This is going to be one of those things which I’ve done to make my own life easier, but figured it may also be of use to others whom may stumble across this post. Given I’ve been using a good deal of Latvian writing up my experiences in Latvia, it was a no brainer to install the Input Method in Windows, making life that bit easier typing it’s alphabet which lacks q, w, x, y, but has ā, č, ē, ģ, ī, ķ, ļ, ņ, ō, š, ū and ž.
However, the default “Latvian (QWERTY)” immediately annoyed me as the CapsLock state is ignored when used with AltGr and slightly less annoying was the fact AltGr+o mapped to õ (o with tilde) rather than ō (o with macron), I guess from the fact ō is only used in the Latgale dialect of Latvian. Another annoyance was the fact the QWERTY layout is based in a U.S. one as opposed to a U.K. one.
So I fixed them to do my bidding, first by downloading The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator and modifying them. The first layout was a fixed “Latvian (QWERTY)” one so that CapsLock is respected and for AltGr+o to be mapped to ō. The second layout was to base it from the “English (United Kingdom)” but change the AltGr state vowels from acute to macron, create mappings for the caron/hacek characters č, š, ž and cedilla characters ģ, ķ, ļ, ņ. Lastly the angled quotation marks « and » as used in Latvian.
Below are the packaged files for Windows NT4, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 only:
- Latvian Input Method (Latvian QWERTY, Customised)
- 13.5 kiB - md5sum: e5edd119283855649cb10f453847c6cc
- Latvian Input Method (United Kingdom QWERTY, Customised)
- 13.2 kiB - md5sum: 8173123a013f19595bf95027405eac99
For Windows NT4 and Windows 2000 users, if you’ve not got Windows Installer 2.0 installed, you’ll need to do so prior installing the Input Methods which you can grab it from Microsoft themselves. As with all software installations, you’ll need administrative privileges or find a nice administrator whom will do it for you, assuming they let such things to be installed in the first place of course.
If you run into any issues… these will have to be resolved by yourself (or the administrator that installed it for you) since I have only provided these “as is”.
Jonathon, Thank you so much for your Latvian Keyboard. It will make writing email to relatives in Latvia so much more elegant. You’ve achieved that which Microsoft could not.
Comment by Peter Beitans — 03:53:35 UTC on the 29th of December, 2005
Glad it was of use to someone, aside from me that is! :D
Comment by Jonathan Stanley — 04:04:11 UTC on the 29th of December, 2005
Thank u very much, Jonathan! I am in Russia and I often have to type in Latvian for which i didn’t have any facilities bfore. The standard Latvian layout was a headache to me and also i only have English and Russian stickers on my keyboard… Now I have tested your tool - that’s marvelous, time and nerve-saving! Thank u!
Btw is it possible to use not only the Gray Alt but the other Alt as well? I am typing ‘blindly’ with all 10 fingers and that’s why the both Alt’s wud be useful…
Comment by Natalia — 20:53:01 UTC on the 21st of February, 2006
Hi Natalia, glad the keyboard layout was of help! :D As for using the
Altkey as a modifier, that’s a “no go” as some of those are already used by Windows itself, for example:Alt+ewill open the “Edit” menu of a window.However, if
AltGris on the “wrong” side of the keyboard, usingCtrl+Altwill have the same effect. That is:AltGr+eorCtrl+Alt+ewill give an “ē”. :DComment by Jonathan Stanley — 21:07:28 UTC on the 21st of February, 2006
Thanks - I’ve been wondering how to input Latvian properly on my UK keyboard for ages. Now I can - great ! Many thanks again.
Comment by Baron — 11:05:34 UTC on the 2nd of February, 2008