Any ANSI UKers? How was the switch from ISO?
Any ANSI UKers? How was the switch from ISO?
Hi!
Many mechanical keyboards are only available in ANSI layout. I've held off buying a keyboard because of this.
How have people here found moving from ISO to ANSI? Does it take long to say goodbye to the backwards-L return key etc.?
I move back and forth between the standards. My laptop and 75% mechanical are ANSI, my work laptop and Bluetooth keyboard are ISO.
You'd be surprised how quickly you get used to switching between them.
"blablabla, and pipe to...oh, I need the other pipe button"
You're right, you learn fast.
I had the exact same question a couple of years ago. I was a very long time UK ISO user, and then some of the keycaps on my keyboard broke. When looking at a replacement I fancied a mechanical DIY, so I bought a Glorious Gaming GMMK TKL, still UK ISO. But the selection of keycaps was small, even with UK sellers, e.g., on Etsy. So, I got an ANSI version of the same GMMK keyboard, and some nice blue & white keycaps from an Etsy UK based seller.
It took me a few weeks to get used to the layout. The Enter key is not a problem, it is things like @ and # not being where your muscle memory expects them. Also, the lack of a £ key. Because, being ANSI, you need to use the US keyboard layout in Windows, which does not have £ or €. Eventually I used the Microsoft keyboard layout generator to create a custom layout, with £ mapped to function 3. I think I mapped € too.
I can share my keyboard layout file if anyone wants it.
I am too stuck in my ways. On an ANSI board half the time I hit the return in the wrong place.
I largely use HHKB layout keyboards and although this doesn't really answer your question, moving from ISO to HHKB took me about 2 weeks to fully adjust. I still miss having the £ key though, so for any non-HHKB layout keyboards I still actively look at ISO if I can. I'll say that if you use an Apple keyboard (MacBook etc) you'll find they're already about halfway between ISO and ANSI (@ above 2, " above ' etc) which can give you some idea. At this point I can use ISO, HHKB or an Apple keyboard and I won't have to think about it at all really, I'll just naturally adapt to the layout.