Gaelic Keyboards for MS Windows

Ciarán Ó Duibhín

For Gaelic keyboards for Macintosh, see here or here or here.

All the acute- and grave-accented vowels required for Irish and Scottish Gaelic have been present in the MS Windows character-set for many years — the only problem is how to key them in a convenient fashion.  This involves the simple process of choosing and installing an appropriate Windows keyboard layout.  If you require dotted consonants in Irish Gaelic, you will further have to use a font which contains them — either a Unicode font in which these glyphs have been created, or (on older Windows systems) a font compatible with ISO Latin-8.

A number of free layouts exist for keyboarding Gaelic.  They are summarised in the following table, and individually described afterwards.  Some of these layouts come from MS, some from myself, some from other third parties.  Some of the layouts are created primarily to support Gaelic, while others are primarily general-purpose; in either case, secondary aims may not be optimally realised.  The layouts presented here are Windows-wide, that is, they affect all Windows applications; we won't bother with keyboarding methods which work only for particular applications, such as macros for MS Word.

Limited keyboarding methods, such as the AltGr/vowel method for the MS British layout, or the Alt and numeric keypad method are still often recommended to beginning users.  Such methods are included below, not as a recommendation, but so that the reader can compare them with better methods. But you may still need them if you are working on someone else's machine.

Before looking at the table, there are two questions to answer about your computing system.
• The first question is whether your Windows is one which uses single-byte characters (Windows 95, 98, ME), or one which uses double-byte characters (Windows 2000, XP, Vista).
• The second question is whether your keyboard hardware follows the US or UK engraving (or another). The US hardware keyboard has the double quotation mark engraved as shift + single quotation mark, and the at-sign engraved as shift + 2; in the UK hardware keyboard (used also in Ireland), these are reversed. There are other differences, but this will suffice to determine which hardware keyboard you have.

Now, see which layout in the table fits your circumstances best. Where more than one layout fits, I have tried to arrange them with the most convenient first. (Note also that the "Alt and numeric keypad" method works in all circumstances, but is the least convenient.)  For many people it will be unnecessary to look beyond the top row of the table.

Characters facilitated UK/Irish hardware keyboard US hardware keyboard
Windows 95, 98, ME Windows 2000, XP,Vista Windows 95, 98, ME Windows 2000, XP,Vista

ALL THOSE BELOW
My KBDIR
UK Ireland Extended
Whacking Latin
 
US Ireland Extended
Moby Latin
Irish Gaelic without dots MS Irish
MS British or UK
John's UK International
KeyMng32		 Cló Gaelach
MS Gaelic
MS UK extended (XP sp2)
John's UK International
Paulo's UK International
James' UK International
Jean's UK-International
Leandro's UK adaptado
MS Irish
MS British or UK		 MS US-international
KeyMng32		 United States–Gaeilge
MS US-international
Scottish Gaelic MS Irish
John's UK International
KeyMng32		 Cló Gaelach
MS Gaelic
MS UK extended (XP sp2)
John's UK International
Paulo's UK International
James' UK International
Jean's UK-International
Leandro's UK adaptado
MS Irish		 MS US-international
KeyMng32		 United States–Gaeilge
MS US-international
Irish Gaelic with dots KeyMng32 Cló Gaelach KeyMng32 United States–Gaeilge
extra typographical KeyMng32 James' UK International KeyMng32  
Manx Gaelic John's UK International MS UK extended (XP sp2)
John's UK International
Paulo's UK International
James' UK International
Jean's UK-International
Leandro's UK adaptado		 MS US-international MS US-international
Welsh   MS UK extended (XP sp2)
John's UK International
Paulo's UK International
James' UK International		    
Esperanto   James' UK International    
general foreign words John's UK International MS UK extended (XP sp2)
John's UK International
Paulo's UK International
James' UK International
Jean's UK-International
Leandro's UK adaptado
Cló Gaelach (fr,de,es)		 MS US-international MS US-international

Irish Gaelic without dots: a,e,i,o,u with acute accent
Scottish Gaelic: a,e,i,o,u with grave accent, a,e,o with acute accent
Irish Gaelic with dots: a,e,i,o,u with acute accent, b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s,t with dot-above (all such layouts also allow keying of long-r, long-s, long-s-dot and Tironian-et when provided in a font as separate characters, though this method of displaying these symbols is deprecated for reasons explained at the end of this page)
Manx Gaelic: c-cedilla
Welsh: a,e,i,o,u,w,y with grave, acute, circumflex, diaeresis
Esperanto: c,g,h,j,s with circumflex, u with saucer-above
extra typographical: left and right double and single quote, en-dash, em-dash, ellipsis, bullet
general foreign words: grave, acute, circumflex, diaeresis, tilde on the more usual letters

The layouts in detail

  • UK Ireland Extended.

    OS: Windows 2000, XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic with or without dots, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Welsh, Esperanto, extra typographical, general foreign words. Functionality equivalent to US Ireland Extended and My KBDIR below.
    Created by: Ciarán Ó Duibhín using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4

    Download and install as described in UK Ireland Extended.

