And you think it is Rip of Britain

[AndyP]

HP Laptop in the UK suitable for my daughter £273.60.
Same spec, although with French keyboard €508.80 or £365

The difference in price nearly covers the cost of MS Office (the non subscription version)

And no HP won't let me order a French spec laptop in the UK. :evil:

BTW it is not just that letter keys are in a different order, which is quite easy to get used too, but the ease and speed of which the accents can be found that makes the French spec keyboard so much easier to use.

Now when I wanted a Mac with a "foreign" keyboard I had no problems at all.

Hey just discovered that with El Capitan if you hold a key down for a few seconds on the keyboard a list of special characters appear (just like on the iPad) the mouse(or arrow keys) can then be used to select which accent is required. yippèéêëēėę
Will have to find a Win10 laptop and experiment.

 

[RogerS]

There's a few on eBay...just emailed you a link to one.

 

[AndyP]

Thanks Roger, it's in London too. I'll get in touch.

 

[chataigner]

Perhaps it's the low quantities of azerty keyboards that makes the difference, only used in France and a few former colonies, whereas the querty is used by half the world.

 

[AndyP]

Possibly David. It is surprising that the qwerty/azerty keyboards still persist as they were only necessary on typrewriters to stop the most often used keys getting stuck together.

My wife manages to swap between the two, azerty at work qwerty at home without any trouble. Oddly although they have azerty at work all their software and OS are in English, the official corporate language of a Dutch based company.

 

[Rod]

The USA qwerty keyboards are different to UK ones on laptops (or they used to be?) no pound sign.

Rod

 

[Mike G]

I once sent an email from an internet cafe in Zambia, where the keyboards had the principle characters in Chinese, and the secondary characters were English, but in a layout I'd never seen before. It was like a tortuous IQ test.

 

[RogerS]

I once sent an email from an internet cafe in Zambia, where the keyboards had the principle characters in Chinese, and the secondary characters were English, but in a layout I'd never seen before. It was like a tortuous IQ test.

Or too much Chibuku

 

[Robert]

HP Laptop in the UK suitable for my daughter £273.60.
Same spec, although with French keyboard €508.80 or £365

Too much of a pain to plug in a french usb keyboard to a UK laptop given the cost difference?

 

[kirkpoore1]

The USA qwerty keyboards are different to UK ones on laptops (or they used to be?) no pound sign.

Rod

Have you got dollar signs on yours?

Kirk, who did find £, €, and ¥ on his ipad "keyboard", but it was harder to reach than $.

 

[Rod]

Yes on my MacBook [emoji3]

Rod

 

[AndyP]

HP Laptop in the UK suitable for my daughter £273.60.
Same spec, although with French keyboard €508.80 or £365

Too much of a pain to plug in a french usb keyboard to a UK laptop given the cost difference?

That might be an option Robert. It is actually quite easy to change the keyboard mapping from qwerty to azerty and then buy some stickers for changed keys.

I am also looking at 2nd Macbooks (thanks to Roger) but am wary of buying sight unseen with little or no guarantee.

 

[RogerS]

....

I am also looking at 2nd Macbooks (thanks to Roger) but am wary of buying sight unseen with little or no guarantee.

The Mac Bank company I mentioned are very open and honest. When I bought my secondhand MacBook, their eBay shop listing mentioned a few blemishes on the screen and track pad with detailed photographs. Once I'd placed my order, they sent me a very pleasant email detailing at length the wear defects to make sure that I was happy to proceed. Can't fault them. I'm very happy to act as the middle man for you, Andy and take delivery on your behalf, check it over etc and send it back to them (unlikely). I'm in Purley Dec 19-22.

 

[AndyP]

....

I am also looking at 2nd Macbooks (thanks to Roger) but am wary of buying sight unseen with little or no guarantee.

The Mac Bank company I mentioned are very open and honest. When I bought my secondhand MacBook, their eBay shop listing mentioned a few blemishes on the screen and track pad with detailed photographs. Once I'd placed my order, they sent me a very pleasant email detailing at length the wear defects to make sure that I was happy to proceed. Can't fault them. I'm very happy to act as the middle man for you, Andy and take delivery on your behalf, check it over etc and send it back to them (unlikely). I'm in Purley Dec 19-22.

Thanks Roger,
we arrive after Xmas but my folks are not too far from Purley. I've PM'd you.

 

[RogerS]

... I've PM'd you.

Nothings come through as yet. Should be fairly instant.