The keyboard layout controls which characters appear on the screen when you press the keys on your keyboard. These layouts also enable you to directly type all the characters for the language, including diacritical marks such as the umlaut (ä) in German and the tilde (ñ) in Spanish.
Note After you change the layout, the characters on your screen might not correspond to the characters on your keyboard keys.
To see an example of each language's keyboard layout, see Windows Keyboard Layouts. You can also insert ASCII or Unicode Latin-based symbols or characters by typing characters codes.
What do you want to do?
Enable system support for East Asian, Southeast Asian, Indic, and right-to-left languages
When working with East Asian, Southeast Asian, Indic, and right-to-left languages, some additional set up might be required depending on your operating system. For more information, see Enabling International Support in Windows XP or Right-to-left language features.
Windows Vista
Windows Vista includes all the necessary files to support East Asian, Southeast Asian, Indic, and right-to-left languages. Just enable the keyboard or Input Method Editor (IME) (IME: A program that enters East Asian text (Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, or Korean) into programs by converting keystrokes into complex East Asian characters. The IME is treated as an alternate type of keyboard layout.) for the language that you want by following the steps in the Enable a keyboard layout in Windows Vista section.
Windows XP
- Follow the instructions in Set up Windows XP for multiple languages to install the support files for your language on your computer.
- Complete the steps in the below section, Enable a keyboard layout in Windows XP
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Enable a keyboard layout in Windows Vista
Important Changing the keyboard language only enables you to type in that language. To check for spelling, grammar, or hyphenation errors, the proofing tools for the language that you are typing in must be enabled and a Language Pack or Language Interface Pack may be required. For more information, see Check spelling and grammar in another language.
- Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Under Clock, Language and Region, click Change keyboards or other input methods.
Note In Classic view 
, double-click Regional and Language Options.
- In the Regional and Language Options dialog box, under the Keyboards and Language tab, click Change keyboards
.
- In the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box, on the General tab, click the Default input language down arrow, and then select the default language that you want to use.
Note If the language that you want to use as a secondary language is not listed in the Installed services box, click Add to open the Add Input Languages dialog box, click the language that you want to expand the list, click Keyboard to expand the Keyboard list, click the check box next to the keyboard or, if you are enabling a keyboard for an East Asian language, Input Method Editor (IME) (IME: A program that enters East Asian text (Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, or Korean) into programs by converting keystrokes into complex East Asian characters. The IME is treated as an alternate type of keyboard layout.) layout that you want, click OK, and then click Apply.
If there is more than one keyboard available for that language, you can see the keyboard by clicking Preview.
Show me in Windows Vista 
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Enable a keyboard layout in Windows XP
Prerequisite To enable keyboards for languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, you must first install the East Asian language files. For languages that are read from right to left or that require contextual shaping to appear, you must install the complex scripts to support these languages. For information about how to install the East Asian Language files and complex scripts, see Enable system support for East Asian, Southeast Asian, Indic, and right-to-left languages.
- Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options.
Note In Classic view 
, double-click Regional and Language Options.
- In the Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options dialog box, under Pick a task, click Add other languages.
- In the Regional and Language Options dialog box, on the Languages tab, click Details.
- In the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box, on the Settings tab, click the Default input language down arrow, and then select the default language that you want to use.
- In the Installed services box, select the language that you want to add to the Language bar.
Note If the language that you want to use as a secondary language is not listed in the Installed services box, click Add to open the Add Input Languages dialog box, click the language that you want to expand the list, click Keyboard to expand the Keyboard list, click the check box next to the keyboard layout/IME that you want, click OK, and then click Apply.
- If you want to be able to switch keyboard layouts by using the Language bar, under Preferences, click Language Bar, and then select the Show the Language bar on the desktop check box.
Show me in Windows XP
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Change the keyboard language with the Language bar
If you have added the languages that you must have and enabled the Language bar so that it displays on your desktop or in your taskbar, you can change languages by clicking the Language bar in the taskbar and select the language that you want to change the keyboard to. For example, German (Germany).
If you don't see the Language bar on your desktop or in your taskbar, you need to display the Language bar. For information about the Language bar, see Language bar (overview).
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