Any significant differences between US and UK layout?

[Daze]

I'm looking to buy my first tenkeyless mechanical keyboard. The one's I have been looking at are all US layout and I haven't been able to find UK layout versions. Has anyone else made the jump from UK to US? Are there really any significant difference that I would take a long amount of time to get used to? Or is it really no big deal? Thanks

[fossala]

I am from the UK and use ANSI layout (or sun type 3). But I have to use ISO when I use other peoples PCs. It isn't hard to change but I also change between dvorak and qwerty as well.

[Twig]

I used UK layout for most of my life, I now use ANSI with the UK input language. I found it pretty easy to switch, I actually found the larger shift more comfortable (particularly for gaming). However I couldn't get used to the enter key. my main reason for this was because on the UK layout I have a habit of hitting backspace then sliding my finger down to press enter. So I remapped the key above enter on the ANSI to another enter key. seems to work fine for me.

[hazeluff]

I'm looking to buy my first tenkeyless mechanical keyboard. The one's I have been looking at are all US layout and I haven't been able to find UK layout versions. Has anyone else made the jump from UK to US? Are there really any significant difference that I would take a long amount of time to get used to? Or is it really no big deal? Thanks

There is very little difference in terms of keys.

You can change how the OS interprets the layout of keys. So there isn't much except the " @ # \| left shift and enter keys.

Been in england 3 years, still can't understand why " is not shift + '.

[grasshopper]

I'm in the UK, and for several years I used an ANSI US layout keyboard. I'm pretty sure you'd have no problems making the switch as the layouts are practically the same. I actually find it quite bizarre that some committee came up with a separate UK specific layout that wasn't upwardly compatible with the US one. It makes no sense. The only useful UK specific character that's missing from a US keyboard is £ and that could easily have been accessed in the same way as the € symbol by pressing Alt Gr.

If you do buy a US keyboard and you're a Linux user then I'd strongly suggest you try out the "USA International (AltGr dead keys)" layout. It's fully compatible with the standard US layout but gives you access to many other characters (including £) by using the right Alt (Alt Gr) key. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent layout for Windows, but I'd be very surprised if there isn't.

[fossala]

I'm in the UK, and for several years I used an ANSI US layout keyboard. I'm pretty sure you'd have no problems making the switch as the layouts are practically the same. I actually find it quite bizarre that some committee came up with a separate UK specific layout that wasn't upwardly compatible with the US one. It makes no sense. The only useful UK specific character that's missing from a US keyboard is £ and that could easily have been accessed in the same way as the € symbol by pressing Alt Gr.

If you do buy a US keyboard and you're a Linux user then I'd strongly suggest you try out the "USA International (AltGr dead keys)" layout. It's fully compatible with the standard US layout but gives you access to many other characters (including £) by using the right Alt (Alt Gr) key. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent layout for Windows, but I'd be very surprised if there isn't.

Sadly for some reason dvorak international doesn't give you a pound sign.

[Jamesbeat]

I'm from the UK, but now live in the States.
I'm not a really heavy keyboard user, so there may be problems that I haven't come across, but for the most part the difference is small enough not to matter.
I'm typing this on my laptop, which I brought with me from England and thus has a UK keyboard.
I'm using Ubuntu, and I selected the US layout, because, well I have to get used to it sooner or later!
The main thing I needed to relearn was that @ is now above 2, and " is now above '.
This made searching for exact phrases on google, and typing email addresses really annoying for a few days, but I got used to it quickly.
My friend used to have a Mac, and her keyboard had these symbols switched too, but I think it was a UK- purchased laptop.

I still haven't found my pound sign, but I haven't really needed it (I just type 'quid' when talking to my UK friends...) This may be a problem for you I guess.

I'm afraid I know next to nothing about the finer details of layouts, but is there anything stopping you from telling your computer that you have a UK keyboard and just ignoring the differences in the symbols on the keys, or would that cause problems elsewhere?

[grasshopper]

I'm afraid I know next to nothing about the finer details of layouts, but is there anything stopping you from telling your computer that you have a UK keyboard and just ignoring the differences in the symbols on the keys, or would that cause problems elsewhere?

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. The UK layout is based on the ISO standard which gives you one extra key next to left shift at the expense of having a smaller left shift key (another dumb decision by the ISO committee). Because of the missing key, you lose access to at least one character. From memory I think it is ~ (necessary if you're a coder) but I'd need to check up on that.

[fruktstund]

I learned to use UK layout in late December, because I noticed that it was much more suited for coding than the Swedish layout which I've used all my life. Took me about half a day to learn it, and after two days I realised that it really was nicer for my hands. I mean, AltGr+7 is a whacky way to write a "{".

This thursday, my latest keyboard arrived, and I feared I wouldn't like the change from (physical) ISO layout to ANSI. I didn't really have a choice as I was craving for some China edition (pink!) Filco goodness, which is only available in ANSI layout. It took me about one day to get used to it, but I still feel Shift+' for " is a bit strange, but I'm getting more and more used to it by the day. The key combination is more logical when you think about it though.

One thing is really annoying though: I can't write neat smilies such as ":>" when typing in Swedish due to the physical layout, but that's quite the first world problem I guess. You British people needn't worry about this though. lol

tl;dr version: not that much of a difference.

Edit: you would lose the ~ if using UK layout in software with an ANSI keyboard, but the only reason why you'd do this is to write the pound sign (I guess), so I think it's more about what you're using the most; if you're using the pound sign more than the ~, go with UK layout and swap to US when necessary.