least for UK to US that is so - there are keys in different places and others missing. UK has that huge key.... I got used to US keyboards growing up using Suns so I always prefer them now too.

I use a CM storm compact mechanical keyboard i bought on amazon.com and my laptops i always buy in the US anyhow.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VDKLLM - looks like its not currently available.

18
Thanks for the info, but using a separate keyboard doesn't help when I'm on the go..

I have found (and already ordered) some really cheap stickers on Amazon.it (will get back with feedback once I receive them):

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B01...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

19
it won't be perfect in terms of keys being where you expect them. look at these images. the keys are physically in different places.

Swiss:

US:

20
I'm insanely picky about my keyboards, in terms of key layout, pressure of keys etc. I also wear out the key symbols about every 2 years, which isn't such a big issue as I'm lucky enough to be able to touch type; but the high use does mean that "silent" keyboards inevitably become noisy over time...... I've had issues with getting a keyboard I like in Switzerland - not enough variety in the stores and no chance to test via online purchasing. So I just settle on a model I like, and when I'm in the UK I buy 2 or 3 at once and just work them to death until the next batch...