French layout—Microsoft Natural 4000?

michaelsanford · #1 November 7th, 2008, 04:31 PM

I've just bought a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 keyboard, in French, in Canada (i.e., QWERTY, not AZERTY). 105 keys.

However, none of the key layouts in Leopard's International prefpane represent the keys labelled on the keyboard correctly! (Yes, even the "Canadian French—Microsoft").

For example, "éÉ" maps correctly, but the key labelled "#\|" is the "ùÙ\" key.

Ideas? Idées ? C'est quoi l'affaire là :P

**Giaguara** · #2 November 7th, 2008, 05:54 PM

Hm... so none of the keyboard layouts work?
Does it list Mac compatible? Time to http://bugreport.apple.com?

michaelsanford · #3 November 7th, 2008, 06:08 PM

Hi Gia

Yeah it does list it as Macintosh compatible, and it comes with (seemingly well-designed, recently-updated) OS X software. I've had this exact issue with all Microsoft keyboards—it's simply that the visual and representative layouts are inconsistent. Seriously, mapping / to the key left of z, that's just insane if you ever use the shell.

PS Wow, the bug reporter hasn't been updated since the coloured iMacs, eh?

I'll report that, thanks!

Follow-up; actually, only two of the keys are swapped on the "Canadian French-Microsoft" layout, so I guess it's not the end of the world; <complaining>but it's the / key, which is still awfly-placed</complaining>

**Giaguara** · #4 November 11th, 2008, 02:17 PM

Weeeell... imaine how bad it would be with Swiss French?

I hope I'll manage to pick something with a normal US keyboard while in Canada..

**chevy** · #5 November 11th, 2008, 03:10 PM

Swiss French keyboards (QWERTZ) are much more similar to US keyboards than French keyboards (AZERTY). Look at the numbers row and at the "M" key !