Welcome to Multitypist!
A comperhensive guide to typing in other languages.
Introduction
Unable to say "How are you?" in French because you can't type that one strange letter? Tired of diacritics to the point of not using them at all? ¿Can't properly write questions in Spanish without looking up the upside-down question mark? Learning German and thinking that the letter "ß" is the stuff of nightmares? You've already figured everything up on your phone, but unsure what to do with your computer?
This website will quickly guide you through all the quirks of multilingual typing that will make your experience with foreign languages better. Forget virtual keyboards. Let's get real. Let's get to know our keyboard layouts.
History
Contemporary layout of computer keyboards didn't come from nowhere. Its history is very simple: it goes back to typewriters and teleprinters. The layout with 3 rows, QWERTY, shift key and wide space bar were all established around the beginning of the 20th century. Later came the 4th numeric row, tab key, caps lock, return (enter) key, other modifier keys, dead keys, and the square, cube-like shape of the keys. Control key came from teleprinters, and it still serves the same function – sending commands to the machine instead of typing. See the keyboard history page for more information and sublime typewriter pictures.
QWERTY became the most widespread keyboard layout in the early days of typewriters and teleprinters. There wasn't a particular reason behing it, save for the mentions of telegraph operators giving feedback about the letter groupings (teleprinters were the thing for telegraph systems back then). So, QWERTY typewriters became quickly adopted around in regions where the Latin alphabet was used. However, some countries made slight changes to this layout: QWERTZ layout became predominant in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; AZERTY – in France, Belgium, and several African countries; QZERTY – in Italy (historically).
IBM Selectric II electric typewriter with QWERTY layout
Layouts
QWERTY keyboard layout is the most widespread layout in the
world. You surely encounter it rather often, and probably even use it. The
English US layout is the default on most computer system these days.
Shortcuts for computer commands such as Ctrl+C (copy),
Ctrl+X (cut), Ctrl+V (paste),
Ctrl+Z (undo), etc. heavily favour this layout as well.
United States QWERTY layout
AZERTY layout, named similarly after the first 6 keys of the top
row, differs from QWERTY by switching the positions of Q,
W keys with A, Z keys, and placing
the N key after the L key. Note that the physial
layout is different as well – AZERTY is ISO (european), not ANSI
(american). This is evident by the shape of the Enter key.
Two more keys can fit on the keyboard this way. Important detail: right
Alt is labeled as AltGr
(Alt Graph). This layout is used in French-speaking
countries.
French AZERTY layout
QWERTZ layout, used in German-speaking countries, doesn't differ
from QWERTY much: Z and Y keys are swapped, and,
being from a european country, this layout is ISO as well. There are 3
extra letters – Ö, Ü and
Ä, so basically vowels with umlauts, which are typical for
Germanic languages. AltGr is also present here.
German QWERTZ layout. Can you imagine hitting Ctrl+Z on it?
QWERTY layout, but this one is used in Spain! No key shuffling
on this one, only new letters – Ñ and Ç.
Again, european country, so ISO layout, Alt Graph key, you get the idea.
You must be wondering if this has something to do with diacritics, and you
may be right.
Spanish QWERTY layout
Dead keys
Dead keys were invented with one purpose: enabling typewriter users to
type letters with diacritics. This uncanny-sounding things are essential
for many languages, along with AltGr key, and every
central-european knows what they are for. The name comes from the way
dead keys function: when you press them, nothing happens. But after you've
pressed some dead key, the next letter you type will be modified
accordingly.
Let's assume you are French: if you use the AZERTY layout, you can
press the ` key (Shift+7), then press
U, et voila – you've just typed "Ù". We can imagine how
wasteful it would be to populate the limited keyboard space for all the
possible letter+diacritic combinations, so dead keys are very handy for
languages that use diacritics. Symbols that function as dead keys resemble
the diacritic that they'll append to a letter. On modern computer systems,
to get just the diacritic you can press the dead key two times or combine
it with AltGr. Pressing Space after hitting a
dead key also works.
In the layouts section, dead keys are labeled
red. We can point out that the usual dead keys are
´/', `,
¨/", ~, and ^. Be
aware that there are more dead keys in layouts made for typing in
languages with heavy use of different diacritics, such as Nordic
languages.
Alt Graph (AltGr)
AltGr is short for Alt Graph, which is short for "alternative graphic".
That's computers for you. They don't have to make sense. The fact that
AltGr is basically a secondary Shift doesn't
make much sense either, but let me explain. The keys on modern computers
have layers – lowercase letters are located on the first layer,
uppercase letters – on the second, uncomon letters and symbols
– on the third. Nobody knows for sure what's on the fourth one,
there are all kinds of things. To access the second layer (and to type
uppercase letters) we hold down Shift, and AltGr
works in the same way, but serves to access the third layer. The fourth
layer is accessed by holding Shift and AltGr
simultaneously.
In the layouts section, the third row symbols
and letters are labeled blue on the layout schematics. As we can see,
layouts with AltGr allow user to type noticeably more
characters than the United States QWERTY layout. If only someone came up
with the idea of putting AltGr in US QWERTY...
US-International
US-International layout is a godsend to those who are already used to the US QWERTY. It allows you to comfortably type in other languages with the help of dead keys and Alt Graph key. This layout is compatible with most languages that are using the Latin script, especially Romance and Germanic languages.
US-International QWERTY layout
Not many keyboards come with this layout out of the box. It is supposed
to be fully compatible with whatever US QWERTY keyboard you already have.
The main difference is the addition of AltGr key, which
enables the user to type many letters from foreighn languages as well as
unusual symbols (labeled blue on the schematic), such as Ç,
ß, Ñ, Ü, Ø,
¬, €, ¡, ¿. etc.
There are also 5 dead key symbols, the usual ones: ',
`, ", ~, and ^. Use
them to append a diacritic to the compatible letters. To enter a normal
apostrophe or quotation mark instead of ´ and ¨,
press the keys in a combination with AltGr or simply hit
Space after the dead key. Variations of US-International
exist, with some adding 3 more dead key symbols, such as ˘,
°, and ¯.
Home row & touch typing
While you've occupied yourself with reimagining how you use your
keyboard, why not learn how to type better? These tactile nubs on the
letters F and J indicate where your index
fingers need to be. The rest of the fingers go to the left or to the
right of the index finger, all sitting on the middle row. It's called
"home row" because that's supposed to be the neutral position of your
fingers.
Now you need to put a bit of effort to force yourself to use the keyboard like this. It may feel unnatural, but this is like learning how to properly hold a pen after you've been holding it wrong for your entire life. Not impossible, and definitely benefitial in the long run.
You will slowly develop the muscle memory for where each finger needs to go to reach a specific letter. The home row will make sense pretty soon when you begin to automatically reach your finger to the next letter without having to hunt for it. Next thing you know, you are able to type some letters without even looking at the keyboard. I recommend using Monkeytype to practice your typing.