I hope that you have found the modifier keys for the arrow tasks you use most by now

Eg

Alt + Up
Alt + Down
Command + Up
Command + Down

Apple seem to have a thing about removing buttons. The new desktops don't even ship with a number pad.

Not on a UK keyboard it isn't. He shouldn't have to get used to it.


Fail

Does it have a pound sign?

Mine doesn't, the UK keyboard on this laptop died due to saltwater exposure and I had to replace it quickly with what was available, a standard US/Australia keyboard. I am used to most functions but others, and quirks/problems still occur at random times. If I had brought a UK spec machine I would be pretty pissed off if things weren't UK spec, especially if I had to pay a UK premium.

Personally, I don't see any real difference between Windows 7 and OS X.

I use Windows 7 at work and OS X at home and I can't say either has a clear advantage over the other. Both have minor niggles, where the other is better. Both are better than Vista, and the less said about XP the better, I hate it! Especially if I am doing remote support and need to do something as administrator, OS X, Vista, Windows 7 and Linux all allow me to quickly do something as administrator, XP is a complete pain to do something like that.

To be pedantic, every Apple keyboard with the UK spec has had the @ above the 2 since at least 1990. It's the way it has always been, sorry.

The home/end thing - my mistook. I'm using the lappy in desktop mode with an external keyboard. I generally have papers over the lappy keyboard. Now, looking afresh on a bright morning, I see the inverted-tee of arrow keys are also marked with page up, page down, home and end. You simply need to hit the Fn key to activate that function. Or use the multi-finger swipe on the trackpad.

Can't see a problem, to be honest.

Oh, yeah, one that always catches Windows users is the Home and End keys don't shift the cursor, just the page view. There are tons of keyboard shortcuts which control the cursor position, though.

Being a Mac noob I didnt know this. Do you think its because Apple could never be arsed to change the layout from US to UK then?

Actually, I think it's because it keeps the double quote and apostrophe symbols on one key. Makes more sense in view of Apple's original core market.

US and UK layouts are quite different on Macs. I had a US one once and hated it, the lack of a £ sign was a PITA

I find that I get confused when using Windows layout keyboards but it does not take long to adapt.

In fact I am not sure what the differences are between Windows and Mac layouts. It makes sense to me to have " and ' on the same key but I did not know that Windows layout had it other than this.

The only bugbear I have with the Apple layout is that there are keys I never use. Such as § and ` Surely it can't be to long before those fancy keyboards with the displays on each key come in and then we can have what we want when we want?

Every time I talk about my backup software I use the ` key.
The software is Déjà Vu.

Mark

Good job that key exists then as if you called it Deja Vu I wouldnt have a clue what you were talking about

A glitch in the Matrix. *smirk*

Mark

To be extra pedantic, the keyboard layout Apple supplies us is not a UK spec QWERTY layout. It’s the US layout with a few minor concessions to currency symbols.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Qwerty.svg

The UK layout is different, with the quote keys being above the 2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#UK-Extended_Layout

If this is what is being supplied on every other keyboard in the country, then Apple are clearly going against the norm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_l ... m_extended



In what way? If you want the feet and inches symbols together (or the closest keyboard approximation to them), then I guess this could be a reason. To get proper single and double quotes, you need ALT+[ for “ ALT+SHIFT+[ for ” ALT+] for ‘ and ALT+SHIFT+] for ’ . These, along with many other typographic niceties, are hidden from you on the standard QWERTY keyboard. You have to do all kinds of digital gymnastics to get to them. Hardly “target audience” really, eh? Why not release an extended keyboard with these characters readily accessible by a single key press?

Most software automagically swaps the dumb quotes for the typographers' ones. It's only Softpress Freeway (and this browser) clinging to the awkward squad method of calling up the correct characters.

As I've used Macs almost exclusively for the last twenty years, I find the @ symbol's position on PCs to be really annoying, so it works both ways.

Af far as I can tell, it was some cheeky sod in the "PC" market that moved the @ symbol off sit on the same key as '
My 1920's typewriter, designed and manufactured in the UK has the @ symbol on the 2 key.