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by hash (#), then the letter;
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by backquote (`), then the letter;
    • dot-over accent on b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s,t,B,C,D,F,G,M,P,S,T by backslash (\), then the letter;
    • circumflex accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,c,g,h,j,s,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y,C,G,H,J,S by hat (^), then the letter;
    • diaeresis accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by logical not (¬), then the letter;
    • tilde accent on a,n,o,A,N,O by tilde (~), then the letter;
    • saucer-over accent on u,U by backslash (\), then the letter;
    • cedilla under c,C by hash (#), then the letter;
    • eszett by hash (#), then s.
    Besides Irish and Scottish Gaelic, this is intended to support input of Manx Gaelic, Welsh and Esperanto, as well as occasional accented letters in foreign words.

    A number of typographical characters (e.g. left and right quotes, dashes) are also supported by AltGr keyings, with deadkey fallback.

    If you try to use the UK Ireland Extended layout with Latin-8 fonts (rather than Unicode fonts), it will not produce dotted consonants (or any other non-ASCII characters — defined below).  To obtain dotted consonants on a UK hardware keyboard from a Latin-8 font under Windows 2000/XP, try the Gaeilge–Latin-8 layout from Vincent Morley.


  • US Ireland Extended.

    OS: Windows 2000, XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: US
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic with or without dots, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Welsh, Esperanto, extra typographical, general foreign words. Functionality equivalent to UK Ireland Extended above and My KBDIR below.
    Created by: Ciarán Ó Duibhín using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4

    Download and install as described in US Ireland Extended.

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by backslash (\), then the letter;
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by backquote (`), then the letter;
    • dot-over accent on b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s,t,B,C,D,F,G,M,P,S,T by backslash (\), then the letter;
    • circumflex accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,c,g,h,j,s,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y,C,G,H,J,S by hat (^), then the letter;
    • diaeresis accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by vertical line (|), then the letter;
    • tilde accent on a,n,o,A,N,O by tilde (~), then the letter;
    • saucer-over accent on u,U by tilde (~), then the letter;
    • cedilla under c,C by tilde (~), then the letter.
    Besides Irish and Scottish Gaelic, this is intended to support input of Manx Gaelic, Welsh and Esperanto, as well as occasional accented letters in foreign words.

    A number of typographical characters (e.g. left and right quotes, dashes) are also supported by Ctrl and Alt keyings, with deadkey fallback.

    If you try to use the US Ireland Extended layout with Latin-8 fonts (rather than Unicode fonts), it will not produce dotted consonants (or any other non-ANSI characters — defined below).  I do not know of any layout which will produce dotted consonants on a US hardware keyboard from a Latin-8 font under Windows 2000/XP/Vista.


  • My KBDIR.

    OS: Windows 95, 98, ME
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic with or without dots, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Welsh, Esperanto, extra typographical, general foreign words. Functionality equivalent to UK Ireland Extended and US Ireland Extended above.
    Created by: Ciarán Ó Duibhín using Janko Stamenovic's Keyboard Generator

    Download my replacement kbdir, copy kbdir.kbd to windows\system, and install it by choosing "Irish" from the Keyboard control panel, Language tab, Properties button.  It is used as a direct substitute for the MS "Irish" keyboard layout with the same filename, as supplied with these versions of Windows.

    When it is installed, you may obtain :
    • acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by hash (#), then the letter;
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by backquote (`), then the letter
    • dot-over accent on b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s,t,B,C,D,F,G,M,P,S,T by backslash (\), then the letter;
    • circumflex accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,c,g,h,j,s,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y,C,G,H,J,S by hat (^), then the letter;
    • diaeresis accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by logical not (¬), then the letter;
    • tilde accent on a,n,o,A,N,O by tilde (~), then the letter;
    • saucer-over accent on u,U by backslash (\), then the letter;
    • cedilla under c,C by hash (#), then the letter.
    Note that a number of these characters may not appear correctly unless you use fonts which support them — see the section on "Non-ANSI characters" below.

    Besides Irish and Scottish Gaelic, this is intended to support input of Manx Gaelic, Welsh and Esperanto, as well as occasional accented letters in foreign words.

    A number of typographical characters (e.g. left and right quotes, dashes) are also supported by AltGr keyings, with deadkey fallback. My KBDIR layout is intended for use with Latin-8 or Latin-3-encoded fonts.  If it is used with Unicode-encoded fonts — eg. in those few Win 95/98/ME applications like MS Word which allow working with double-byte text — it will not produce dotted consonants (or any other non-ANSI characters — defined below).  I do not know of any layout which will produce dotted consonants from a Unicode font under Windows 95/98/ME, on either a US or a UK hardware keyboard.


  • Whacking Latin

    OS: Windows 2000, XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: All Latin-alphabet characters of Unicode
    Created by: John Cowan using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator

    Download and install as described here.

