AltGr key

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The AltGr key is the first key to the right of the space bar. AltGr - Lenovo.jpg
The AltGr key is the first key to the right of the space bar.

AltGr (also Alt Graph) is a modifier key found on computer keyboards. It is primarily used to type characters that are used less frequently in the language that the keyboard is designed for, such as foreign currency symbols, typographic marks and accented letters. [1] The AltGr key is used to access a third and a fourth [a] grapheme for most keys. Most are accented variants of the letters on the keys, but some are additional symbols and punctuation marks. Some languages, such as Bengali, use this key when the number of letters of their alphabet is too large for a standard keyboard. For example, when the US-International keyboard mapping is active, the C key can be used to insert four different characters:

Contents

On keyboard layouts that do not include an AltGr key, such as US keyboards, the key position is labelled as a right-hand Alt key. When a relevant keyboard mapping is chosen in the operating system, this key will function separately as AltGr (despite being marked identically to the left-hand Alt key). [2] In macOS, the Option key has functions similar to the AltGr key.

History

IBM states that AltGr is an abbreviation for alternate graphic. [3] [4]

Sun Microsystems keyboard, which labels the key as Alt Graph Compose key on Sun Type 5c keyboard.jpg
Sun Microsystems keyboard, which labels the key as Alt Graph

A key labelled with some variation of "Alt Graphic" was on many computer keyboards before the Windows international layouts. On early home computers the alternate graphemes were primarily box-drawing characters. [5]

This likely was the intended purpose of the Alt key on PC keyboards, however software quickly used this as a combination key for shortcuts, requiring a new key for producing additional characters.

Ctrl+Alt

Windows interprets Ctrl+Alt as AltGr, to accommodate some compact keyboards like those of netbooks which have neither the AltGr key nor a right-hand Alt key. Thus Ctrl+Alt+a has the same effect as AltGr+a. Because of this feature, Microsoft advises that Ctrl+Alt not be used as part of any application keyboard shortcut, as it would prevent typing the matching AltGr character on such keyboards. [6] [b]

Function by default national keyboard

In most of the keyboard diagrams the symbol one gets when holding down AltGr is in blue in the lower-right of the corner. If different, the symbol for Shift+AltGr is shown in the upper-right.

Bangladesh

Jatiya layout (Alt Gr activated characters in blue) KB-Bengali-Jatiyo.svg
Jatiya layout (Alt Gr activated characters in blue)

Belgium

Belgian keyboard under Linux (Ubuntu 9.10) Belgian Linux keyboard.svg
Belgian keyboard under Linux (Ubuntu 9.10)

The Windows version of the Belgian keyboard may only support a subset of these characters. Several of the AltGr combinations are themselves dead keys, which are followed by another letter to produce an accented version of that letter.

Brazil

ABNT complying keyboard layout (Alt Gr activated characters in blue) KB Portuguese Brazil.svg
ABNT complying keyboard layout (Alt Gr activated characters in blue)


ABNT2 complying keyboard layout (Alt Gr activated characters in blue) KB Portuguese Brazil ABNT2.svg
ABNT2 complying keyboard layout (Alt Gr activated characters in blue)

Some notes

  • The AltGr+C combination results in the (obsolete) symbol ₢ for the former Brazilian currency, the Brazilian cruzeiro.
  • The AltGr+Q, AltGr+W, AltGr+E combinations are useful as a replacement for the "/?" key, which is physically absent on non-Brazilian keyboards.
  • Some software (e.g. Microsoft Word) will map AltGr+R to ® and AltGr+T to ™.

