> Microsoft's keyboard editor is available for free at > http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx .
That's what I use. Authoring with it is a bit clunky, but the resulting layouts install and work easily, so "user-friendly" means a little "programmer-unfriendly". It also has the advantage that it's what MS themselves use to make keyboards, so keyboard made with this method don't need any third-party software on Windows. There are, at fewest, 7 broadly different techniques for inputting accented or "difficult" characters, and each method itself has a number of variations and different software to achieve it. It's just a matter of choosing whatever is best for the individual user. Some methods only work with particular languages; e.g. the US International layout is fine for Spanish, but it doesn't seem to handle Polish or Czech. Others only work in particular applications, e.g. macros and AutoCorrect. Choosing national keyboard layouts is fine if the user knows those layouts, but can be confusing to beginners. If you're writing English, French and German, you have to keep track of the different positions, not only of the accented characters, but also of "normal" characters such as A, Q, Y and Z, which have different positions in the three (or more) different national layouts. Some *languages* have lots of radically different *national* layouts; for instance, the French layout used in France is markedly different from the layout normally used in French-speaking Canada, and the differences between the plethora of incompatible national layouts for Arabic are even more difficult to keep track of. As with so many things, there are few right or wrong answers for input methods, just preferences. As long as we give users the information that they need to choose wisely, all should be well. Alec. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