    This layout is for the UK hardware keyboard, and aims to provide access to all the Latin-alphabet characters of Unicode, while not interfering with the keying of the engraved characters. All extra characters are provided by combinations using the AltGr key. The layout is suitable for users who require the maximum range of characters, but on an infrequent basis, as the requirement not to disturb the default keyings means that the extra characters are keyed by methods which, while as mnemonic as possible, may be laborious for regular use.

    The above description applies to the basic form of the layout (known as Whacking John). When this is installed, the following deadkeys place the accent noted on the letter following, provided the accented character is present in Unicode:
    • acute accent: AltGr/'
    • grave accent: AltGr/`
    • dot-above accent: AltGr/j
    • circumflex accent: AltGr/^
    • diaeresis accent: AltGr/;
    • tilde accent: AltGr/~
    • saucer-over (breve) accent: AltGr/u
    • cedilla accent: AltGr/,
    • macron accent: AltGr/l
    • caron (hacek) accent: AltGr/v
    as well as very many other characters, both accents and non-accents, for which see the documentation.

    There are three variants of Whacking Latin, for users who require regular access to the repertoires of particular languages, as well as less frequent access to the full range of characters. The character range is the same for all the variants, but each variant provides easier access to certain accents by the following methods:

    Whacking Sandy provides grave accent by grave (`), then the letter (instead of AltGr/`)

    Whacking Taffy provides grave accent by grave (`), then the letter (instead of AltGr/`);
            and circumflex accent by hat (^), then the letter (instead of AltGr/^);
            and acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U and dot-above on b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s,long-s,t,B,C,D,F,G,M,P,S,T by hash (#), then the letter
            (as well as the basic version keyings for acute accent and dot-above)

    Whacking Mick provides acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U and dot-above on b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s,long-s,t,B,C,D,F,G,M,P,S,T by hash (#), then the letter
            (as well as the basic version keyings for acute accent and dot-above).

    AltGr combinations may not work in applications which assign short-cut menu functions to these keyings. Simultaneous depression of three keys contravenes international keyboard standards (ISO/IEC 9995).


  • Cló Gaelach

    OS: Windows 2000, XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic with or without dots, Scottish Gaelic, general foreign words (most)
    Created by: Vincent Morley using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4

    Download and install as described in Cló Gaelach.

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by hash (#), then the letter;
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by backquote (`), then the letter;
    • dot-over accent on b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s,t,B,C,D,F,G,M,P,S,T by hash (#), then the letter.
    • circumflex accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by ALTGR/6, then the letter;
    • cedilla under c,C by ALTGR/6, then the letter;
    • diaeresis accent on a,o,u,A,O,U by ALTGR/2, then the letter;
    • Eszett by ALTGR/2, then s;
    • tilde accent on n,N by ALTGR/hash (#), then the letter;
    • inverted query or exclamation by ALTGR/hash (#), then query or exclamation.

    This is an extension of the same author's former layout called Gaeilge–Unicode, which is no longer available.

    If you try to use this layout with Latin-8 fonts (rather than Unicode fonts), it may not produce dotted consonants (or any other non-ANSI characters — defined below).  To obtain dotted consonants on a UK hardware keyboard from a Latin-8 font under Windows 2000/XP, try the Gaeilge–Latin-8 layout from Vincent Morley.


  • Moby Latin

    OS: Windows 2000, XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: US
    Characters facilitated: All Latin-alphabet characters of Unicode
    Created by: John Cowan using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator

    Download and install as described here.

    This layout is for the US hardware keyboard, and aims to provide access to all the Latin-alphabet characters of Unicode, while not interfering with the keying of the engraved characters. All extra characters are provided by combinations using the AltGr key (which may have to be keyed as the right-hand Alt key, or else as Ctrl/Alt). The layout is suitable for users who require the maximum range of characters, but on an infrequent basis, as the requirement not to disturb the default keyings means that the extra characters are keyed by methods which, while as mnemonic as possible, may be laborious for regular use.

    When the layout is installed, the following deadkeys place the accent noted on the letter following, provided the accented character is present in Unicode:
    • acute accent: AltGr/'
    • grave accent: AltGr/`
    • dot-above accent: AltGr/j
    • circumflex accent: AltGr/^
    • diaeresis accent: AltGr/;
    • tilde accent: AltGr/~
    • saucer-over (breve) accent: AltGr/u
    • cedilla accent: AltGr/,
    • macron accent: AltGr/_
    • caron (hacek) accent: AltGr/v
    as well as very many other characters, both accents and non-accents, for which see the documentation.

    AltGr combinations may not work in applications which assign short-cut menu functions to these keyings. Simultaneous depression of three keys contravenes international keyboard standards (ISO/IEC 9995).


  • United States–Gaeilge

    OS: Windows 2000, XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: US
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic with or without dots, Scottish Gaelic
    Created by: third party, name not disclosed using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4

    Download and install as described in United States–Gaeilge.

