" and @ keys mixed up! also why is backslash a § ?

Question

" and @ keys mixed up! also why is backslash a § ?

I bought a nice new mac mini to program with, I am using my Saitek keyboard from my reliable PC and have never had any problems. on the mac mini it seems to swap the " and @ keys as well as turning the turning my \ into a § sign. I have installed a "British Microsoft" keyboard option that fixes this but it only seems to work in firefox - it automatically gets greyed out and swaps itself back to 'British'(which messes the keys up again) when I use it on on the finder or even Safari!

is there any way to fix this, on my Pc I would just change my keyboard settings and it would work flawlessly with everything.

I hate my Mac, all it has given me is problems since I bought it.

Custom Build, Mac OS X (10.6.6), keyboard not functioning correctly

Posted on Jan 25, 2011 8:04 AM

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Answer 1

Dah•veed

Level 9

65,461 points

Jan 25, 2011 12:02 PM in response to Sir Ratburger

I hate my Mac, all it has given me is problems since I bought it.

That is not a Mac issue mate. That is a 3rd party keyboard issue. In 25+ years I have never had such an issue with Mac keyboards, nor with 3rd party keyboards intended for use with a Mac by their developers.

I checked all of the keyboards shown on the Saitek website and not one of them is listed as compatible with Mac OS X, let alone Snow Leopard. So the issue is that you are insisting upon using a 3rd party keyboard for which the developer has not developed Mac software, and then blaming that on the Mac.

Dah•veed

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Answer 2

Star1

Level 2

465 points

Jan 25, 2011 2:30 PM in response to Sir Ratburger

Hi Rat,
Saitek is a gaming keyboard for a PC - don't use it on Mac.
(Poor quality, too.)
I have at least 15 keyboards & they all work OK...

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Answer 3

Jan 26, 2011 10:47 AM in response to Sir Ratburger

Just use the keyboard recognition feature in preferences/keyboard. The same thing happened to me with my Iogear keyboard. I needed the @ and I got".

Marty

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Answer 4

Jan 27, 2011 4:00 AM in response to Sir Ratburger

Thanks for the reply Guys

Yeah it seems I will need to get a new keyboard, I am thinking of a 'Razor' one as I play games on my P.C and program on my Mac + they have a drivers for Mac just in case.

I still think that I should be able to use any keyboard David and that I can blame Apple for not creating an easier way of remapping my keys just in case people ran into this problem... Remember the slogan ' Mac just works ' - the fact is that in this case it doesnt.

The thing that still gets me though, I can swap to 'British Microsoft' keyboard layout when I use firefox on my Mac and my keyboard works fine but as soon as I use any other program liek the finder for instance the keyboard reverts back to 'British'(keys messed up) and greys out the other options... wierd.

Message was edited by: Sir Ratburger

null

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Answer 5

Jan 27, 2011 4:01 AM in response to Martin J. Estrada

Great suggestion, tried it but it didnt work unforunately 😟

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Answer 6

Jan 31, 2011 3:40 PM in response to Sir Ratburger

Update:

Just bought a nice new £70 keybaord called a 'razor lycosa mirror edition' - it is really sexy, one problem I am having though is that it also doesnt work. the @ key is swapped with the " keys amonst a few and there is still no way to change it.

Apple, why do you have to be so difficult?

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Answer 7

Dah•veed

Level 9

65,461 points

Jan 31, 2011 4:16 PM in response to Sir Ratburger

It does not matter how cool it is, or how much that you have paid for it, what matters is that you have again purchased a 3rd party keyboard specifically intended by its developer as a Windows OS gaming keyboard and who has only developed drivers for the Windows OS! But you want to blame that on Apple.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

BTW, "It just works" is referring to Mac OS X on Mac hardware, not on a Mac mini with Windows hardware.

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Answer 8

Jan 31, 2011 4:38 PM in response to Sir Ratburger

Ah yes, finally a way around my crappy stubborness of my Mac - oh and by the way I should be able to buy a third party keyboard if I want and not be called a fool for doing so, I should be able to plug any keyboard in the world including one with an additional half chinese/ Egyptian hyroglyphics with a joystick and mouse pad built in if I please and it should work - thats a fact! saying I have to buy a mac only keyboard is taking away a **** of a lot of my freedom and I dont like that one bit as well as supporting a capatalist company who intentionally makes its operating system refuse to accept third party hardware because it means they arent getting any more money from me.

Anyways someone came up with a solution here http://liyang.hu/osx-british.xhtml

Hope this helps people out there who don't want to buy a clunky, uncomforatable mac keyboard and prefer something with a bit more class instead.

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Answer 9

Dah•veed

Level 9

65,461 points

Jan 31, 2011 5:47 PM in response to Sir Ratburger

Mr Rat, you of course are free to think/believe anything that you wish, no matter how irrational. But one begins to wonder why you bought a Mac if you dislike them so much.

BTW, no one said anything about having to buy an Apple keyboard. There happen to be a number of 3rd party developers who also develop Mac OS X drivers for their keyboards. My first wireless keyboard and mouse were not Apple products and they worked a treat. But visiting the developer's website for your current venture in keyboard purchases, the Razor, the only OS the developer supports for your choice is Windows. But it is great that another 3rd party has developed drivers for Mac OS X that you can use with your choice. They likely work with your original Saitek as well. But that was £70.00 ago.

Enjoy your new toy.

Ciao.

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Answer 10

Jan 31, 2011 6:53 PM in response to Dah•veed

You could pop the keys off the keyboard and switch them.

I have a Visiontek Candy Bar keyboard that says it's designed for the mac and it's @ and " keys do the same thing. There is no way around it. And the trackpad ***** too. I need to figure out a way to get my money back for that garbage. This is clearly a sign they all just copy each other with little innovation and nothing unique. It's like Microsoft with the Zune, if they had developed a mac version of the software, I would have bought one. In their arrogance, they believed their loyal customers would jump ship and buy Zune. I incidentally still don't own an iPod.

There truly is a paucity of decent keyboards on the market for mac though. I don't blame Apple, I blame those 3rd party makers for neglecting the mac market which is growing by the way.

Marty

Message was edited by: Martin J. Estrada

Message was edited by: Martin J. Estrada

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Answer 11

Feb 1, 2011 11:12 AM in response to Sir Ratburger

Ah good question David, I originally bought a Mac so I could program for the Iphone and Ipad, I didn’t really have a choice in the matter as the software will not work on a P.C (surprise, surprise) - Only after I bought it did I realize I could have built a Pentium based P.C up and then bought the Mac OSX for £25 probably saving myself £300 in the process for the same machine and got as much help from technical support as I did with a genuine mac (basically nil after the 90 day period when I actually needed it) - I dont have a grudge with Mac, I seem to just had a few bad experiences after another with them and I'm getting tired of it. my Mac mini does look sexy though 😉

My new toy works great in my P.C, I have never had so many Macros for Starcraft 2 and many other customizable things 🙂

!Oh just to make sure, if anyone runs into a similar problem here is the solution to the keyboard mapping issue! (this will fix your @ and " keys being swapped around as well as the \ and ' keys) - Use the link below.

http://liyang.hu/osx-british.xhtml

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