Homepage

Check the dedicated website : qwerty-fr.org

Preamble

This page introduces the French qwerty keyboard.
Qwerty-fr layout have been designed for French people using qwerty keyboard or English native people who wants to type French.

A good example could be the fact that many programmers prefer using qwerty keyboard - considered like a "coders' dvorak" since it allows easy access to symbols - but need also diacritics for word processing.

If you are not looking for a keyboard layout or if you dont want to install anything, you can try this online diacritics tool.

Thanks to Pierre Wacrenier for the Mac OS version of this keyboard layout.

Layout

The keyboard layout is fully compliant with traditionnal qwerty.

This means that standard keys are not replaced by dead keys (key to compose with), traditionnal symbols are at the same place.
However, dead keys (keys ~ ` ' , " ^ ˇ °) are accessible with AltGr key 1. You can directly access to all french characters using AltGr or build its with compose functionality.

Try online

sample keys

Philosophy overview

Grave accent
Press AltGr + corresponding letter (works for letters e, u, i, o and a).
Acute accent
Press AltGr + key left the corresponding letter (works for the letter e).
Circumflex
Press AltGr + key above the corresponding letter (works for letters e, y, u, i, o and a).
Diaeresis
Press AltGr + key bellow the corresponding letter (works for letters e, y, u, i, o and a).
Cedilla
Press AltGr + corresponding letter (works for the letter c).
Stuck e
Press AltGr + key right the corresponding letter (works for letters o and a).

Overview

More information

Installation

The keyboard layout is available under Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Arch), Mac OS 10.4 and Windows (2000, XP, 2003, Vista and 7).
Confer Known issues and limitations section for more details about support.

debian ubuntu .deb packages based Linux 1
Download deb file and use command dpkg --install

arch Arch Linux
On the arch user repository page, you will find revelant PKGBUILD

mac os Mac OS 2
Download pkg installer.
Or download zip archive, extract qwerty-fr.bundle to:
    /Library/Keyboard Layouts/ to install for all users
    ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts/ for user-local installation

windows Windows (2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7) 3
Download zip archive, extract files and run setup.exe

In case of other Linux distribution or installation issue, you can refer to manual installation page for Linux.

Keyboard layout tests

The layout passed the following test succefully:

Retyping this sentence without using dead keys on qwerty-fr layout:
"Dès Noël où un zéphyr haï me vêt de glaçons würmiens je dîne d'exquis rôtis de bœuf au kir à l'aÿ d'âge mûr & cæera !"

Known issues and limitations

1 With previous version (until version 0.4), for Linux users, if xkb-data package is updated, configuration set by xkb-qwerty-fr will be overwritten.
You have to reset configuration, typing be following command, then logout and login to your user interface:

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure xkb-qwerty-fr
This is issue corrected since version 0.5.

2 No dead key are implemented yet for Mac OS

3 Might work under Windows 8 or above but with some bugs (eg. keyboard layout is not shown in langage bar).

4 On Ubuntu, you need to disable the functionality "Compose Key" under Tweaks settings, if would like to be able to use the key Altr+Gr.

Third-party useful resources

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