Selecting a keyboard layout as a bilingual Canadian

Cet article est aussi disponible en français.

Canada’s bilingualism brings a few extra considerations when shopping for a keyboard up here. Regardless if you use a Mac, PC or even a Linux computer, you can choose from a variety of keyboard layouts to help localize your device. Here are the pros and cons of the ones I’ve encountered working in IT for french and bilingual institutions.

But first, how many buttons do you have?

Before we look at software layouts, we have to look at the physical keys present on your actual keyboard as they will dictate which options are available to you.

Most keyboards in Canada are either of the 104 or 105 keys variety. This number affects how alphabetical keys are laid out on the keyboard itself.

104 is the US standard so it’s perfectly indicated for the US English layout and remains the most common in Canada despite the fact that laptops and keyboards with a multilingual layout have become more common. Still, mechanical keyboards almost exclusively fall into this category.

105 keys keyboards give you more options and are the default in most of the world. Therefore, they can be attractive to french speakers or to any newcomers looking to keep using the keyboard layout they’re used to.

The additional key adds direct access to a set of additional characters in the lower right portion of the keyboard (next to the right Shift key) and can offer a nice productivity boost for french and bilingual speakers. To english speakers, that extra key shifts some characters around (notably @`\~#\|”), requiring some adaptation even for typical use.

Common descriptions

You are more likely (but not guaranteed) to get a 105 keys keyboard on your laptop from a local store in french-speaking regions like Québec and the same is true of the 104 keys keyboards in the rest of Canada. With online retail, I advise paying attention to the keyboard type. That can be a tricky task however, since there’s no commonly-used nomenclature to identify them (I’ve used the number of keys here, but that system admittedly falls apart with compact keyboards like the ones used on laptops).

Here are a few common terms to differentiate keyboards:

104 keys:

• US English
• English
• Bilingual
• ANSI
• French / English

105 keys:

• Multilingual
• Bilingual
• ISO
• Canadian CSA

Common keyboard layout for Canadians

Every popular operating system (even on mobile) uses layout to assign characters to their appropriate position on the keyboard. Here are the few keyboard layouts I’ve seen Canadian use in the wild, including their pros, cons and my subjective opinion of each..

If you have a 104 keys keyboard

US English

The default keyboard layout when you get it out of the box. It’s very efficient at typing in the English language and access to special characters used for programming are quite intuitive. If you never or rarely use French, this is the easy choice and this layout is almost always printed on the keyboard’s keys. To access characters not found on the keyboard, you have the option of copy-pasting accented characters from sites like copychar.cc or learning their Alt Codes.

Canadian French

This is the layout I’ve seen in use the most frequently by french speakers and it has the benefit of working on a 104 keys keyboard. It’s a bit of a compromise; with a heavy use of dead keys (keys which print no character until a second key is pressed; for instance: [ followed by e makes ê) which slows down typing slightly and is a bit error-prone (for me anyway). It’s a good versatile system with plenty of familiar users which can help you if you’re looking for help or tips. I dislike programming with it because lots of the logical characters have been pushed under the AltChar key but it’s doable with a cheat sheet or a keyboard where those characters have been printed.

United States International

Admittedly, I haven’t used this one as much as the others but it has an appealing premise: It’s just like the US English layout with added access to accented characters. It’s the easiest to learn with a straight US english keyboard but turns some frequently used keys like ‘ and “ into dead keys (for instance, “ followed by e makes ë, “ followed by space makes “), which means it’ll slow you down a little even when typing in english.

If you have a 105 keys keyboard

Any of the layouts listed above

All layouts which work with only 104 keys will still work on 105 keys (the placement of some special characters might seem odd, but for the most part, the learning curve is relatively minor). The Canadian French layout even gives you direct access to « and » on the 105th key; potentially useful in academic papers.

Canadian Multilingual

This layout is my personal favorite but it will only benefit those of us using French on a regular basis and will only work on a 105 key keyboard (otherwise, you lose the ù character). It uses the least amount of modifier keys, reducing key presses when using accented characters. This is the layout Macs with a Canadian keyboard use and Apple is, to my knowledge, the only manufacturer providing keyboards with matching characters printed on them.

… and more

There are hundreds of other keyboard layouts; some are regional, and others aims to improve the standards further like Dvorak and BÉPO but I’ll restrict this list to layouts I’ve encountered in the wild.

You don’t have to use just one layout

If you can’t make do with just one layout, the good news is: you are not limited to a single one; you can typically select as many as you want. For instance, Windows lets you select multiple input languages, and each language can in turn have multiple keyboard layouts assigned to it. Switching can be done with the language bar, or you can quickly switch language using the Alt-Shift keyboard shortcut.

So, which one should you use?

In most cases, that question gets answered for us as we’ll stick with the defaults and once you’re familiar with it, you’re much less likely to switch.

When it comes to keyboard layout, familiarity will pretty much decide how enjoyable and efficient your typing experience will be. Familiarizing yourself with a new layout can be a little awkward, especially if the physical keyboard you use doesn’t have the matching characters printed on it, but it might still be worth the effort in the end.

I hope this article explains why the layout of keyboards sold in Canada can vary (sometimes unexpectedly) and helps lay out your options if you’ve been looking to improve your typing experience in both languages.