UK Keyboard Layout
Despite the fact that Singapore inherits many things from Britain by dint of its former colonisation, Singapore does not use the UK Keyboard layout. The most notable difference is in the unexpected migration of the @, ~, and # sign across the keyboard. The logical reason for this however is that Singaporeans don't use the pound (£) symbol and so have no need of the UK keyboard's special symbols.
Most keyboards outside of Europe do not have the AltGr Key or the Euro symbol. Other keyboard layouts accomodate the commonly used symbols of their respective languages. For example, the German keyboard has an Eszett (ß) key.
It is also to be noted that the use of the US keyboard in Singapore also leads to the installation of American English spellchecker which causes that that infamous squiggly red line below what everyone knows to be the correct British spelling. GRR!
One should not underestimate how much this can signicantly affect internet slang. There is no way for you to accidentally mistype stupid things like OMGLOL!!!111~~111!! as the ~ key is now halfway across your keyboard. This syntatical difference therefore meant that the online teenage idiocy (largely originating from the US) was probably never fully comprehended in England.
AltGr Key
The AltGr Key or "alternative graphic" allows one to type in Polish, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Latvian, Macedonian, German, and French. Groovy.
Euro Symbol
How to get the Euro Symbol (€) on a UK keyboard.
- Windows: Ctrl-Alt-4 / Alt+0128
- Mac: Option-Shift-2
