UK.keylayout for Mac OS X 10.2 or higher

by Matt Sephton

Background

The standard British key layout makes a UK-issue Apple keyboard work as it should do, but for some of us who have typed on non-Apple keyboards our whole lives - or for those Mac owners who are using a third-party keyboard - the Apple standard layout doesn't feel quite right. For example, Shift+2 gives you @, whereas on more standard keyboards it gives you ".

Purpose

This file will map the " @ # ~ \ | £ ` keys to be where you would expect them to be on a UK keyboard. Users of IBM, Dell, Windows or other PC keyboards will feel right at home.

Download

zip file (3kb) 26 April 2007

How to install

1. Unzip archive
2. Copy UK.keylayout to /Library/Keyboard Layouts/
3. Log out and then back in again
4. Go to System Preferences -> International -> Input Menu
5. Scroll down half-way to UK, tick check box
6. Scroll back to top, un-check previous setting

Done.

Troubleshooting

• If you can't do step 6) above, check "Show input menu in menu bar" and choose the UK layout manually using the input menu
• If the setting will not stick, try checking "Use one input source in all documents"
and login again

How to use a newer version

Copy UK.keylayout over existing version, log out, then log back in again.

Version history

26 April: Changed Option+3 -> #, Option+§ -> ` (grave or back-tick)
2007 06 March: Added Option+3 -> ` (grave or back-tick)
18 February: Added Shift+3 -> £ (pound sterling)
17 February: Initial, private release
2005

Links

Version Tracker
Mac Update
Softpedia

Thanks to Word Herd for technical information and John Whyte for spotting the missing ` key.