German Keyboard layout and Hanzi input issue

[HerrPetersen]

Hello everyone.

I am from Germany and have a little issue with the standard IME for inputting hanzi. The problem is, that on German keyboard layout "y" and "z" are changed, when compared to English keyboard layout. When switching from hanzi input to pinyin input I always type for instance "ze" instead of "ye" and so on.

Does anybody know a way to fix that problem (except for always changing to english/american layout - I still want to be able to type öäüß)

Thanks for any input.

[adrianlondon]

I'm currently working in Germany but have a UK keyboard on my own laptop, a German keyboard on my client's laptop that I usually use, and a US keyboard plugged into that.

So confusing!

I tend to stick to writing any Chinese related stuff (which isn't much to be honest) using my own laptop ;)

However, try the registry edit mentioned here

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/2-favourite-chinese-musician1664

[HerrPetersen]

Thanks for the link. I didn't get things to work as I wished for, but I am in no rush.

[gougou]

I had the same problem as you before, and I just got used to it. It's only two letters; be glad you don't have the French layout

[HerrPetersen]

Yeah I know its only two letters. But you see, I am working right now on transcribing the entire book "Assimil with Ease 2". I was doing 3-5 lessons hanzi only, then the corresponding pinyin only. Now I am almost done, so maybe I won't encounter the problem again but still it would have been a nice thing to have.

[889]

You can use a key mapping program like Key Tweak to switch your Z and Y keys, while leaving the rest of your German keyboard layout as it is.

http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/

[HerrPetersen]

I just noticed an interesting thing: the way to solve the problem suggested here

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/2-favourite-chinese-musician1664

Acutally does work. At least it works with the Microsoft notepad. 住也 just checked: it also works on the intrawebs. But it does not work with MS Excel or Word.

I have not checked if it works with Open Office, but it does work with Googel spreadsheets (and seemingly with everything else)... so this gives rise to the question:

Is the information for the IME-keyboard layout stored seperatly for MS Office programs? Does anyone know anything specific?

@889 thanks for the info. I will consider it for the future.

Edited August 2, 2008 at 07:54 PM by HerrPetersen

[Scoobyqueen]

I have the same problem in Germany and also the question mark is affected. I have got used to it. I have lived in different countries with different keyboards. At first it is annoying but you get used to it (and also you usually cannot ask the employer to buy you a UK keyboard when everyone is using the German one). The worst thing is getting used to the drop down menus which obviously have different function names. It takes a few weeks and you will proably find it screws up these keys on the qwerty board when you switch back.

[imron]

you usually cannot ask the employer to buy you a UK keyboard when everyone is using the German one

No, but you usually can go to the keyboard settings, and set it up so that the computer uses the keyboard layout that you are used to regardless of the physical keyboard you have. All modern operating systems support this functionality, so even though the key has a 'y' written on it, when you press it, a 'z' appears and vice versa. As long as you can touch type, you'll never notice that you're using a German keyboard.

I spent almost a year in Finland, and at the beginning I thought I'd just get used to the different keyboard layout, but as a computer programmer it was a nightmare. On the Finnish keyboard, keys that are regularly used in computer programming such as { } [] all require the use of the Alt-Gr key which massively slows down touch typing. After a couple of weeks I couldn't stand it and mapped the keyboard layout back the standard one I was used to.

Unfortunately all of that doesn't help the OP solve his problem. Although I will point out that I did learn a valuable lesson from my experience, and the OP will discover that if he ever needs to type in pinyin, then if he installs Pinyinput, he will find that the underlying keyboard layout can be remapped in the options