page_title: Computer keyboard
section_title: Alphabetic
hierarchical_section_title: Computer keyboard / Layout / Alphabetic
caption_attribution_description: Layout of QWERTY combining with Hebrew
context_page_description: A computer keyboard is a typewriter-style device which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. Replacing early punched cards and paper tape technology, interaction via teleprinter-style keyboards became the main input method for computers.
  Keyboard keys typically have a set of characters engraved or printed on them, and each press of a key typically corresponds to a single written symbol. However, producing some symbols may require pressing and holding several keys simultaneously or in sequence. While most keyboard keys produce letters, numbers or signs, other keys or simultaneous key presses can produce actions or execute computer commands.
  In normal usage, the keyboard is used as a text entry interface for typing text, numbers, and symbols into a word processor, text editor or any other program. In a modern computer, the interpretation of key presses is generally left to the software. A computer keyboard distinguishes each physical key from every other key and reports all key presses to the controlling software.
context_section_description: There are a number of different arrangements of alphabetic, numeric, and punctuation symbols on keys. These different keyboard layouts arise mainly because different people need easy access to different symbols, either because they are inputting text in different languages, or because they need a specialized layout for mathematics, accounting, computer programming, or other purposes. The United States keyboard layout is used as default in the currently most popular operating systems: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The common QWERTY-based layout was designed early in the era of mechanical typewriters, so its ergonomics were compromised to allow for the mechanical limitations of the typewriter.
  As the letter-keys were attached to levers that needed to move freely, inventor Christopher Sholes developed the QWERTY layout to reduce the likelihood of jamming. With the advent of computers, lever jams are no longer an issue, but nevertheless, QWERTY layouts were adopted for electronic keyboards because they were widely used. Alternative layouts such as Dvorak are not in widespread use.
  The QWERTZ layout is widely used in Germany and much of Central Europe. The main difference between it and QWERTY is that Y and Z are swapped, and most special characters such as brackets are replaced by diacritical characters.
  Another situation takes place with "national" layouts. Keyboards designed for typing in Spanish have some characters shifted, to release the space for Ñ ñ; similarly, those for Portuguese, French and other European languages may have a special key for the character Ç ç. The AZERTY layout is used in France, Belgium and some neighbouring countries. It differs from the QWERTY layout in that the A and Q are swapped, the Z and W are swapped, and the M is moved from the right of N to the right of L (where colon/semicolon is on a US keyboard). The digits 0 to 9 are on the same keys, but to be typed the shift key must be pressed. The unshifted positions are used for accented characters.
  In bilingual regions of Canada and in the French-speaking province of Québec, keyboards can often be switched between an English and a French-language keyboard; while both keyboards share the same QWERTY alphabetic layout, the French-language keyboard enables the user to type accented vowels such as "é" or "à" with a single keystroke. Using keyboards for other languages leads to a conflict: the image on the key does not correspond to the character. In such cases, each new language may require an additional label on the keys, because the standard keyboard layouts do not share even similar characters of different languages (see the example in the figure above).
  Keyboards in many parts of Asia may have special keys to switch between the Latin character set and a completely different typing system. Japanese layout keyboards can be switched between various Japanese input methods and the Latin alphabet by signaling the operating system's input interpreter of the change, and some operating systems (namely the Windows family) interpret the character "\" as "¥" for display purposes without changing the bytecode which has led some keyboard makers to mark "\" as "¥" or both.
  Keyboards for other alphabets supported include:
  Arabic keyboard – In the Arab world, keyboards can often be switched between Arabic and Latin characters.
  Russian keyboard, which uses Cyrillic script
  Hebrew keyboard
  In Microsoft word, ALT+Shift allows shifting between languages.
caption: A Hebrew keyboard lets the user type in both Hebrew and the Latin alphabet.
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