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Keyboard overlay stickers improve foreign character writing support in the LRC
Some non-western, but character-based languages benefit from having keyboard overlay stickers installed. Here is a list of what the LRC has:
| Amount | Languages | installed@ |
| 3 | Arabic | 1 list. station, 2 rightmost computers in the front row of the left (teacher perspective) half of the main classroom |
| 2 | Farsi | 2 rightmost computers in the middle row of the left (teacher perspective) half of the main classroom |
| 1 | Greek | 1 list. station |
| 3 | Russian | 1 list. station, 2 rightmost computers of the rear row of the left (teacher perspective) half of the main classroom |
Here are photos of the Arabic and Cyrillic keyboards:
We installed the stickers, so that they reflect the software layout of the keyboard that you get when choosing the respective language from the international toolbar. Note that the letters marked in red on the Cyrillic keyboard picture below are not supported by the Russian keyboard layout:
Since only one set can be added to any existing physical keyboard, the teacher computer keyboard can not have an overlay. The student computers with overlays are the listening stations and computers 6,7,12,13,18,19 on the LRC layout map.
Remember that the On-screen-keyboard software remains accessible at all PC’s through clicking “Start”, “Run”, typing “OSK”, clicking "OK".
Example where you can get your own keyboard overlay stickers.
Potential Moodle-compatible replacements for Wimba Voice
With the demise of Wimba Voice on campus, Languages and Culture Studies lost some of their online learning acitivities and are still looking for a replacement, perferably within Moodle.
I have looked through some options and would recommend the following applications for a test install:
1. NanoGong, free (as in kittens). More info here:
2. WebSwami, a language learning platform, not free, and can also record video, and do much more. More info here:
Foreign Language Character Input on Windows XP in the LRC
The LRC offers the following foreign language characters writing support:
| American English | us international | not needed | us-int |
| Arabic | Google;MS;MS-maren;fontboard | maybe later, now osk | demo |
| British English | us international | not needed | us-int |
| Dutch | us international | not needed | us-int |
| Farsi | Google;MS | maybe later, now osk | demo |
| French | us international | not needed | us-int |
| German | us international | not needed | us-int |
| Greek | Google;MS | maybe later, now osk | demo |
| Italian | us international | not needed | us-int |
| Japanese | MS | not needed | |
| Korean | MS | maybe later, now osk | demo |
| Mandarin | MS;pinyinput | not needed | pinyin |
| Portuguese (Brazilian) | us international | not needed | us-int |
| Russian | Google;MS | maybe later, now osk | demo |
| Spanish | us international | not needed | us-int |
The support is best accessed from the “international toolbar”, like so: ![]()
You can also use the windows on-screen keyboard to input non-Western characters on a computer that has not the corresponding keyboard overlay stickers. In the small-group workspaces, which have writing pads, you can also use the MS-Handwriting IME for East-Asian languages.

