If you try to type Brazilian Portuguese, you might be puzzled by the OS X keyboard layout that comes with the Brazilian flag attached to it. It's neither Portuguese nor Brazilian, but simply the normal US layout, where you type accented characters using Option deadkeys.
As I understand it, Brazilians are used to typing with a layout called ABNT or with the layout called US International PC. You can get an ABNT layout (winbrazabnt.keylayout) here.
As I understand it, Brazilians are used to typing with a layout called ABNT or with the layout called US International PC. You can get an ABNT layout (winbrazabnt.keylayout) here.
nice! thank you very much. that's what i was looking for... but what happened to the 12th key on the bottom kb row? the one that types "/" and "?"... i can only reach them by option-q and option-w.
ReplyDeletehuu sorry! the 12th key wasn't showing on the "show keyboard viewer" but it actually works on the real keyboard. thanks again!
ReplyDeleteKeyboard Viewer unfortunately doesn't know that their exists a keyboard like the unique one which Brazilians use:-)
ReplyDeleteHey, Tom, thanks for the very interesting blog, I just downloaded your Win Brazilian Portuguese keyboard layout. Unfortunately I am now confronting an annoyance using Apple Mail. Every time I type one of the accented characters, I get this annoying 'beep' we Mac users are familiar with (the same one you get when an alert window pops up for any reason). Do you know the cause of this problem and how to solve it? Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteI can't duplicate that and have not heard of anyone else with such a problem. Can you type accented caracters with the ordinary US layout (e.g. Option + n, o = o-tilde)? Email me if you like (tom at bluesky dot org).
ReplyDeleteHi. I downloaded the ABNT layout. But I don't know what to do with it. Where should I put that file? Please hellp!
ReplyDeleteThe layout goes in Home/Library/Keyboard Layouts. Then you logout/login, check its box in system prefs/international/input menu (plus the box for "Show input menu in finder"), and select it in the "flag" menu at the top right of the Finder.
ReplyDeleteHi Tom, I did exactly like you said, but the abnt keyboard as well as the US International did not appear in the input options, in the Internationl/Input...I did logout/loguin but nothing happened...
ReplyDeletergds
Renan
I've never heard of a case where this did not work. Are you totally sure that you looked at all the items in System Prefs/International/Input Menu? It is a long list and sometimes people don't scroll it down all the way to the bottom.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this! I've been searching everwhere! Your awesome!
ReplyDeleteQuoting renan...and I checked it put it on the finder and i cant type brazilian style...help???
ReplyDeleteEmail me and tell me exactly what you did with the downloaded file and I can probably help (tom at bluesky dot org)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!! I've been looking for this stuff for months!!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, really!!
Thankssssssss. Works like a charm. Many tks.
ReplyDeleteTom, you are money. I lived in Brazil for two years and learned to type fluent Portuguese on the Windows ABNT keyboard layout. We just switched to Mac and I couldn't figure out for the life of me why "Brazilian" didn't work like the keyboard I knew in Brazil. I followed the directions on your July 13 post and it worked like a charm. Also, I tested out typing accents in Mail and I have no problems like the previous user described. Thanks a million!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Tom,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Brazilian Keyboard. Funny that the guys from apple are not able to put a correct brazilian keyboard on the mac. Your Keyboard works fine in mail, but does not work in Skype or on Website forms. Have u experienced that too? Any solution?
Best, Tim
Could you explain in more detail what does not work in web forms? You can't type anything at all or just some characters? I have not heard of this problem before.
ReplyDeleteHi Tom, it does not work at all. For example, when I want to post in your blog and have your braz. keyboard active, I cannot type anything. The same happens in Skype...
ReplyDeleteTHANKS TOM! I got it to work pretty easily and you´ve saved me so many dors de cabeça!
ReplyDeleteobrigadão :)
Hi, Tom.
ReplyDeleteI've installed the ABNT layout but still don't have the "?" key correctly. My USB keyboard has 4 keys after the letter "m", but the Brazilian layout I installed has only 3 keys. I'm on a macbook, therefore I have two keyboards: the macbook US one and the Brazilian ABNT USB connected to it. Any ideas what the problem might be?
Naliara -- Sorry, no, I have not heard of this problem before and I have no way to test it myself.
ReplyDeleteWhen I try to open your iDisk I just get a blank page?
ReplyDeleteAnthony -- try again, I had to fix the url.
ReplyDeleteBryan -- The layout goes in Home/Library/Keyboard Layouts. Then you logout/login, check its box in system prefs/language & text/input sources (plus the box for "Show input menu in finder"), and select it in the "flag" menu at the top right of the Finder.
