Using a British/UK Windows keyboard with an Apple Mac in OS X (3)

If you have a Mac and want to use a keyboard that's designed to be used with a British Windows-based PC, you'll notice that some of the keys don't produce the expected characters. @ and ” are generally swapped, for example. In addition the Command (Apple), Option and Control keys may be swapped round. Each of these problems needs to be tackled separately…

This page supersedes two older versions of these instructions (version 1, version 2). If you want more background information you might find useful stuff there.

Moving Command, Option and Control keys

If you're using Mac OS X 10.0.1 - 10.3.8, then uControl lets you swap and change the Command, Option and Control keys around via a moderately friendly System Preferences pane.

uControl doesn't work on Mac OS X 10.4+ (Tiger), but Apple has built a similar feature into the System Preferences. Open the System Preferences application and click 'Keyboard & Mouse'. Then click the 'Modifier Keys…' button in the bottom left. Re-map your keys and click OK. I change mine to look like this picture:

Picture of the Modifier Keys pane

Unfortunately, OS X applies these changes to all keyboards — so if you have a PowerBook or iBook with a PC keyboard plugged in, you'll have to re-map the modifier keys whenever you want to use your laptop's keyboard. If I recall correctly, uControl applies your changes to the keyboard you specify, so it swaps back and forth automatically. Sometimes progress isn't always in the right direction…

Moving punctuation keys

Another addition to Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is the 'Change Keyboard Type…' button next to the 'Modifier Keys…' button in the 'Keyboard & Mouse' preference pane. I hoped this would take standard Windows-oriented UK PC keyboards into account, but I've had little luck with it. Whichever keyboard type it suggests for me, none fix the problem of wrongly-mapped characters.

Instead, we will use a custom Keyboard Layout to re-map the troublesome keys. While I haven't had problems with this over the years, I can't take responsibility for anything that goes wrong if you follow these instructions.

  1. Download this zip archive or this gzip archive, unzip it, and place the enclosed British-Windows-2.rsrc file in your '/Users/yourname/Library/Keyboard Layouts/' folder (if you don't have a 'Keyboard Layouts' folder there, just create one). You should make sure to unzip the file by double-clicking it in the Finder, rather than using the command line, as it appears this can corrupt this particular file.
  2. Next, open System Preferences and click 'International'. Click 'Input Menu' and select the checkbox next to 'British - Windows - 2'.
  3. Make sure the checkbox at the bottom of the window, next to 'Show input menu in menu bar', is selected and then quit System Preferences.
  4. Now you should be able to select the 'British - Windows - 2' keyboard layout from the little icon towards the right of the menu bar.

Hopefully your keys should now be re-mapped successfully: try typing! This layout swaps ” and @, and also the ` and \ keys. If you don't want the ` and \ keys swapped, then try this older 'British-Windows' layout — un-Stuff the file and follow the instructions above. You should then have a 'British - Windows' option in the menu bar Input Menu to try.

For more information about how to create and edit a Keyboard Layout file, read the older instructions: version 1, version 2.

Again, if you have a laptop and want to use its own keyboard, you'll have to use the Input Menu to manually change back to whichever Keyboard Layout you were using before (simply 'British' in my case). Also, note that whenever Mac OS X prompts you for your password to authorise something it flips back to your default Keyboard Layout — so if you use any of the re-mapped characters in your system password, be careful. Some applications, such as Virtual PC and Internet Explorer also seem to use the default Keyboard Layout — annoying, but not the end of the world.

Comments

  • Richard Hyett at 21 Nov 2005, 10:26am. Permalink

    Thanks Phil, after reading this I've decided to order the Mac Keyboard, life is complicated enough.

  • Nick at 26 Nov 2005, 9:20pm. Permalink

    Really easy — worked a treat — thanks!

  • Neil Smith at 4 Dec 2005, 4:55pm. Permalink

    Wow thanks Phil, this has been bugging me for weeks ! Now I have full control over my @~”#\/'ing keys !