Finland

The original design for the Finnish Multilingual Keyboard, dead keys in red; Icelandic and Faroese D/d is on the D key, the Sami D/d available using the AltGr diacritic on L KB Finnish Multilingual.svg
The original design for the Finnish Multilingual Keyboard, dead keys in red; Icelandic and Faroese Ð/ð is on the D key, the Sámi Đ/đ available using the AltGr diacritic on L

The new Finnish keyboard standard of 2008 (SFS 5966) was designed for easily typing 1) Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian; 2) Nordic minority languages and 3) European Latin letters (based on MES-2, with emphasis on contemporary proper nouns), without needing engravings different from those on existing standard keyboards of Finland and Sweden. AltGr and dead diacritic keys are extensively used, although letters of Finnish and Swedish are mostly provided as normal keys. [7]

France

On AZERTY keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters:

French AZERTY keyboard KB France.svg
French AZERTY keyboard

Germany

On German keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters, which are indicated on the keyboard:

German keyboard layout "T1" according to DIN 2137-1:2012-06 KB Germany.svg
German keyboard layout "T1" according to DIN 2137-1:2012-06

Windows 8 introduced the ability of pressing AltGr+⇧ Shift+ß to produce (capital ß). Even though this is usually not indicated on the physical keyboard—potentially due to a lack of space, since the ß-key already has three different levels (ß → "ß", ⇧ Shift+ß → "?", and, as shown above, AltGr+ß → "\")—, it can be seen in the Windows On-Screen Keyboard by selecting the necessary keys with the German keyboard layout selected. Some newer types of German keyboards offer the assignment AltGr+H → capital ß.

Greece

KB Greek.svg

Some of these key combinations also result in different characters if the polytonic layout is used.

Israel

Hebrew

On Hebrew keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the Hebrew vowels and pronunciation marks. In addition, there are several combinations for special characters:

Yiddish

Using a Hebrew keyboard, one may write in Yiddish as the two languages share many letters. However, Yiddish has some additional digraphs not otherwise found in Hebrew, which are entered via AltGr:

Italy

On Italian keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters:

There is an alternate layout, which differ just in disposition of characters accessible through AltGr and includes the tilde and the curly brackets.

Latvia

The following letters can be input in the Latvian keyboard layout using AltGr:

North Macedonia

On Macedonian keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters:

Netherlands

Nordic countries and Estonia

The keyboard layouts in the Nordic countries Denmark (DK), Faroe Islands (FO), Finland (FI), Norway (NO) and Sweden (SE) as well as in Estonia (EE) are largely similar to each other. Generally the AltGr key can be used to create the following characters:

Other AltGr combinations are peculiar to just some of the countries:

Finnish multilingual

The Finnish multilingual keyboard standard adds many new characters to the traditional layout via the AltGr key, as shown in the image below (the blue characters can be written with the AltGr key; several dead key diacritics, shown in red, are also available as an AltGr combination). [8] [9]

KB Finnish Multilingual.svg

Poland

Typewriters in Poland used a QWERTZ layout specifically designed for the Polish language with accented letters in the Polish alphabet obtainable directly. When personal computers became available worldwide in the 1980s, commercial importing into Poland was not supported by its communist government, so most machines in Poland were brought in by private individuals. Most had US keyboards, and various methods were devised to make available the accented Polish letters. An established method was to configure the right Alt key as an AltGr key and to use it in combination with a Latin base letter to obtain the equivalent precomposed character (accented form of the letter).

(Because there are two types of "z with diacritic" (ź and ż), AltGr+X is a special case.)

At the time of the Fall of communism and opening of commercial import channels this practice was so widespread that it was adopted as the de facto standard. Nowadays nearly all PCs in Poland have standard US keyboards and use the AltGr method to enter Polish diacritics. This keyboard mapping is referred to as the Polish programmers' layout (klawiatura polska programisty) or simply Polish layout.

Another layout is still used on typewriters, mostly by professional typists. Computer keyboards with this layout are available, though difficult to find, and supported by a number of operating systems; they are known as Polish typists' layout (klawiatura polska maszynistki). Older Polish versions of Microsoft Windows used this layout, describing it as Polish layout. On current versions it is referred to as Polish (214).