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by slash (/), then the letter;
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by backquote (`), then the letter;
    • dot-over accent on b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s,t,B,C,D,F,G,M,P,S,T by slash (/), then the letter.

    If you try to use this layout with Latin-8 fonts (rather than Unicode fonts), it may not produce dotted consonants (or any other non-ANSI characters — defined below).  I do not know of any layout which will produce dotted consonants on a US hardware keyboard from a Latin-8 font under Windows 2000/XP/Vista.


  • MS Gaelic

    OS: Windows 2000, XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic without dots, Scottish Gaelic
    Created by: Microsoft

    Install the MS "Gaelic" keyboard layout, following the instructions under "How to add an input locale or keyboard layout?" here.  You may need to have your Windows CD-ROM handy during installation.

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute-accented vowels by apostrophe, then the vowel;
    • grave-accented vowels by backquote (`), then the vowel.
    The apostrophe character is also obtained by ALTGR/apostrophe.

    The acute-accented vowels are alternatively obtained by ALTGR/vowel, if the application in use allows it.
    For a graphic of this keyboard, see here.

    Unlike earlier versions of Windows, 2000 and XP facilitate installation of several MS keyboard layouts and dynamic switching between them.


  • MS United Kingdom Extended

    OS: Windows XP SP2, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic without dots, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Welsh, general foreign words
    Created by: Microsoft

    Available from Windows XP SP2, this is Microsoft's British or UK keyboard (below) extended to add coverage of Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Welsh, Breton and occasional accented characters in foreign words. See also here.

    Install the MS "United Kingdom Extended" keyboard layout, following the instructions under "How to add an input locale or keyboard layout?" here.  You may need to have your Windows CD-ROM handy during installation.

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by ALTGR/apostrophe, then the letter; or by ALTGR/letter;
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by backquote (`), then the letter;
    • circumflex accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by ALTGR/6, then the letter;
    • diaeresis accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by ALTGR/2, then the letter;
    • tilde accent on a,n,o,A,N,O by ALTGR/#, then the letter;
    • cedilla under c,C by ALTGR/letter.

    The ALTGR/letter method used for the keying of acutes and cedillas will not work for applications which assign short-cut menu functions to ALTGR/letter keys — for acutes, the ALTGR/apostrophe method should be used.  Also, the need to depress three keys simultaneously (eg. AltGr/Shift/c for Ç) contravenes international keyboard standards (ISO/IEC 9995).

    For a graphic of this keyboard, see here.

  • John Sullivan's UK International

    OS: Any Windows, but some characters available only with Windows 2000/XP/Vista
    (Does not install on the 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista, but the keyboard's author is working on this extension.)
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic without dots, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Welsh (on Win 2000/XP only), general foreign words
    Created by: John Sullivan using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (for Win 2000/XP/Vista), hand-built (for Win 95/98/ME)

    An extension of Microsoft's British or UK keyboard (below), by analogy with Microsoft's US International (also below). Deadkeys are chosen to avoid disturbance to existing keystrokes.  Supported characters cover Irish Gaelic (without dots), Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, and general foreign words. Irish Gaelic with dots is not supported. Welsh is supported fully only in Windows 2000/XP, partially in Windows 95/98/ME. Esperanto is partially supported in Windows 2000/XP, not at all on Windows 95/98/ME. Some extra typographic characters are supported. For downloading and installation instructions, and full details of supported characters, see here.

    With this layout installed, you may obtain:
    • acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,y,A,E,I,O,U,Y by ALTGR/slash (/), then the letter;
      also on w,W and some other letters on Windows 2000/XP/Vista
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by ALTGR/backslash (\), then the letter;
      also on w,y,W,Y on Windows 2000/XP/Vista
    • circumflex accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by ALTGR/6, then the letter;
      also on w,y,c,g,h,j,s,W,Y,C,G,H,J,S on Windows 2000/XP/Vista
    • diaeresis accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by ALTGR/semicolon (;), then the letter;
      also on w,y,W,Y on Windows 2000/XP/Vista
    • tilde accent on a,n,o,A,N,O by ALTGR/slash (#), then the letter;
      also on some other letters on Windows 2000/XP/Vista
    • cedilla under c,C by ALTGR/comma (,), then the letter;
      also under some other letters on Windows 2000/XP/Vista

    A variety of extra typographic characters are provided using ALTGR in conjunction with other keys. They include single and double high-6 and high-9 quotes, but not en-dash, em-dash, ellipsis or bullet. The ring-above accent is supported on certain letters. The ALTGR/letter combinations used for some of the typographic characters will not work for applications which assign short-cut menu functions to ALTGR/letter keys. Some of the keystrokes require the simultaneous depression of three keys, which does not satisfy international keyboard standards (ISO/IEC 9995).