    I find it odd that nobody seemed to have tested the “British” keyboard layout on a PC keyboard. This one is shared through a KVM switch with one of my PCs.

    As a web developer, I'm always using those keys and it's a real teeth-grinder to have to switch contexts depending on which machine I'm coding on.

    A curious side effect after dragging the file seemed to be that none of the current apps would load the new layout and kept defaulting back to British (1).

    Well I quit all apps, and restarted them, had no real effect, but a system restart seemed to pick up the user profile changes.

    Thanks again for saving my sanity - Neil

  • Nick Buckley at 6 Dec 2005, 10:05am. Permalink

    Hi Phil. This is just so useful! Small thing… huge sanity impact. Cheers, Respect etc - Nick.

  • mike at 24 Dec 2005, 9:15pm. Permalink

    Apple messed up here. Part of the selling point of the Mac Mini is that it doesn't come with a keyboard and mouse and you can just reuse the one you have. Part of the the Mac Mini's target audience is switchers - these people, in Britain at least, will own a standard British keyboard. They'll plug this in to their shiny Mac Mini and find that Mac OS X does not allow them to map the keys correctly. Very poor. Just as well there is someone out there who made the effort to find a work around and share it.

  • Rod at 20 Jan 2006, 4:07pm. Permalink

    Thanks Phil, i did as you said, and it worked fine. By the time I'd done as you said I knew more than the man in the Cancom shop who sold it to me!

    Just 2 irritating extras:

    1. I can't get rid of the greyed out check/tick in the British (union jack symbol) box of Internaional input menu. This means that occasionally my keyboard defaults back to that and away from the newly installed British windows 2 layout. Any ideas on how to remove the greyed out check?

    2. My numeric keypad on the right hand side of the keyboard obstinately refuses to change from numeric mode, no matter how many times I press the Num Lock key. This is really annoying when I am used to using the delete key instead of the full stop. Again, any help much appreciated.

    Many thanks,

    Rod

  • Phil at 20 Jan 2006, 4:14pm. Permalink

    Hi Rod.

    1) I've no idea I'm afraid. Personally I don't mind having the standard British layout as an option, as I need it when just using my PowerBook's keyboard. But the times it randomly switches to this is annoying. It does it when I use Internet Explorer or Virtual PC, among other times…

    2) I'm afraid I don't have a numeric keypad on my little Windows/PC keyboard, so I can't help fix that. Sorry!

  • Scott at 29 Jan 2006, 6:52pm. Permalink

    I KVM switch between my Mini and XP all the time and was going insane also. Much appreciated Phil!

  • newtrax at 28 Feb 2006, 4:28pm. Permalink

    THANK YOU! I've been “testing” running the “patched” OSx86 on my PC notebook, and the keyboard layout was very irritating! Everything is now perfect.

  • Richard Aspden at 6 Apr 2006, 5:47pm. Permalink

    One note - in 10.4, the keyboard layout didn't appear as available until I logged off and back on again. After that, it was smooth sailing :)

  • Roddy Sharp at 6 May 2006, 9:27am. Permalink

    Thanks Phil,

    I was starting to think I must be the only one having this problem, and I only have it when using the keyboard through my KVM switch. If using the keyboard directly, it uses the Mac drivers it came with. Through the KVM the drivers complain no suiable keyboard is attached.

    I still have some minor problems though.
    When using the defulat british layout, both the #/~ and \/| keys produce “\” and “|”. If I switch to the British 2 layout they both produce “#” and “~” but I can't get both sets of symbols on the same keyboard choice. As you can probably guess, all 4 come in quite handy when using shell scripts.
    Also the £ symbol doesn't seem to work in “terminal” windows, but as you can hopefully see, it did here.

  • Phil GyfordAuthor Profile Page at 6 May 2006, 10:44am. Permalink

    I'm not sure what to suggest I'm afraid Roddy — it works OK on my keyboard so I wouldn't be able to test an alternative.