Romania

The keymap with the AltGr key: < Romanian standard

+ the signs mostly pressed with AltGr prints the US keyboard signs Romanian standard>

 â  ß  €  r  ț  y  u  î  o  §  „  ”   ă  ș  đ  f  g  h  j  k  ł  ;     z  x  ©  v  b  n  m  «  »

Russia

Since release 1903, versions of Windows 10 have the binding:

South Slavic Latin and Czech keyboards

On South Slavic Latin (used in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia) and on Czech keyboards, the following letters and special characters are created using AltGr:

Qwertz-si.svg

South Slavic cyrillic keyboards use a different layout.

Switzerland

On Swiss keyboards, AltGr in combination with the following keys types the following characters:

Switzerland has four national Languages (German, French, Italian, and Romansh). The Swiss keyboard layout is therefore designed with compatibility in mind for all four languages. In German-speaking and Romansh-speaking Switzerland (as well as the Czech Republic), the Swiss German layout is used, while in the French-speaking and Italian-speaking Switzerland, the Swiss French layout is used. The two layouts only differ on three keys—OEM1, OEM5, and OEM7. On the Swiss German layout, these three keys are labelled èü, éö, and àä, respectively, while on the Swiss French layout, the labels are inverted as üè, öé, and äà; namely, the base layer and the Shift⇧ layer are swapped. However, with respect to the AltGr layer, the region-specific layouts are irrelevant.

Swiss German: AltGr+Ä → {

Swiss French: AltGr+À → {

Turkey

In Turkish keyboard variants the AltGr can be used to display the following characters:

  • AltGr+aæ
  • AltGr+sß
  • AltGr+e
  • AltGr+t
  • AltGr+q@
  • AltGr+ıi
  • AltGr+ü a → ã
  • AltGr+ğ a → ä
  • AltGr+ş a → á
  • AltGr+, a → à

Ukraine

In Ukrainian (enhanced) keyboard, added in Windows Vista, combination AltGr+U (or as it is written in Cyrillic keyboards AltGr+Г gives letter ґ and Ґ.

United Kingdom and Ireland

KB United Kingdom.svg

In UK and Ireland keyboard layouts, only two alternative use symbols are printed on most keyboards, which require the AltGr key to function. These are:

Using the AltGr key on Linux produces many other characters and symbols, e.g. ¹²³€½{[]}@łe¶ŧ←↓→øþæßðđŋħjĸł«»¢“”nµΩŁE®Ŧ¥↑ıØÞƧЪŊĦJ&Ł<>©‘’Nº×÷· (If reconfigured as a compose key, an even larger repertoire is available).

With the UK extended keyboard setting (below), ChromeOS offers a large repertoire of symbols and precomposed characters.

Scotland and Wales

For the diacritics used by Welsh (ŵ and ŷ) and Scottish Gaelic (à, è, ì, ò and ù), the UK extended keyboard setting is needed. This makes available AltGr+6 (for circumflex accent) and AltGr+` (for grave accent) as dead keys.

UK extended keyboard layout

The UK-Extended keyboard mapping (available with Microsoft Windows, Linux and ChromeOS) allows many characters with diacritical marks (including those used in other European countries) to be generated by using the AltGr key, dead keys or a compose key, in combination with others.

UK extended layout under ChromeOS
¬
¦
! ¡
1 ¹
" ½
2
£
3 ³
$ ¼
4
%
5 ½
^
6
&
7 {
*
8 [
( ±
9 ]
) °
0 }
_ ¿
- \
+
=
tabQ Ω
q @
W
w
E É
e é
R ®
r
T Ŧ
t ŧ
Y Ý
y ý
U Ú
u ú
I Í
i í
O Ó
o ó
P Þ
p þ
{
[
}
]
A Á
a á
S §
s ß
D Ð
d ð
F ª
f đ
G Ŋ
g ŋ
H Ħ
h ħ
J
j
K &
k ĸ
L Ł
l ł
:
;
@
'
~
#
shift|¦
\ |
Z <
z «
X >
x »
C Ç
c ç
V
v
B
b
N N
n n
M º
m µ
<×
,
>÷
. ·
?
/

Notes: Dotted circle (◌) is used here to indicate a dead key, invoked using AltGr. The ` (grave accent) key is the only one that acts as a free-standing dead key and thus does not respond as shown on the key-cap. (For a complete list of the characters generated using dead keys, see QWERTY#ChromeOS.)
AltGr+⇧ Shift+0 (°) is a degree sign; AltGr+⇧ Shift+M (º) is a masculine ordinal indicator. AltGr+, is an em-dash; there is no provision for en-dash.

