US keyboard to UK layout advise

[Jokah]

I've recently purchased a Ducky 1008 from pchome with english keys.

Untill after I had purchased the board I didn't realise that it had a US key layout. I'm new to mechanical keyboards and untill now havn't really put much thought into what keyboard I use, and certainly haven'tbought one from abroard, so its not really something I thought to check.

I'm looking for advise on whats the best way to convert the board to a UK layout. I've seen 7-bits thread for ordering double shot caps and have noticed there are some UK caps to be purchased. My only problem there is that, as far as I can gather, the double shot caps in the thread have centralised lettering and they will look a bit silly on my board unless I replace all of the caps. Maybe one day I will replace all of the caps for double shots but for now its something I cant afford.

Are these caps my only option?

Edit: Title was supposed to read as "US keyboard to UK layout advice". It wasn't meant to sound like I'm demanding someone advise me on what to do. Sorry

[bugfix]

Pretty much, yes.

[keyboardlover]

That's not true. You can scrounge Cherry-compatible keycaps (double-shot, lasered, etc.) off various other keyboards you can find. Some are fairly inexpensive on ebay.

[nathanscribe]

Why not just select US layout in your user preferences and get used to the (minor) differences?  It's really not an issue I find... I bought an ANSI Filco a while back and apart from the £ sign being an ALT keypress, you're not missing anything.  The adjustment takes no time at all, though you might find yourself hitting \ instead of Enter.  Converting a US board to UK layout seems like sledgehammer/nut time.

[theferenc]

I would also suggest setting your keyboard to US-International. Gives you all of the same characters, just some are a bit harder to get to.

Your biggest problem is going to be moving between keyboards. If you almost always use your own, it won't be a problem. But it always took me a day or so to adjust to the UK layout when I was there.

[Jokah]

Why not just select US layout in your user preferences and get used to the (minor) differences?  It's really not an issue I find... I bought an ANSI Filco a while back and apart from the £ sign being an ALT keypress, you're not missing anything.  The adjustment takes no time at all, though you might find yourself hitting \ instead of Enter.  Converting a US board to UK layout seems like sledgehammer/nut time.

I'd probably be more comfortable just leaving as is and remembering. Although it wont affect my typing I just like things to be right. A bit anal I know but I'm sure many people can understand that.

[theferenc]

Like I said, the hardest part will be remembering where keys have moved. You'll need to adjust, but during the adjustment, it will be potentially very frustrating, especially if you're a programmer.

But when you are used to it, you will understand why most programmers tend to gravitate to ANSI, regardless of national layout (anecdotal, but lots of anecdotes).

[Jokah]

Like I said, the hardest part will be remembering where keys have moved. You'll need to adjust, but during the adjustment, it will be potentially very frustrating, especially if you're a programmer.

But when you are used to it, you will understand why most programmers tend to gravitate to ANSI, regardless of national layout (anecdotal, but lots of anecdotes).

Nah. I'm far from a programmer. I know my way round a computer and I know how to type but I'm a mechanic by day and computers are one of my hobbys.

[ch_123]

The differences between the US and UK are subtle enough such that you can pick them up after using the US keyboard for a week or so. I'm able to switch between them almost instantaneously. It's not as if you're going from something like French AZERTY to US, they're almost exactly the same thing.

[keyboardlover]

The French keyboard layout makes me want to start a riot.

[Jokah]

I can type but I'm currently trying to teach my self to touch type. For me at, this point, that is hard enough without having to learn different key locations. But it is what it is. If thats what I have to do without replacing keys that will make my board look silly then thats what I have to do.

[Jokah]

@keybaordlover. That bad ehhh....

[theferenc]

AZERTY is HEINOUS. Like truly, oh my god awful. Apparently even in France, its use is on the decline.

Last time I looked in to this (we have an ergonomics department on campus), more and more French speakers are migrating to the US International layout, as is most often used in Quebec, for instance.

This has more to do with ease of access for the extra characters than hatred of AZERTY, though. But AZERTY is actually the worst in terms of hand movement of any of the "common" layouts.

[ch_123]

One of the things about AZERTY is that whereas most layouts have numbers on the top row in the unshifted position and random characters, AZERTY has it the other way around.



Also note the amount of useless symbols around the Enter key, and commonly used characters like the accented A are on the top row. Unlike many foreign language layouts that look silly to people who use US/UK keyboards, but make sense to people using them, the AZERTY layout is just outright stupid.

Last time I looked in to this (we have an ergonomics department on campus), more and more French speakers are migrating to the US International layout, as is most often used in Quebec, for instance.

Interesting. The Dutch did the same, there is a special Dutch layout, but everyone uses US Int.