My keyboard types " instead of @

terriertim wrote:

the keyboard language is set to British pc

That is your problem. You have to set it to British. That means you have to see a British flag without any PC under it at the top right of your screen. Or you have to have only British on the list system prefs/keyboard/input sources.

British has @ at Shift 2. British PC has " at Shift 2. British PC has @ at Shift '. British has " at Shift '.

If your keyboard did not produce @ at Shift 2, then it was not really set to British.

This type of mixup between the @ and " keys on the keyboard is usually caused when using a UK keyboard with something that involves Windows - for example using Microsoft Remote Desktop client, running a virtualised copy of Windows, using Timbuktu Pro to remotely control a Windows computer, etc. In these cases it is caused by ignorant American software developers who assume everyone has a US keyboard layout. (Americans are notorious for being geographically challenged, they still apparently think if you leave the US you will fall off the edge of the world, this might also explain why they don't know where many foreign cities are. 😉 A clue for our friends in the colonies, Terry Pratchett's Disc World book series are works of fiction not fact.)

While nearly all Mac <--> Windows software has the above flaw there are two exceptions, VNC another remote control program was written at AT&T Labs in Cambridge, England. If it has been written in Cambridge, Massachusetts I am sure it would have had the same flaw 😠. The other one that seems not to have this flaw is using Windows via Boot Camp. Apple's Boot Camp drivers seem clever enough to know when you are using a UK keyboard or more accurately non-American keyboard on a Mac. Kudos to Apple for this, brickbats to Microsoft for initially having this bug in the original versions of Remote Desktop Client for Mac 1.x, fixing it in 2.x, and reintroducing the same bug in 7.x/8.x.

(Perhaps Americans are punishing us dirty stinking foreigners for conducting un-american activities in trying to use non-US keyboards. 😉 However surely this counts as cruel and unusual punishment.)

Check the symbol on your keyboard above the number 3, it should show the £ (UK Pound) symbol. If it instead shows the # (Hash as in duh! hashtag or as the Americans incorrectly pronounce it Pound symbol) then you have a US keyboard and need to set your keyboard layout accordingly.

Go to System Preferences>Keyboard>Text and make sure yo do not have a replacement specified.

Go to System Preferences>Keyboard>Keyboard and check box that says Show Keyboard, Emoji... Then click on the Keyboard icon in menu bar and select show keyboard viewer. The type the " and see what the viewer shows is typed.

Do you have another KB to test?

terriertim wrote:

Check the symbol on your keyboard above the number 3, it should show the £ (UK Pound) symbol. If it instead shows the # (Hash as in duh! hashtag or as the Americans incorrectly pronounce it Pound symbol) then you have a US keyboard and need to set your keyboard layout accordingly.

Hi, tried this, when typing 3 I get the £ sign and can confirm the keyboard language is set to British pc

No what is actually printed on the keyboard above the number 3. If it is a £ (UK Pound) it is a UK keyboard is it is # then it it likely a US keyboard. These are physically laid out differently which is why so much US written software gets it wrong.

First of all thanks to Tom for correctly diagnosing the problem.

Secondly an explanation as to why there was a problem. A UK PC keyboard has the " in the place a that a UK Mac keyboard has a @ and vice versa, hence why typing one character generates the other in this case.

You would only use the British PC keyboard layout on the Mac if you had a real Windows keyboard plugged in to the Mac. This might be if you bought a Mac mini for example which does not come with a keyboard at all and you as Apple imagine re-use an old Windows keyboard.