In this post we will discover how to configure an Ukrainian / Russian keyboard under Windows XP and Ubuntu.

If you are in Ukraine, you can find such keyboards in any computer shop, the price change according to the specifies.
A standard wired keyboard can cost around 50 Hrivnya (10 usd) or even less.

Notice that even with your old not Ukrainian keyboard you can type in Cyrillic, in fact the only difference between all these keyboards are the printed letters on the Keys.

Anyway for to use your new Ukrainian keyboard (or your old one) you need to complete the following procedures:

WINDOWS XP

1 Go to the “Control Panel” (start or my computer —> Control panel)

2 Inside “Regional Language Options” select “Languages” —> “Details…”

Here select “Add…” and chose inside “Input language” Ukrainian and then press “OK”.
Do the same for the Russian language.

As result you should see at least 3 languages under “Installed Services”.

4 Finally select your Default Input Language: for ex. English (United States).

5 Now miss only one more step:
We should set up the “Switch keys” (the keys that pressed together allow you to pass from one input language to another one.)

Select “Key Settings…” and then “Change key sequence”.
CTR + SHIFT is a good choice for to switch between languages
(u can ignore the other parameter about layout)

6 So now press “OK” to close all those windows and you are done.

Next to the clock you will see a small blue square with the input language in use.
Try to press CTR+SHIFT and it should switch between EN, UK, RU.

UBUNTU 8.04 Hardy Heron

1 Go to “Keyboard” (system —> preferences —> Keyboard)

2 Once inside “Keyboard” select “Layout”

3 Now we are inside “Keyboard Preferences – Layout”

Click on “Add…” will appear a window “Chose a Layout”.
Here select “Ukrainian” as Layout and and under “Variants” select “Winkeys” and finally press “Add”.
Do the same again for the Russian language.

As result you should have at least 3 languages under “Selected layout”.

4 In the end, select the Default language ex. USA (click on small button on the right under “Default”).

5 Now lets select the “switch keys” (the keys that pressed together allow you to pass from one input language to another one.)

Click on “Layout Options…”
Now in the new window click on layout switching and select “Ctr+Shift change layout”.

6 Press “close” in every window and you are done.

7 Now one extra trick for to see, as in window, the language switching box in the menu bar.

Right click on the bar where you would like it to appear.
Select on the menu that will appear “Add to panel…”
Finally select “Keyboard Indicator” and press “Add”.

Everything is done:)

If you have any question on this topic, don’t hesitate to write us.

Russia and Ukrainian layout

If you wish you can print this image and use it as guide if you don’t have a true Russian / Ukrainian keyboard.

If you want just to type in Cyrillic but you don’t have a true keyboard you can use our free programs which have a virtual Russian and Ukrainian keyboard:

Russian transliterator with virtual keyboard
UKR:)landia transliterator 4.1 .beta Russian
Ukrainian transliterator with virtual keyboard
UKR:)landia transliterator 4.1 .beta Ukrainian

For to know how to setup the Russian and Ukrainian layout on a Macintosh:
http://en.ukrlandia.com.ua/russian-ukrainian-layout-mac