    You could try looking at the older versions of these instructions and see if you can make your own file. I think that requires ResEdit, running in OS 9/Classic though, but maybe there's an alternative method?

  • flossy at 21 Aug 2006, 11:16am. Permalink

    Thanks very much. Apple support were unable to tell me how to do this! Makes working with my kvm switch much better :-)

    Still page still took some hunting down, we need more links to it to help it raise the Google PageRank!

  • gareth at 27 Aug 2006, 11:25pm. Permalink

    The most frustrating issue of my PC to Mac transition is now resolved :-) Shame the “experts” in Apple stores don't know how to do this. Many thanks!

    Gareth

  • Jem at 4 Sep 2006, 8:36am. Permalink

    This is exactly what I've been looking for since starting my new job (where everyone works on Macs!) Only problem is I can't get it to work. I think I'm following the instructions exactly, but even after pasting the .rsrc files into the Keyboard Layouts folder I'm not seeing the British-Windows option in the Input Menu pane.

    Any advice?

  • Jem at 4 Sep 2006, 9:15am. Permalink

    A reboot of the ol' Mac sorted it - thank you!

  • Peter Upfold at 30 Sep 2006, 5:15pm. Permalink

    Wow! Thanks for this!

    Haven't bought a Mac yet, but planning to get a MacBook when Leopard comes out (hopefully a Core 2 one as well).

    Does this still work when using the standard iBook/PB/MB/MBP keyboard, in that you don't have to use an external keyboard to use the proper layout?

    I also mentioned this site on my blog, thanks again for this hint!

  • Phil Gyford at 30 Sep 2006, 9:36pm. Permalink

    Hi Peter. Yes, the custom layout will still apply when using the built-in keyboard on a Mac laptop. Personally I prefer to switch back to using the default Apple layout though, so that what's on the keys matches what I type. But then I've been using Macs for years so I don't find the British Mac keyboard layout annoying - I understand that it can be for people coming from decent UK keyboards.

    BTW, you'll find the # symbol if you press Option/Alt 3.

  • Micheal at 7 Oct 2006, 8:00pm. Permalink

    Eh…I may be doing something wrong but the @British Windows 2@ (they were supposed to be quotation marks…!) icon doesn't appear on the input menu in the international folder, even though I copied it into my existing library/keyboard layouts folder…

    Any suggestions? I'm using OS X v10.4.7

    Thanks

  • Phil Gyford at 8 Oct 2006, 10:54am. Permalink

    No idea, sorry Micheal — it works for me. I assume you've tried Restarting.

  • philip brands at 10 Oct 2006, 12:33pm. Permalink

    thanks a lot…

    But there must be some OSX-native way to handle this; ResEdit is one of the great OS9 tools that should be obsolete by now…? Hard-headed as I am I'll find it —someday.

    The strange Terminal-behaviour looks like a Unicode-problem to me:
    Shift-` -> \302\254 (not '¬'),
    Shift-3 -> \302\243 (not '£').
    Maybe these characters shouldn't be used in the Terminal in the first place, when I aquire similar characters from the Special Characters menu it gives similar result…?

    Further there's an issue with the OSX startup login; try using a re-mapped keystroke in your system-password and you'll find you need blind-typing ability on the unmapped keyboard-layout to actually get in (eg. '@' will need to be typed as Shift-2 again). After you got in the keyboard works as expected, great!

  • Phil Gyford at 10 Oct 2006, 8:50pm. Permalink

    Almost, but not quite Philip: It's not just the startup login, it's any OS X dialog that requires the username/password, eg, if you try to install something that requires permission. Then you have the same problem with @ and ” being back to the way they shouldn't be. Also, in iCal, if I select an event and edit the time/date in the Info drawer, my selected keyboard (as indicated in the OS X main menu) reverts to the standard UK keyboard, and stays that way — I have to change it back manually. Weird.

