Keyboard layout

The QWERTY keyboard layout was established in 1874 by Sholes & Glidden typewriters. Every language has certain keys that are used more often, like in English the letter W is one of the most used letters in our alphabet. However in Spain it is a very rare letter to use, and if used it's many times because of anglicised words. Same goes for the german languages, the Y is rarely used, so to place it in the centre of the keyboard or "kezboard" as the german QWERTZ layout is nicknamed, wouldn't really make much sense. Instead the Z is used much more often. These small variations have few documentation so we can't be completely sure to the actual reason, but it seems to be pure comfort of certain language users. The QWERTZ layout is not only used in Germany though, also throughout the Balkans, Austria and to some extent even Eastern European countries like Poland, Czech Republic, Romania... As to the different symbols, it's purely based on usage of native writers. In France and Spain you will have a lot more accent symbols and in Germany there are more Diaeresis or Umlaut characters.

Fun fact, in Spain we have 4 different languages which means we have keyboard variations in our own country. In Catalonia we speak Catalan so we have keys like ç or · which on the Spanish keyboard are not available as they don't use those symbols.

The US keyboard is old before any international features were even thought of. US International Keyboard works like European keyboards for special characters using Alt Gr key.

The Right Alt (Alt Gr) Keys

Key Description 
Right Alt + 1 ¡ 
Right Alt + 2 ² 
Right Alt + 3 ³ 
Right Alt + 4 ¤ 
Right Alt + 5 € 
Right Alt + 6 1/4 
Right Alt + 7 1/2 
Right Alt + 8 3/4 
Right Alt + 9 ' 
Right Alt + 0 ' 
Right Alt + - ¥ 
Right Alt + = × 
Right Alt + Q ä 
Right Alt + W å 
Right Alt + E é 
Right Alt + R (r) 
Right Alt + T þ 
Right Alt + Y ü 
Right Alt + U ú 
Right Alt + I í 
Right Alt + O ó 
Right Alt + P ö 
Right Alt + [ " 
Right Alt + ] " 
Right Alt + \ ¬ 
Right Alt + A á 
Right Alt + S ß 
Right Alt + D ð 
Right Alt + L ø 
Right Alt + ; ¶ 
Right Alt + ' ´ 
Right Alt + Z æ 
Right Alt + C (c) 
Right Alt + N ñ 
Right Alt + M µ 
Right Alt + , ç 
Right Alt + / ¿ 
Shift + Right Alt + 1 ¹ 
Shift + Right Alt + 4 £ 
Shift + Right Alt + = ÷ 
Shift + Right Alt + Q Ä 
Shift + Right Alt + W Å 
Shift + Right Alt + E É 
Shift + Right Alt + T Þ 
Shift + Right Alt + Y Ü 
Shift + Right Alt + U Ú 
Shift + Right Alt + I Í 
Shift + Right Alt + O Ó 
Shift + Right Alt + P Ö 
Shift + Right Alt + \ ¦ 
Shift + Right Alt + A Á 
Shift + Right Alt + S § 
Shift + Right Alt + D Ð 
Shift + Right Alt + L Ø 
Shift + Right Alt + ; ° 
Shift + Right Alt + ' ¨ 
Shift + Right Alt + Z Æ 
Shift + Right Alt + C ¢ 
Shift + Right Alt + N Ñ 
Shift + Right Alt + , Ç 

The Dead Keys

The dead keys are the apostrophe ('), quotation mark ("), accent grave (`), tilde (~), and caret (^). If these are pressed the system waits for the next key. If it is in the list below then it enters the symbol character else it enters both keys separately. These work with uppercase where appropriate. Press Space to insert the dead character.

Key Description 
' then C Ç 
' then e é 
' then y ý 
' then u ú 
' then i í 
' then o ó 
' then a á 
" then e ë 
" then u ü 
" then i ï 
" then o ö 
" then a ä 
` then e è 
` then u ù 
` then i ì 
` then o ò 
~ then o õ 
~ then n ñ 
^ then e ê 
^ then u û 
^ then i î 
^ then o ô 
^ then a â 

These next two work on all keyboards

Alt + Character Code

Holding down alt and pressing the character code on the numeric keypad will enter that character. The keyboard language in use must support entering that character. If your keyboard supports it the code is shown on the right hand side of the status bar in Character Map else this section of the status bar is empty. The status bar us also empty for characters with well known keys, like the letters A to Z.

However there is two ways of entering codes. The point to remember here that the characters are the same for the first 127 codes. The difference is if the first number typed is a zero of not. If it is then the code will insert the character from the current character set else it will insert a character from the OEM character set. Codes over 255 enter the Unicode character and are in decimal. Characters entered are converted to OEM for Dos applications and either ANSI or Unicode depending on the Windows' application. See Converting Between Decimal and Hexadecimal.

E.G., Alt + 0 then 6 then 5 then release Alt enters the letter A.

Hex To Unicode IME

In programs based on the Rich Edit 3 control, such as Wordpad, enter a Unicode number in hexadecimal format into the document then press Alt + X. This will convert the number typed into the Unicode character. Select a character and press Alt + X to convert that character into it's Unicode number. The code is shown on the left hand side of the status bar in Character Map in the form U + <hexadecimal code>, e.g., U + 0061 for the letter a.

Selecting letters A to E will result in it being considered a hexadecimal number and it will convert to the Unicode characters (which are things like form feed and the enter key).