  • James Campbell's UK International

    OS: Windows XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic without dots, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Welsh, Esperanto, extra typographical, general foreign words
    Created by: James Campbell using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4

    This layout extends the coverage of the MS UK Extended layout (above) — though not completely emcompassing Irish with dots — by introducing a large number of deadkeys, all involving the use of ALTGR or ALTGR/SHIFT. For downloading and installation instructions, lists of supported characters, and some graphics of the layout, see here.

    When it is installed, you may obtain (presumably the uppercase letters are to be understood as included too):
    • acute accent on a,c,e,i,n,o,r,s,u,w,y,z by ALTGR/apostrophe, then the letter; prime symbol by ALTGR/apostrophe, then apostrophe;
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y by ALTGR/backquote (`), then the letter;
    • circumflex accent on a,c,e,g,h,i,j,o,s,u,w,y by ALTGR/6, then the letter;
    • diaeresis accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y by ALTGR/2, then the letter;
    • tilde accent on a,n,o by ALTGR/#, then the letter;
    • cedilla under c,s by ALTGR/comma, then the letter;
    • macron on a,e,i,o,u,y by ALTGR/SHIFT/backquote, then the letter;
    • breve on a,g,u by ALTGR/SHIFT/1, then the letter;
    • hacek on c,e,g,k,r,s,z by ALTGR/5, then the letter;
    • horizontal stroke on d,g,h,l,t by ALTGR/SHIFT/semicolon, then the letter; superscript a and o by ALTGR/SHIFT/semicolon, then the letter;
    • double acute on o,u by ALTGR/SHIFT/apostrophe, then the letter; double prime symbol by ALTGR/SHIFT/apostrophe, then apostrophe;
    • ring on a,u by ALTGR/SHIFT/#, then the letter;
    • dot below on h,l by ALTGR/SHIFT/backslash, then the letter;
    • comma below on s,t by ALTGR/SHIFT/comma, then the letter;
    • dot above on c,g,h,s,z by ALTGR/SHIFT/period, then the letter; l with medial dot by ALTGR/SHIFT/period, then l; Turkish dotless i by ALTGR/SHIFT/period, then i; Turkish capital I with dot by ALTGR/SHIFT/period, then I;
    • ogonek on a,e,i,o,u by ALTGR/SHIFT/slash, then the letter.
    The above refers to precomposed accented characters, but you can also use combining accents: type the letter first, then the accent dead-key, then press Space. This may extend the repertoire further on some systems. (If you just want the accent and no letter, type the accent then full stop.)

    Some of these accented characters are also obtainable by (non-deadkey) ALTGR and ALTGR/SHIFT combinations, as are many other assorted characters.

    Some ALTGR and ALTGR/SHIFT combinations may not work under applications which assign short-cut menu functions to them. Also, the need to depress three keys simultaneously in the ALTGR/SHIFT combinations is contrary to international keyboard standards (ISO/IEC 9995).


  • Paulo Castro's UK International

    OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic without dots, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Welsh, general foreign words
    Created by: Paulo Eduardo Ferreira de Castro using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4

    An extension of Microsoft's British or UK keyboard (below), by analogy with Microsoft's US International (also below). Dead keys are chosen for speed of typing material containing frequent accented characters. Supported characters cover Irish Gaelic (without dots), Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Welsh, and general foreign words. Irish Gaelic with dots is not supported.  Esperanto is not supported. A few extra typographic characters are supported. For installation instructions, and lists of supported characters, see here. The download link given there no longer works, and graphics of the layout are no longer available. Slightly more recently, in 2008, an e-mail address was given here from which the utility could be obtained for a payment of £5.99 but this is not operational either. Since the layout seems to be currently unavailable, I make it available here.

    With this layout installed, you may obtain:
    • acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by apostrophe ('), then the letter; or by ALTGR/letter;
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by backquote (`), then the letter;
    • circumflex accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by circumflex (^), then the letter;
    • diaeresis accent on a,e,i,o,u,w,y,A,E,I,O,U,W,Y by double-quote ("), then the letter;
    • tilde accent on a,n,o,A,N,O by tilde (~), then the letter;
    • cedilla under c,C by apostrophe ('), then the letter.

    Some extra alphabetic and typographic characters are provided using ALTGR in conjunction with other keys. The typographic characters appear to include high-6 and high-9 single quotes, though not the corresponding double quotes, en-dash, em-dash, ellipsis or bullet. As with the MS British keyboard, the ALTGR/letter combinations used for some of the extra characters will not work for applications which assign short-cut menu functions to ALTGR/letter keys. Some of the keystrokes require the simultaneous depression of three keys, which does not satisfy international keyboard standards (ISO/IEC 9995).


  • Jean Martina's UK-International

    OS: Windows XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic without dots, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, general foreign words
    Created by: Jean Everson Martina using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4

    This is an extension of Microsoft's British or UK keyboard (below) which adds coverage of Scottish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic, as well as occasional accented characters in foreign words. Dead keys are chosen for speed of typing material containing frequent accented characters. It may be downloaded from here.

