International English keyboard layout and chart

International Accent Marks and Diacriticals:

International English Keyboard Layout
Chart & Summary of Instructions

The US International English keyboard layout is recommended for those who are comfortable with the qwerty keyboard and need a variety of accent marks or symbols. It uses an intuitive method which works with most (perhaps all) Windows applications such as MS Office and web page software, while keeping the familiar qwerty layout. The installation details are below.

To use, press one of the five punctuation keys ` ~ ^ ' " , then the letter to be modified.
' + a = á, " + u = ü, ' + c = ç etc

Or use the right alt (or AltChar) key + another key:
right alt + ? = ¿ + ! = ¡ + c = © + e = é +5 = €. This image shows many more.
International English keyboard (QWERTY)

Note that this system maintains the "qwerty" layout. However, each modifier key ` ~ ^ ' " must be followed by the space bar to use just that key. The system accepts common words, such as it's, without the space bar.

In Win 9X, to have both the US-International English layout and United States English, one can fool the system by adding an unused language, such as Icelandic, and changing its layout to the US-International in the language properties of the keyboard/control panel. Win XP allows both English and International English.

Layout Installation:
Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, and Keyboard (in Win XP, Regional and Language Options). Click the Language(s) tab. In Win 9x, add a language and give it properties. Choose English as the language and US-International as the layout. In Win XP, click Details, then Add. Choose an Input language and a Keyboard Layout/IME. Use Apply to finish the process; the Windows installation CD may be needed. The keyboard or multilanguage sections in Start - Help may provide details. For Win 2000 click this Carnegie Mellon site; for Win XP click this Penn State Technology site.

alt+shift rotates through several language keyboards. Checking the Enable Indicator On Taskbar puts the default language on the taskbar. Or click the taskbar language icon to switch to another language. In Win XP, click the Preferences section for these steps.