  • philip brands at 10 Oct 2006, 11:05pm. Permalink

    weirder… if you log into the system with the terminal there's none of this behaviour — keyboard maps as re-mapped.

    Points in the direction of buginess of Apple's 'loginwindow' process if you ask me… I'll leave you the honour of filing a report ;), cheers!

  • Stuart Turner at 2 Nov 2006, 10:57am. Permalink

    Phil,

    Thanks for this - I'm new to Macs and this 'oversight' by Apple was causing me to gnash my teeth.

    I also get the 'reversion' problem, particularly with Finder which insists on using the British layout. Plus, my keyboard setting is not remembered between logins so I have to re-select your layout each time. Would an AppleScript run at login be able to fix this - i.e. select your layout?

  • Phil Gyford at 2 Nov 2006, 2:18pm. Permalink

    Possibly, but I don't think I've had this problem myself. I wish Apple would just fix this problem properly.

  • Flp at 19 Nov 2006, 9:48pm. Permalink

    Hi,

    I've just started using a Mac and the differences in key positioning for writing code are driving me crazy! However, when I download your keyboard layout, the ZIP file just unpacks a 0 byte file. Any chance you could post the actual layout file?

    I also have an issue with Home/End keys. End takes me to the end of a document instead of a line. I know I can press Option-Right Arrow to do this, but its driving me crazy!

    Will your layout file fix this too?

    Thanks for the help!

  • Tommy P at 6 Dec 2006, 11:25am. Permalink

    Hello,

    I have recently returned from working in the US and whilst over there,due to the AMAZING exchange rate, I bought me a new mac book.

    Now the problem I have is that it has a US layout keyboard. I know I wont be able to physically change the keys but how can I change the function? Now that I am back I need to use the pound symbol!

    Hope you can help!

  • Phil Gyford at 7 Dec 2006, 3:52pm. Permalink

    Flp — I'm not sure what the problem is; the zip file works fine for me.

    Tommy P — Have you tried using the keyboard layout from this page?

  • Rees at 21 Jan 2007, 2:16pm. Permalink

    Just a quick note to say “thanks!”

    I've recently switched from an XP PC to a Mac Mini - awesome machine, the software integration still amazes me, and I've been extremely impressed by how stable it all is (and I'm also a Linux user). The one thing that did annoy me is the lack of support for British PC keyboards. Seems very odd considering the fact that they're aiming this thing at “switchers” like me.

    I would buy an Apple keyboard but they're squidgy and nasty and I like my tactile keyboard which I've had for years. Anyway, I can finally use it properly with Mac OS thanks to you, so many thanks for all your effort and for sharing it with the world.

  • david bell at 17 Feb 2007, 8:44pm. Permalink

    And thats the first time I have been able to type an @ key first time on this mac since my wife bought it. Thank you soooooo much

  • Dimitri Skliros at 21 Feb 2007, 1:43pm. Permalink

    Hello there,

    I've only recently switched to a mac and realised that there is no “sharp” key (using musician's terminology). Any ideas as to how I can print this symbol?

    Many thanks,

    Dimitri

  • Phil Gyford at 21 Feb 2007, 3:29pm. Permalink

    Try Option (or Alt) 3.

  • Peter Upfold at 22 Feb 2007, 8:30pm. Permalink

    Just got my new MacBook and the keyboard layout hack works like a charm.

    Thanks for saving me from learning two layouts and switching. :D

  • Al at 4 Apr 2007, 5:46am. Permalink

    Hi Phil,

    followed intructions on mac mini running 10,4 but won't pick up british mapping. does this work with 10.4.

    many thanks

    Al

  • Phil Gyford at 4 Apr 2007, 1:57pm. Permalink

    Yes, works for me.