United States

Most keyboards sold in the US do not have an (engraved) AltGr key. However, if there is a right-hand Alt key it will act as AltGr if a layout using it is installed (conversely a foreign keyboard AltGr will act like the right-hand Alt if the standard US keyboard layout is installed).

US-International

Microsoft provides a US-International keyboard layout that uses AltGr (or right-hand Alt or Ctrl+Alt) key to produce more characters:

KB US-International.svg

Red characters are dead keys; for example ä can be entered with "a.

Other operating systems such as Linux and ChromeOS follow this layout but increase the repertoire of glyphs provided.

X Window System

In the X Window System (Linux, BSD, Unix), AltGr can often be used to produce additional characters with almost every key on the keyboard. Furthermore, with some keys, AltGr will produce a dead key; for example on a UK keyboard, semicolon can be used to add an acute accent to a base letter, and left square bracket can be used to add a trema:

This use of dead keys enables one to type a wide variety of precomposed characters that combine various diacritics with either uppercase or lowercase letters, achieving a similar effect to the Compose key.

Keyboard maps

Below are some diagrams and examples of country-specific key maps. For the diagrams, the grey symbols are the standard characters, yellow is with ⇧ Shift, red is with AltGr, and blue is with ⇧ Shift+AltGr.

Danish keyboard

The Danish keymap features the following key combinations:

  • AltGr+⇧ Shift+QΩ
  • AltGr+Oœ
  • AltGr+Mµ

Italian keyboard

The Italian keymap includes, among other combinations, the following:

Norwegian keyboard

The complete Norwegian X Window key map with its AltGr combinations Norwegian X Window key map with its AltGr combinations.png
The complete Norwegian X Window key map with its AltGr combinations

Polish keyboard

The Polish keymap on X-based systems features changed combination for € sign:

  • AltGr+5

AltGr+U results in ↓ instead. It also introduces several symbols and characters from different languages, including among others:

  • AltGr+Tß
  • AltGr+Pþ
  • AltGr+Dð
  • AltGr+Qπ
  • AltGr+⇧ Shift+QΩ
  • AltGr+Mµ
  • AltGr+⇧ Shift+M
  • AltGr+Fæ
  • AltGr+Wœ

Swedish keyboard

The complete Swedish X Window key map with its AltGr combinations KB Sweden AltGr.svg
The complete Swedish X Window key map with its AltGr combinations

See also

Notes

  1. when ⇧ Shift is also pressed
  2. In general the substitution for the AltGr-key with Ctrl+Alt works as expected, but in some programs unexpected results can occur. For example in a local MS Outlook 365 installation the key combo Ctrl+Alt is not recognized as an AltGr.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QWERTY</span> Keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets

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In computing, a modifier key is a special key on a computer keyboard that temporarily modifies the normal action of another key when pressed together. By themselves, modifier keys usually do nothing; that is, pressing any of the ⇧ Shift, Alt, or Ctrl keys alone does not (generally) trigger any action from the computer. They are commonly used in defined sequences of keys with another keys to trigger a specific action. These sequences are called keyboard shortcuts.

