User input
Several areas related to user input need to be considered when interacting with localized applications.
Hardware keyboards can switch between multiple keyboard layouts. Software or on-screen keyboards usually have a similar layout to the currently selected hardware keyboard layout. For more information, see Hardware and software keyboards.
All keyboard layouts available in Windows are listed in Windows keyboard layouts.
Input Method Editors (IME) let users enter characters in languages such as Japanese and Chinese while using a typical keyboard with 101-105 keys. Windows offers IMEs for such languages, but it’s also possible to develop your own. For more information, see Input Method Editors (IME).
IMEs for the following languages are covered in more detail:
- Amharic IME
- Bengali IME
- Gujarati IME
- Hindi IME
- Japanese IME
- Kannada IME
- Korean IME
- Malayalam IME
- Marathi IME
- Odia IME
- Punjabi IME
- Tamil IME
- Telugu IME
- Tigrinya IME
- Simplified Chinese IME
- Traditional Chinese IME
- Vietnamese IME
- Yi IME
Keyboard shortcuts might need to be modified for localized applications. For more information, see Keyboard shortcuts and localization.