  • Chris Mills at 25 Apr 2007, 3:09am. Permalink

    My Mac mini won't recognize my PC keyboard, although it did at one time. The Help advice is to go to System Preferences, click Keyboard and Mouse and then click Keyboard to get an option to change the keyboard. However, when I click on Keyboard, nothing happens. For environmental reasons, I hate to buy a new keyboard when I have a perfectly good one, but as things stand I have a computer that I works pretty well as a CD player. Any suggestions?
    Thanks,
    Chris

  • david stanton at 2 May 2007, 6:20pm. Permalink

    My imac intel is using a mac bluetooth keyboard, on my profile the volume buttons and eject does not work, on my feance's profile they work just fine. How can I fix this?

    Thanks

    Dave

  • Mike at 10 May 2007, 12:37pm. Permalink

    Can anyone help me.

    Am using a XP PC and the keyboard has suddenly decided to switch key charcters so when I press for @ I get ” and vice versa.

  • Christian at 18 Jun 2007, 8:25pm. Permalink

    Thanks that is the best fix ever, your a genius!

  • Pete at 10 Jul 2007, 1:11am. Permalink

    Thanks this is great.

    Just to go back to some of the earlier comments, I have deleted the master keyboard layouts (Mac HD/Libary/Keyboard Layouts ( well moved them to the desktop)) and this allows you to untick the british keyboard option. I have then poped the layouts back where they belong and this seems to work fine without reverting back.

    Thanks again

  • Jesper at 11 Aug 2007, 11:49am. Permalink

    Thanks a lot Phil !

    This has been THE largest stumbling block for me in OSX, I've simply refused to use OSX because of the differences in keyboard layouts, now I'm one step closer to giving it a try :)

  • CJ Davies at 23 Aug 2007, 9:53pm. Permalink

    Thankyou sooooo much for this article! I have spent all day trying to figure out why the hell my Mac wouldn't map a simple keyboard! The files you have linked are much easier to use than the other option (downloading Logitech's Control Centre for Mac & then extracting the Logitech.bundle file).

    Thankyou again :)

  • JMDS at 23 Sep 2007, 7:39pm. Permalink

    Hi Phil,

    Should this work on 10.3.9 os. I have carried out the required steps above but have not been able to get this to work.

    Many Thanks

  • Phil Gyford at 24 Sep 2007, 5:01pm. Permalink

    It worked for me, as far as I remember (I'm now on 10.4.10). Although you could try the previous version of these instructions, see if that's any better — I forget when 10.3 came out and whether those older instructions were current at that time.

  • Tony Dyer at 2 Oct 2007, 11:13am. Permalink

    There seems to be a supplied layout in Mac OS X 10.4.10 called British Microsoft which seems to overcome the usual printable character issues. The Intellipoint/type software downloadable from microsoft also allows you to map the windows and alt keys to the Apple behaviour

  • Phil Gyford at 3 Oct 2007, 5:13pm. Permalink

    Interesting Tony… But this thread suggests that the layout is installed as part of the software that comes with a Microsoft keyboard, not as part of OS X 10.4.10 — it's not installed on my OS X 10.4.10 anyway.

    Maybe the software is downloadable from Microsoft's site and would work with Windows keyboards not manufactured by Microsoft…?

  • Rupert Fisher at 7 Oct 2007, 7:32am. Permalink

    Can't get this to work. Problem is driving me nuts. The changes I make in the Keyboard Layouts folder don't seems ot get registered with the system. I mean they don't show in the international list of languages. Using a new MacBook with the latest OS.

    Any tips would be welcome ))(@|”:!£@£^%^&*.

  • Paul Neve at 23 Oct 2007, 10:28am. Permalink

    Ref: Pete's tip above, it's not very clear, so just for those who want to remove the default British layout and run with only the modified UK layout enabled.

    Go into /System/Library/Keyboard layouts (and NOT just /Library/Keyboard Layouts as he says)

    Drag Roman.bundle to the trash - it will ask you to authenticate, do so.

    DO NOT EMPTY THE TRASH.