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,y,A,E,I,O,U,Y by apostrophe, then the letter; or (except y,Y) by ALTGR/letter;
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by backquote (`), then the letter;
    • circumflex accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by hat (^), then the letter;
    • diaeresis accent on a,e,i,o,u,y,A,E,I,O,U by double quote ("), then the letter;
    • tilde accent on a,n,o,A,N,O by tilde (~), then the letter;
    • cedilla on c,C by apostrophe, then the letter.
    Some of these accented characters are also obtainable by (non-deadkey) ALTGR and ALTGR/SHIFT combinations, as are a considerable number of other assorted characters.

    As with the MS British keyboard, some ALTGR and ALTGR/SHIFT combinations may not work under applications which assign short-cut menu functions to them. Also, the need to depress three keys simultaneously in the ALTGR/SHIFT combinations is contrary to international keyboard standards (ISO/IEC 9995).


  • Leandro Martínez' UK adaptado pra ter acentos

    OS: Windows XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic without dots, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, general foreign words
    Created by: Leandro Martínez using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4

    This is an extension of Microsoft's British or UK keyboard (below) which adds coverage of Scottish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic, as well as occasional accented characters in foreign words. Dead keys are chosen for speed of typing material containing frequent accented characters. With the developer's permission I make it available for download from here. It has also been available under the name "UK Deadkeys".

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by apostrophe, then the letter; or by ALTGR/letter;
    • grave accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by backquote (`), then the letter;
    • circumflex accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by hat (^), then the letter;
    • diaeresis accent on a,e,i,o,u,A,E,I,O,U by double quote ("), then the letter;
    • tilde accent on a,n,o,A,N,O by tilde (~), then the letter;
    • cedilla on c,C by apostrophe, then the letter.

    As with the MS British keyboard, some ALTGR and ALTGR/SHIFT combinations may not work under applications which assign short-cut menu functions to them. Also, the need to depress three keys simultaneously in the ALTGR/SHIFT combinations is contrary to international keyboard standards (ISO/IEC 9995).


  • MS Irish

    OS: Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic without dots, Scottish Gaelic
    Created by: Microsoft

    Install the MS "Irish" keyboard layout by choosing "Irish" from the Keyboard control panel, Language tab, Properties button — if you have previously installed My KBDIR above, uninstall it first (Win 9x, ME); or by following the instructions under "How to add an input locale or keyboard layout?" here (Win 2000, XP).  You may need to have your Windows system disks or CD-ROM handy during installation.

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute-accented vowels by ALTGR/apostrophe, then the vowel;
    • grave-accented vowels by backquote (`), then the vowel.
    The acute-accented vowels are alternatively obtained by ALTGR/vowel, if the application in use allows it.

    For a graphic of this keyboard, see here.

    This is the default keyboard layout under the Windows "English (Ireland)" locale, but it is not a particularly useful one.


  • MS British or UK

    OS: Any Windows
    Keyboard hardware: UK
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic without dots
    Created by: Microsoft

    If the MS "British" or "UK" keyboard layout is not already installed, install it from the International control panel (Win 3.x) or the Keyboard control panel, Language tab, Properties button (Win 9x, ME); or by following the instructions under "How to add an input locale or keyboard layout?" here (Win 2000, XP).  You may need to have your Windows systems disks or CD-ROM handy during installation.

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute-accented vowels by ALTGR/vowel or CTRL/ALT/vowel.
    This method does not support keying of grave-accented vowels.

    This method will not work for applications which assign short-cut menu functions to ALTGR/vowel keys.  Also, the need to depress three keys simultaneously (eg. AltGr/Shift/a for Á) contravenes international keyboard standards (ISO/IEC 9995).


    For a graphic of this keyboard, see here.

  • MS US International

    OS: Any Windows
    Keyboard hardware: US
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic without dots, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, general foreign words
    Created by: Microsoft

    Install the MS "US International" keyboard layout from the International control panel (Win3.x); or the Keyboard control panel, Language tab, Properties button (Win95, ME); or by following the instructions under "How to add an input locale or keyboard layout?" here (Win 2000, XP).  You may need to have your Windows system disks or CD-ROM handy during installation.

    When it is installed, you may obtain:
    • acute-accented vowels by apostrophe ('), then the vowel;
    • grave-accented vowels by backquote (`), then the vowel.
    The acute-accented vowels are alternatively obtained by ALTGR/vowel, if the application in use allows it.

    For a graphic of this keyboard, see here.


  • Keymng32

    OS: Win 3.x, 95, 98, ME
    Keyboard hardware: any
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic with or without dots, Scottish Gaelic, extra typographical
    Created by: Ciarán Ó Duibhín using Tavultesoft Keyboard Manager 3.2

    Download keymng32. This consists of a free application, the Tavultesoft Keyboard Manager 3.2, as distributed by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, together with a Gaelic supplement by Ciarán Ó Duibhín.

