Russian Phonetic Keyboard
Posted by Vadim on January 10, 2010
If you just want the keyboard layout and don’t want to bother to read this post, here’s the download link.
My dad finally is using Windows 7. He’s very happy with the new OS but he had a huge complain. He wasn’t able to type Russian.
Of course Windows 7 has standard Russian keyboard layouts that looks like this:
If you not familiar with this layout, you’ll need to put stickers on every key to know where each letter is. What my dad needed is a phonetic Russian keyboard where Russian letters correspond more or less to English ones. For some reason I couldn’t find a free phonetic Russian keyboard layout that will work nice on Windows 7.
In my search I got across the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator. I was surprised how easy to create your own layout with this tool. It’s a little bit tedious but very easy.
This is the keyboard that my dad and I are currently using:
If you are in need of free Phonetic Russian Keyboard, feel free to Download it.
Instruction to download and install Phonetic Russian Keyboard:
- Download Ru_PhoneticLayout.zip file from here.
- Unzip the file to any temporary directory of your choosing
- Double click on setup.exe. If your UAC is enable, you will need click on Yes button to allow the application to be installed.
Installation should be very fast. When it’s done, you should see following dialog:
It should work with any current version of your Windows OS. I tested it on Windows XP 32-bit, Vista 64-bit, Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit.
Now you can start typing Russian. To switch between languages you can use Alt + Shift keys on your keyboard or click on the language letters in your task bar and select the language you want.
You need to realize when you change a language you change it only for application that currently is active. For example let assume that you have two application open: MS Word and FireFox. If you switch to Russian when FireFox has focus, you will be able to type Russian only in FireFox, in MS Word you still will type English.
In case you are not happy with this keyboard layout, you can easily remove it like you would uninstall any Windows application form Uninstall or change program window.
morhetz said
I’ve tried such kind of phonetic layout, but found it too awkward cause of some mismatched letters (“Q” -> “Я”, etc). So i prefer to bind such letters to paired russian + AltGr. E.g: “Я” -> “A” + AltGr, “Ю” -> “U” + AltGr, “Ш” -> “S” + AltGr, “Ж” -> “Z” + AltGr, etc.
Vadim said
I agree with you that it’s impossible to map one to one each letter. Plus Cyrillic alphabet has more letters. Using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator you can create an layout that most scenes to you.
Boris said
Like in the standard Russian keyboard layout. On key “4″ and “6″
Boris said
Nice one!!! Thanks.
Where is such signs like :,;,” and etc?
Vadim said
Boris, you’d have to switch to English in order to type ;:”‘ characters. I always open to suggestions. Tell me where would you put these characters on Russian layout?
Bill said
I put the ; and : as shift plus comma and shift plus period. No one needs the symbols.
Aaron Bean said
Thank you so much for this! I’m a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan, just bought a new computer, and I was dying hunting and pecking the Russian standard layout. You made my life a little easier.
Oleg said
Vadim, Thanks a bunch!!!
O
Vadim said
I’m glad that you found it useful.
tomas said
thanx mate, really helped and was looking for it for a long while! appreciate!