    While Roman.bundle is in the trash, you will find you'll be able to unclick the default British layout. Go into the international input menu and unclick British, leaving only the new UK layout enabled.

    Then pull Roman.bundle back from the trash and drop it back in /System/Library/Keyboard layouts.

    You should probably log out and back in again, just to clean things up - and you should find all is right with the world.

    The only caveat I'm going to put is I'm aware that some badly behaved applications (mainly Microsoft) seem to demand a “known” keyboard layout and apparently misbehave to get them. If they can find the “known” keyboard layout they randomly switch to it (as noted by a gazillion people in the discussion above). If they can't find the “known” keyboard layout, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the application crash. I don't have any such applications so I can't easily try this out. However, for me at least, all is now good with the world.

  • Bart Busschots at 26 Oct 2007, 10:58pm. Permalink

    Fantastic! This worked like a charm! I can even report that this works on OS X 10.5 Leopard.

    You have no idea how long I've been banging my head off this problem, thanks so much!

    Bart.

  • phl at 10 Nov 2007, 3:53pm. Permalink

    Seems there's a problem with the zipfile – unzip reports:

    Archive: British-Windows-2.rsrc

    End-of-central-directory signature not found. Either this file is not
    a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive. In the
    latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on
    the last disk(s) of this archive.

    However, the Finder unzips it without complaint, but the file it creates is zero-bytes long. I think this is the cause of the “it doesn't show up in the layout list” problems.

  • Phil GyfordAuthor Profile Page at 10 Nov 2007, 4:51pm. Permalink

    I don't know what to suggest — I click the link for the zip file, it downloads, Stuffit Expander unzips it and I end up with a .rsrc file of 3,537 bytes in length. I'm not sure what to do any differently. I've just re-zipped and uploaded it, so you're welcome to try again.

  • http://openid.aol.com/jezchatfieldAuthor Profile Page at 30 Nov 2007, 11:23am. Permalink

    Fine detective work. But it shouldn't be this hard. Apple should be supplying a British keyboard map for Windows/PC keyboards. The UK Mac Mini page doesn't say “spend fruitless hours poring over Apple Docs, User Forums and talking with Apple Support Staff”… I'm kicking up a fuss. We'll see how far it gets. FWIW, I used to run Dell's OS Development Group, and managed their UNIX Development team - I know a bit about keyboard mapping, and how these businesses work. Wish me luck ;)

  • dqj999.pip.verisignlabs.comAuthor Profile Page at 4 Dec 2007, 5:10pm. Permalink

    I have a Mac Mini upgraded to Leopard, and tried to follow the suggestions to use the British-Windows-2.rsrc file. I successfully changed over to use the new keyboard layout. I then wanted to make the new keyboard the default so I then tried the fix to remove the original keyboard check in the configuration.

    On my MAC there was no Roman.bundle in /System/Library/Keyboard layouts, but there was an AppleKeyboardLayouts.bundle file. I assumed this might have been a name change in Leopard and copied it to the desktop and put the original in Trash. Unfortunately the next time I restarted I had lost the original UK keyboard from the Input Source selector.

    Worst of all the new keyboard does not allow me to enter ANY characters in any Authentication dialog, this prompt is occuring when I try to drag the original AppleKeyboardLayouts.bundle file to /System/Library/Keyboard layouts.

    Any suggestions please on how to get out of this?

  • tonip at 17 Dec 2007, 11:55am. Permalink

    Thanks for posting this information - it looks very useful though unfortunately I have not been able to get it to work.

    I am running Mac OS X 10.4.11 and seem to be having a similar problem to some others who have posted here: when I try to uncompress the archive I get a file of size zero bytes.

    Would anyone be able and willing to post a copy of the uncompressed British-Windows-2.rsrc file, or alternatively, Phil, would you be prepared to make a copy of it available in a linux-readable format (e.g. compressed tar)? It would be much appreciated!

