# All Slavic languages: Keyboard settings



## TheWhiteRabbit

Is there any way to type Polish on a keyboard, if the keyboard in possession is a standard QWERTY model in the United States?


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## Jana337

TheWhiteRabbit said:
			
		

> Is there any way to type Polish on a keyboard, if the keyboard in possession is a standard QWERTY model in the United States?


 It should be easy to set up the Polish layout: Start - Control Panel - Date, Time, Language and Regional Options - Add Other Languages - Tab Languages - Details.

Jana


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## TheWhiteRabbit

Will changing the layout leave the rest of the computer in English, or switch it all to Polish?


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## Jana337

TheWhiteRabbit said:
			
		

> Will changing the layout leave the rest of the computer in English, or switch it all to Polish?


Don't worry, everything will remain in English.  Technically, you will not change anything. You will just add a new layout for typing only; it won't affect your system language. You can easily toggle between English and Polish using Alt+Shift (or another shortcut you define) or clicking on the EN/PL icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. You will probably need this at the beginning

Jana


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## TheWhiteRabbit

Yes, and isn't QWERTZ type the standard type used in Poland?


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## martini_

Polish standard is QWERTY


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## cajzl

Really? I think it is QWERTZ like in Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc.


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## martini_

Sometimes when Windows lack memory it switch self as QWERTZ, but I 'm sure... my hard keyboard is QWERTY


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## Jana337

cajzl said:
			
		

> Really? I think it is QWERTZ like in Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc.


QWERTZ spread under the German influence at the beginning of the last century. In Germany, the Y key was replace by Z and vice versa because unlike English, the relative frequency of Z in German is much higher than the relative freqency of Y.

I, too, thought that Poland was on QWERTZ like the rest of Central Europe. Hm...

Wiki:
QWERTY
QWERTZ

Jana


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## TheWhiteRabbit

I looked one some websites, and they state that the standard layout used in Poland is the "QWERTZ" layout, but martini says it's "QWERTY."  This confuses me to no end.


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## polaco

It is QWERTY and there is no doubt about it
I've been using this type for last 15 years and had never encountered any keyboard with QWERTZ

pozdrowienia


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## Thomas1

TheWhiteRabbit said:
			
		

> I looked one some websites, and they state that the standard layout used in Poland is the "QWERTZ" layout, but martini says it's "QWERTY." This confuses me to no end.


They are both standard, it all depends on a device which they are used on. 
QWERTY is a standard keyboard for computers and this keyboard is used by the Poles (to be honest I have never come across different layout of a computer keyboard in Poland). That’s why we use Polish programmers layout as a default. (The second one Polish 214 is QWERTZ type.)
QWERTZ is a standard keyboard for typewriters. The reason why there is this difference is that Polish typewriters were imported from Germany and than adjusted so that people could type Polish diacritical marks (this is also the reason for different combinations of buttons for Polish diacriticals with this layout (i.e. Polish 214 on computer)). As it is widely known German standard type of keyboard is QWERTZ and that’s why it became standard in Poland (but only for typewriters). Before the computers era this was the only standard type of keyboard layout in Poland. After computers became widely accessible QWERTY type replaced QWERTZ.
I checked a few photos of typewriting machines and they all have QWERTZ type layout (even the modern ones).


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## jester.

Jana337 said:
			
		

> I, too, thought that Poland was on QWERTZ *like the rest of Central Europe. *



In France the standard is AZERTY...


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## Jana337

j3st3r said:
			
		

> In France the standard is AZERTY...


Surely you don't want to imply that France is in Central Europe. 

Jana


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## jester.

Jana337 said:
			
		

> Surely you don't want to imply that France is in Central Europe.
> 
> Jana



Oh, you're right, that was my mistake. I did not pay attention to "central"...


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## TheWhiteRabbit

Thomas1, thank you for clearing that up.  It makes much more sense to me now, as I'm sure it makes more sense to the others here as well.


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## cajzl

It looks like Poland has two standards, QWERTZ and QWERTY. It is not too handy.

The Czech standard keyboard is and always was QWERTZ, though many peoples (esp. programmers) often use QWERTY. The standard computer keyboard is basically the same as the typewriter one (except it has more keys and possibilities, of course). We can also type *all* characters from the Latin 2 set, e.g. ALT+L -> Ł, ALT+D -> Đ, etc.


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