    Install by placing keymng32 in a new directory, then run it to unpack it, then follow the instructions in the file LEIGHSEO.TXT

    When you activate the Gaelic keyboard by clicking the small button, you may obtain:
    • acute-accented vowels by hash (#), then the vowel;
    • grave-accented vowels by backquote (`), then the vowel.
    In addition, if your fonts support them (see later), you may obtain:
    • dotted consonants by backslash (\), then the consonant.

    A number of other characters are supported by AltGr keyings, with deadkey fallback.

    As Keymng works on top of the installed MS keyboard layout, it may be used on either US or UK hardware keyboards—and on many others. It is particularly easy to switch between the Keymng layout and the underlying installed MS layout.

    Note in 2025: Keyman has continued to be developed for Win 2000 and later — see Keyman for ready-to-install layouts, or Keyman Developer to design your own layout.


  • Alt and numeric keypad

    OS: Any Windows
    Keyboard hardware: Any
    Characters facilitated: Irish Gaelic with or without dots, Scottish Gaelic (can be extended to other characters)
    Created by: Microsoft

    Key as follows, using the numeric keypad:

    à: ALT/0224
    è: ALT/0232
    ì: ALT/0236
    ò: ALT/0242
    ù: ALT/0249     		À: ALT/0192
    È: ALT/0200
    Ì: ALT/0204
    Ò: ALT/0210
    Ù: ALT/0217
    á: ALT/0225
    é: ALT/0233
    í: ALT/0237
    ó: ALT/0243
    ú: ALT/0250     		Á: ALT/0193
    É: ALT/0201
    Í: ALT/0205
    Ó: ALT/0211
    Ú: ALT/0218

    Keep ALT depressed while you type the four digits on the numeric keypad (NOT on the top row of the keyboard).  Also, make sure NumLock is selected; press the NumLock key if necessary. Do not type the /.

    On some keyboards, particularly those used with laptops, the numeric keypad may not be physically separate, but may overlap part of the main keypad. In that case, use FN plus ALT instead of ALT alone while you type the digit keys.

    With an ISO Latin-8 compatible-font (see note on "Non-ANSI characters" below), you can also obtain (in any version of Windows):

    b-dot: ALT/0162
    c-dot: ALT/0165
    d-dot: ALT/0171
    f-dot: ALT/0177
    g-dot: ALT/0179
    m-dot: ALT/0181
    p-dot: ALT/0185
    s-dot: ALT/0191
    t-dot: ALT/0247     		B-dot: ALT/0161
    C-dot: ALT/0164
    D-dot: ALT/0166
    F-dot: ALT/0176
    G-dot: ALT/0178
    M-dot: ALT/0180
    P-dot: ALT/0183
    S-dot: ALT/0187
    T-dot: ALT/0215

    With Windows 2000, XP or Vista; a Unicode-compatible application; a Unicode-compatible font which has these particular glyphs assigned; and a registry key HKEY_Current_User/Control Panel/Input Method/EnableHexNumpad present with type REG_SZ and value "1" (reboot after any change), you can obtain:

    b-dot: ALT/+1E03
    c-dot: ALT/+010B
    d-dot: ALT/+1E0B
    f-dot: ALT/+1E1F
    g-dot: ALT/+0121
    m-dot: ALT/+1E41
    p-dot: ALT/+1E57
    s-dot: ALT/+1E61
    t-dot: ALT/+1E6B     		B-dot: ALT/+1E02
    C-dot: ALT/+010A
    D-dot: ALT/+1E0A
    F-dot: ALT/+1E1E
    G-dot: ALT/+0120
    M-dot: ALT/+1E40
    P-dot: ALT/+1E56
    S-dot: ALT/+1E60
    T-dot: ALT/+1E6A

    Again, keep the ALT key depressed while you type the remainder of the code. Do not type the /. The + key to use is the one in the numeric keypad.



My proposals (1998) for an Irish keyboard standard.

Note on deadkeys.

A number of the above keyboards use deadkeys, that is, keys which produce no character themselves, but only in combination with the following keypress.

The character engraved on a deadkey may generally be input by pressing the key once followed by the space bar.

Pressing a deadkey followed by a character to which it does not apply (e.g. # followed by q) should result in the two-character sequence, e.g. #q, but not all keyboard software behaves in this way.

The result of pressing a deadkey twice in succession depends on the keyboard software. It may be expected to produce the character engraved on the key, either once or twice.

The result of pressing backspace after a deadkey character is variable, depending on the keyboard software.

Choice of deadkeys: there are enough "seldom-used" characters engraved on any keyboard to be requisitioned as deadkeys. It is often possible to choose deadkeys whose default characters resemble the accent ('`^~"). There are two main schools of thought about how these deadkeys should function. If they are used straightforwardly as the deadkey, this is fast for keying accents but disturbs the keying of their own engraved characters, which is problematical at least in the case of apostrophe and double-quote. An alternative is to assign the deadkeys to ALTGR with the commandeered character. This slows down the keying of accents, and, if any of the commandeered characters also requires SHIFT, it means the simultaneous depression of three keys, contrary to ISO/IEC 9995. Which type of layout you choose will depend on the frequency of accented characters in your input.