  • Bill Turner at 7 Jan 2008, 9:51pm. Permalink

    You download the Microsoft Intellitype software rather than Phil's patch. You'll need to restart and when you do, instead of selecting “British - Windows - 2” as stated above, select “British Microsoft” and all your keys will be mapped as required.

    You don't even need a MS keyboard.

  • Huw Thomas at 31 Jan 2008, 9:35pm. Permalink

    Leopard + IBM Model M via USB adapter here. The intellitype software didn't recognise the IBM keyboard though it's done wonders for my scrollwheel mouse :-) Happily, the British-Windows-2 patch worked once I'd logged out and back. So thanks of this post! The only keys remaining to be tweaked for the IBM keyboard are the pipe/backslash key.

  • Huw Thomas at 31 Jan 2008, 9:57pm. Permalink

    Further to the above, I just tried the older British-Windows.rsrc.sit file and the archive seems to be corrupt, is it working for anyone else?

  • gyford.comAuthor Profile Page at 31 Jan 2008, 10:21pm. Permalink

    It works fine for me… I'm not sure what else to suggest.

    For those having a problem with the zipped British-Windows-2.rsrc file, I've uploaded a .tar.gz version, linked to from step 1 above, so you can try that instead.

  • Huw Thomas at 31 Jan 2008, 10:46pm. Permalink

    Sorry, it was the 'older' version of the file that doesn't seem to be working; the 'British-Windows-2' version that you presented above is fine. I just noticed your comment that the alternative one maps the \ and ` keys differently, so wanted to try it as that would be a better mapping on the British IBM Model M. It's not the end of the world if these keys are swapped though! In any case, thanks for looking into it.

  • gyford.comAuthor Profile Page at 31 Jan 2008, 11:01pm. Permalink

    Yes, I know which version you meant — the older version works fine for me.

  • Huw Thomas at 31 Jan 2008, 11:16pm. Permalink

    Weird. I wonder if there's a corrupt copy in a cache upstream of me somewhere … I'll try again from a friend's house when I get the chance. Anyway, thanks again for your help with getting my keyboard working.

  • Christof at 12 Feb 2008, 3:17pm. Permalink

    Very helpful - thanks a bunch!!! :-)
    The swapped “/@ keys were driving me nuts.

  • Rory Hunter at 27 Feb 2008, 6:54pm. Permalink

    Works a treat on OS X 10.5 (Leopard) with my Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite. Although, I would advise restarting the machine (or maybe just logging out?) as the Finder wasn't working correctly with the new keyboard layout until I restarted. Hardly surprising, but worth knowing.

    Cheers!

  • DCE at 24 Mar 2008, 2:47pm. Permalink

    Any ideas about this problem?

    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6900023

  • David at 3 Apr 2008, 2:57pm. Permalink

    Help! I can't get this work at all in 10.5.2.
    I've put the .rsrc file in /Library/Keyboard Layouts, ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts and anywhere else I can think of but it simply doesn't show up in the list.

    Any advice? Do you have an MD5 of the file in case it's corrupted?

  • David at 3 Apr 2008, 3:20pm. Permalink

    Ah OK, working now. I was (foolishly) using Unix tools to unpack/install the archives which doesn't recreate the essential resource fork info etc.

    Great result - thanks!!!

  • Steve at 5 Apr 2008, 1:02pm. Permalink

    Thanks so much for this!

    (Fixes same issue for me with a Logitech Navigator keyboard on a Mac Mini G4 running 10.4.11)

    I was just remarking to myself that it's strange no official fix has been released. Then I thought… I guess they fixed in Leopard… err then I noticed the posts above! 3 years on, maybe Apple don't know.

  • Thierry LOOTEN at 18 Apr 2008, 10:24pm. Permalink

    Hello.
    Thanks a lot : working with the nice Microsoft Comfort keyboard in French ! on my Apple (no download).
    But nobody had never this answer.
    Best regards : Thierry

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