The acute accent, ◌́, is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed characters are available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ü</span> Latin letter U with umlaut/diaeresis

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">QWERTZ</span> Keyboard layout

The QWERTZQWERTZU, or QWERTZUIOP keyboard is a typewriter and keyboard layout widely used in Central and Southeast Europe. The name comes from the first six letters at the top left of the keyboard:.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AZERTY</span> Keyboard layout used for French

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alt key</span> Computer key

The Alt keyAlt on a computer keyboard is used to change (alternate) the function of other pressed keys. Thus, the Alt key is a modifier key, used in a similar fashion to the Shift key. For example, simply pressing A will type the letter 'a', but holding down the Alt key while pressing A will cause the computer to perform an Alt+A function, which varies from program to program. The international standard ISO/IEC 9995-2 calls it Alternate key. The key is located on either side of the space bar, but in non-US PC keyboard layouts, rather than a second Alt key, there is an 'Alt Gr' key to the right of the space bar. Both placements are in accordance with ISO/IEC 9995-2. With some keyboard mappings, the right Alt key can be reconfigured to function as an AltGr key although not engraved as such.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compose key</span> Computer key to initiate glyph merger

A compose key is a key on a computer keyboard that indicates that the following keystrokes trigger the insertion of an alternate character, typically a precomposed character or a symbol.

There are two major English language computer keyboard layouts, the United States layout and the United Kingdom layout defined in BS 4822. Both are QWERTY layouts. Users in the United States do not frequently need to make use of the £ (pound) and € (euro) currency symbols, which are common needs in the United Kingdom and Ireland, although the $ symbol is also provided as standard on UK and Irish keyboards. In other countries which predominantly use English as a common working language, such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, the US keyboard is commonly used.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hebrew keyboard</span> Keyboard layout

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unicode input</span> Input characters using their Unicode code points

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dvorak keyboard layout</span> Keyboard layout

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keyboard layout</span> Arrangement of keys on a typographic keyboard

A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual, or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard. Standard keyboard layouts vary depending on their intended writing system, language, and use case, and some hobbyists and manufacturers create non-standard layouts to match their individual preferences, or for extended functionality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neo (keyboard layout)</span> Keyboard layout

The Neo layout is an optimized German keyboard layout developed in 2004 by the Neo Users Group, supporting nearly all Latin-based alphabets, including the International Phonetic Alphabet, the Vietnamese language, and some Cyrillic alphabets.

The German keyboard layout is family of QWERTZ keyboard layouts commonly used in Austria and Germany. It is based on one defined in a former edition of the German standard DIN 2137–2. The current edition DIN 2137-1:2012-06 standardizes it as the first (basic) one of three layouts, calling it "T1".

There are a number of methods to input Esperanto letters and text on a computer, e.g. when using a word processor or email. Input methods depend on a computer's operating system. Specifically the characters ĵ, ĝ, ĉ, ĥ, ŭ, ŝ can be problematic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian keyboard layout</span>

The Italian keyboard layout is the keyboard layout commonly used on computers in Italy. It is QWERTY-based and follows the ISO/IEC 9995 standard. Italian-speaking people in Switzerland on the contrary use the Swiss QWERTZ keyboard with Swiss Italian layout.

References

  1. "What is AltGr key?". 10 January 2024.
  2. Microsoft Support. "How to use the United States-International keyboard layout in Windows 7, in Windows Vista, and in Windows XP". Microsoft. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  3. "Keyboard Technical Reference". ibm.com. Archived from the original on 14 January 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2005.
  4. "IBM Globalization – Alternate graphic". ibm.com.
  5. Kaplan, Michael S.: "To start press the ALTGR key." Hmm... where's the ALTGR key?. 28 December 2004.
  6. Raymond Chen (29 March 2004). "Why Ctrl+Alt shouldn't be used as a shortcut modifier". Microsoft.
  7. "Suomalainen monikielinen näppäimistökaavio, viimeiseksi tarkoitettu luonnos" (PDF) (in Finnish). 20 June 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2011.
  8. SFS 5966 Keyboard layout. Finnish-Swedish multilingual keyboard setting. Finnish Standards Association SFS. 3 November 2008.
  9. Kotoistus: Uusi näppäinasettelu = Status of the new Keyboard Layout Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine . A bi-lingual (Finnish + English) presentation page collecting drafts of the Finnish Multilingual Keyboard. CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd. Page updated 28 December 2006.
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