ReplyDeleteTom, I downloaded your library plugin, put it in the location you defined, logged out/in, and opened the international control panel in OSX 10.5, but the ABNT layout does not appear anywhere in the list under the name winbrazabnt.keylayout if in fact that is what I should be looking for. Any suggestions?
ReplyDeletedr -- dr Email me and I will send you another copy to try (tom at bluesky dot org).
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteGreat work, just downloaded the file and installed ok.
But the /? key is not working properly within some applications.
For example, I can use it here ////???? but I can't use it within Microsoft Word...
That's weird, any hints?
Fernando -- Sorry, no idea why it doesn't work in MS Word (I don't use that).
ReplyDeletethanks for that!
ReplyDeleteand how can I have to have "é" with (' + e) or "à" with (' + a) etc? I mean, as close as possible as I used to do in a ABNT Keyboard on a PC?
...that using OS X 10.6.2 and the default mac keyboard w/ numpad (which makes no difference i presume)
That sounds like US International PC and not ABNT. But regardless, you can modify the layout however you want using the app Ukelele
ReplyDeletehttp://scripts.sil.org/ukelele
It works great! Thanks a lot. I'm unable to find the "?" though. The keyboard viewer doesn't display one, and I can't find any info on key combos to create a "?".
ReplyDeleteAny help?
Phil -- Try Option/Alt + w
ReplyDeleteHi, I's Jon in Brazil. I am using the ABNT keyboard. But since I use windows on a netbook, while out, and iMac at home, the one stickler for me is having to adjust my accent one key over to the right, because of the other key marking a o degree.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to see a way to reconfigure those two keys to switch them around so that my typing (which I do touch typing) matches on the netbook as well as the iMac.
If you have any simple solution for reconfiguring those two keys to switch them around conversely, that would be sweet.
Thanks.
Jon in Rio
Jon--the tool for modifying a Mac layout is
ReplyDeletehttp://scripts.sil.org/ukelele
For a Windows layout I don't know.
Just an update - I tried re-installing this on a new Mac today. When I downloaded winbrazabnt.keylayout from Tom's iDisk, it downloaded as an .xml file (appended on to the end of the .keylayout). It wasn't until I eliminated the .xml extension that the logout/login procedure Tom describes worked for me. Note: To eliminate the .xml extension, I right clicked on the file, selected "Get Info" and then selected "Name and Extension", then deleted the .xml tag (it will ask if you want to change the file type - choose "use .keylayout"), and after that it worked! Thanks again Tom.
ReplyDeleteHello Tom!
ReplyDeleteis it possible to use your Brazilian ABNT layout on iPad?
if not,
1. is there any ABNT layout for iPad?
2. how can I customize it?
3. how can I customize Russian layout for iPad?
Hp.M -- you really cannot customize anything on an iOS device, that is one of its basic "features". The apps Unicode Maps and UniKey offer a way to set up new keyboards for copy/paste type operations.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tip, but I have encountered another problem.
ReplyDeleteI have downloaded the Brazilian ABNT layout from the site, and I have installed it correct. While I am using the new Brazilian ABNT layout with Microsof Word 2011, I found that Word does not recognize the new layout as Portuguese and does not change the spell checker to Portuguese but keep using English. But when I change it back to the system build Brazilian layout, Word 2011 will immediately recognize that I am using a Portuguese language and will change the spell checker to Portuguese. How can I make the new Brazilian ABNT layout as Portuguese input and let Word to recognize it and change the spell checker to Portuguese automatically?
Sorry, I have no expertise regarding Microsoft stuff. You can ask/search in their forums:
ReplyDeletehttp://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macword
Dear friends,
ReplyDeleteplease tell me, is there any Mac keyboard with 12 buttons between left and right shifts?
Searching the Internet, I found one model with 11 buttons between left and right shifts.
Hp.M -- you don't need a "mac" keyboard. Any usb or wireless keyboard should work with a Mac.
ReplyDeleteHi, do you have an updated link? iCloud has taken over everything and you old iDisk link no longer works. Btw, thanks for this, I've been using this layout on all my macs for years now.
ReplyDeleteJason -- try
ReplyDeletehttps://dl.dropbox.com/u/46870715/k/winbrazabnt12.keylayout
Nothing works, not the link on the post, nor this DropBox link.
ReplyDeleteAnyone, for christ sake?!?! =/
Oletram -- email me and I will send you a copy. tom at bluesky dot org
ReplyDelete