Russian Keyboard in Windows XP

[MarkInTx]

Some of this information has been posted before... but for those of you who may have missed it...

If your fiance/wife wants to write in Russian, you can get a "skin" for your keyboard from: www.speedskin.com.

It costs about $20, and can be placed over your keyboard to allow easy access to the cyrillic characters.

You will also need to install the Russian language in Windows. The instructions speedskin sends with the skin do not include XP instructions.

To do it in XP, simply go to control panel, Select "Regional and Langauge Options"... then click the "Language" tab, and click on "Details"

Here is where you can add Russian. Make sure the Language Bar option is set to "Show Language Bar on the Desktop"

This makes it really easy to switch between language sets. By default, you will see a small blue square with "EN" on it. Click on this, and you get a menu which allows you to sellect "RU". When that is enabled, all keystrokes give you the Cyrillic characters, and the speedskin works nicely.

BTW, Victoria finds it easier to write in English, and prefers to send letters in English now. However, her English is not perfect, so when her father runs the translator program on the other end (he doesn't speak English) it sometimes gives very outrageous results... so she has taken to writing him in Russian instead.

FWIW

[Griffin]

... in response to Russian Keyboard in Windows XP, posted by MarkInTx on Dec 28, 2002

with the Russian characters could we just unplug one and plug in the other as required?  I ask because we've already bought the keyboard but haven't tried it yet.

[Rags]

... in response to If we bought a keyboard in Tashkent, posted by Griffin on Dec 28, 2002

I bought a duel alphabet keyboard in Kyiv for just $10. It's a little difficult to read at first (cyrillic letters in red) but you get used to it. No cable switching required, just Ctrl-Shift and type. I have used "skins" on keyboards before and they suck.

[MarkInTx]

... in response to Re: If we bought a keyboard in Tashkent, posted by Rags on Dec 29, 2002

I guess it depends on how much your type.

Victoria loves the skin, but she only uses it to type short letters to her Dad.

[Rags]

... in response to Re: Re: If we bought a keyboard in Tashk..., posted by MarkInTx on Dec 29, 2002

We had them on our SCADA keyboards at work and after a month or so they would get stained and discolor (primarily used to "protect" the keyboards back when they cost $70 each). Also, if you didn't push directly down on the center of the key you got its neighbor also.

They may not be too bad for limited use and better than the individual key stickers but if you are going over, I would suggest the dual format keyboard. Has anyone found one over here? If you can score one for $10 over there I would think that Frys would stock them for $20-25.

[Griffin]

... in response to If we bought a keyboard in Tashkent, posted by Griffin on Dec 28, 2002

[vagn]

... in response to If we bought a keyboard in Tashkent, posted by Griffin on Dec 28, 2002


http://www.connectworld.net/cgi-bin/iec/ADP5194

I have not tried it, and don't know if this is
sufficient for what you need.

On Linux you can add a USB keyboard, no fancy
connectors involved.  Again, I haven't tried it,
so I don't know if there are software issues
to get the desired character set.

[MarkInTx]

... in response to If we bought a keyboard in Tashkent, posted by Griffin on Dec 28, 2002

I don't know... I would imagine that it would be the same basic idea, though...

I'm pretty sure that would work.

What a pain to unplug and plug in though.

You know... years ago, I had a switch box that I bought at Fry's that let me switch between two different monitors and keyboards. You can probably still get something like that.

Depending on how often you used the keyboard, it might be worth the investment.

For that matter, tho... the speedskins are pretty cheap... You could probably buy one of those cheaper than a switch box.

But I wuold think that your idea would work...