There is also a tension between coverage and ease of use. Some layouts will try to be exhaustive in their character coverage, at the risk of overloading the user's memory of the associated keystrokes. It may be best to use a layout which focuses on your particular needs, if you can find one.

Notes on fonts.

1. Non-ANSI characters.

Some of the characters supported (dotted consonants, accented w, accented y except for ýÿÝ, circumflexed consonants, saucered u) are outside the ANSI character-set (Windows codepage 1252).

Under Windows 2000/XP/Vista, when Unicode fonts are used, there should not be a problem except that some Unicode fonts may not yet support all these characters.

Under Windows 95/98/ME, the above keyings for non-ANSI characters may produce apparent rubbish with the usual fonts. However the desired characters will be displayed if the font in use is encoded in one of the following standard ways:

  • for Irish dotted consonants: fonts encoded according to ISO 8859-14 (aka ISO Latin-8); see, for example, here or here or https://web.archive.org/web/20190916061151/http://www.madore.org/~david/computers/unicode/cstab.html#Latin-8 here; suitable free fonts include several of those by Vincent Morley formerly available here.
  • for Welsh accented w and extra accented y: fonts encoded according to ISO 8859-14 (aka ISO Latin-8), such as those available here from MEU Cymru, though the free versions of these fonts are intentionally unsuitable for general use.
  • for Esperanto circumflexed consonants and saucered u: fonts encoded according to ISO 8859-3 (aka ISO Latin-3), such as those available free here or here or here.
Under Windows 2000/XP, when a legacy font (eg. Latin-3 or Latin-8) is used rather than a Unicode font, an attempt to key a non-ANSI character is likely to produce the correct character but taken from an unexpected font (eg. Arial).  To produce the non-ANSI character from the legacy font, a different keyboard layout is required from the layout used with Unicode fonts. Such a layout giving dotted consonants with a UK hardware keyboard can be found here. For a US hardware keyboard and a legacy font, or for keying the non-ANSI characters of Welsh or Esperanto from a legacy font, I have no information (try a Google search).

2. Long characters and Tironian-et.

The four characters lowercase r, s and s-dot, and ampersand, have alternative glyphs in Gaelic scripts.  The r and s may be either "long" or "short", and the ampersand may be either a Tironian-et (like the digit "7") or — in a very few, mostly 'half-uncial', styles — an ampersand (et-ligature).  The Newman–Figgins style is found in two forms, one with short r and s, and the other with long r and s (the two forms are otherwise the same, and both use Tironian-et).

The key fact is that no piece of Irish text will employ both glyphs of any of these characters, unless caused by a change of style/font. This is why they may be treated as glyphs in Irish usage, allowing us to encode each pair as the same character, as sensible analysis dictates. The same thing applies to Irish text in Latin script: here there are no long forms, and the Tironian-et appears only in a few styles (eg. in the hybrid style sometimes found on road signs, which also features a dotless i). Again, only one glyph of each character is used in any homogeneous piece of text. Innovative font designers may choose one glyph from each pair in any combination they wish, but there is no benefit for a user in having both glyphs of a pair in one font, because there is no difference in meaning to be captured by the choice, but rather one or other of the pair will be inappropriate to the style of the font.

For any of these characters, both glyphs should be keyed in the same way, and the glyph which is displayed should be the one appropriate to the style of the font in use.  For example, pressing the ampersand key (shift/7) should produce an ampersand-like glyph in a typical Roman or half uncial font, but a Tironian-et in a typical minuscule font.  Subsequently changing this stretch of text from a typical Roman or half-uncial font to a typical minuscule font should change the ampersands to Tironian-ets; and vice versa.

There are a few Gaelic computer fonts in existence, however, which are designed in such a way that this does not happen.  With these fonts, which include some of Unicode type and many of "extended" Latin-8 type, pressing the ampersand key produces an ampersand-like glyph whatever the font, and a different keystroke is required to produce a Tironian-et glyph.  The two glyphs will not interconvert under a change of font, and the encoding distinction thus made between the two glyphs leads to further (and unnecessary) problems of text manipulation and analysis.

For those who must work with these problematic fonts, most layouts provide a means of keying the second glyphs (Tironian-et, long-r, long-s, long-s-dot), but it is suggested that you avoid them and use only the normal keystrokes for these four characters (ampersand, r, s, s-dot).  To achieve the desired appearance while using only the normal keystrokes, you should use fonts for which the normal keystrokes produce the glyph choices (between ampersand and Tironian-et; between r and long-r; between s and long-s; between s-dot and long-s-dot) best suited to the style of the font.  Such fonts include all standard (as opposed to "extended") Latin-8 fonts, and also many Unicode fonts.

See here for further discussion.

Ciarán Ó Duibhín
Úraithe 2013/05/30
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