Swiss keyboard layouts

A: Overview Swiss Keyboard Layouts.md

The Swiss keyboard layouts

The Swiss keyboard has one set of keycaps and two layouts, Swiss German and Swiss French. Below is an image of a, fairly dusty, Dell keyboard with the Swiss keycaps.

Above image shows the layouts of the Swiss keyboard. Please note the block around the umlauts (ä, ö, ü) as the key in this area are special.

The pipe | and interrupted pipe (?) symbol are switched in labeling and actual character that comes out (keys 1/+ and 7//). The behavior seems to follow closely this layout here. There are also some keys that don't have printed characters on the keyboard, they are listed below in the remarks.

B: Swiss German Layout.md

The Swiss German layout

To setup the Swiss German keyboard layout, the Windows keyboard layout is set to "German (Switzerland) - Swiss German". I describe "special" keys and what happens when they are pressed in below table. The table below lists all keys that have interesting, different than displayed, or tertiary (AltGr + key press) behavior.

• Keys "names are given using the most prominent character (in my personal opinion...).
• If one category shows no symbol when pressed, it is left empty.
• If a key press is a dead-key press, it is noted in parenthesis. Dead keys print one symbol when pressed and followed with spacebar. If pressed twice, they show the symbol twice. The dead keys are generally used to write accented letters, e.g., ñ, à, û...

Key name	Key press	Shift + key press	AltGr + key press	Remarks
§ key	§	°
1 or +	1	+	¦	Not the pipe symbol as printed on the key!
2 or "	2	"	@
3 or *	3	*	#
4	4	ç	°	AltGr character not printed on keyboard
5	5	%	§	AltGr character not printed on keyboard
6	6	&	¬
7	7	/	|	This is the pipe symbol!
8	8	(	¢
?	'	?	´ (dead)
^	^ (dead)	` (dead)	~ (dead)	Shift + key press: back tick
e	e	E	€
ü or è	ü	è	[
!	¨ (dead)	!	]
ö or é	ö	é
ä or à	ä	à	{
$ or £	$	£	}
< or >	<	>	\
, or ;	,	;
. or :	.	:
- or _	-	_

C: Swiss French Layout.md

The Swiss French layout

To setup the Swiss French keyboard layout, the Windows keyboard layout is set to "French (Switzerland) - Swiss French".

Rules for below table are the same as above for the Swiss German layout. Important: The table only shows entries for keys that behave differently from the table above!

Key name	Key press	Shift + key press	AltGr + key press	Remarks
ü or è	è	ü	[
ö or é	é	é
ä or à	à	ä	{

The only keys that are different in the Swiss French layout are the three umlaut keys, for which standard press and Shift + key press are switched.

keyboard_ch.jpg